One page is the right call for anyone with under 8 years of experience, for tech and creative roles regardless of years, and for any application where the JD or recruiter explicitly asks for it. Two pages is acceptable past 8 years, three is for academic CVs only.
Under 8 years of professional experience. Tech and creative roles regardless of experience (a senior engineer with 12 years still often submits one page; the stack and outcomes can be dense without sprawling). When the JD or recruiter explicitly asks for one page (some consulting and finance firms do).
Trade-offs to keep one page: drop oldest roles to one-line summaries, cap bullets at 3 per role for older positions, remove Projects if you have substantial work experience, and tighten the summary to 2 lines.
Cut bullets that don't quantify. A bullet without a number is often a candidate for deletion. Compress older roles. The role you had 8 years ago doesn't need 5 bullets; 2 is fine. Inline contact line. Three lines of contact info compressed into one inline row saves significant header height.
Reduce font from 11pt to 10.5pt as a last resort. Below 10pt the document reads cramped. Don't shrink margins below 0.5 inches; recruiters skim past flush text.
One page under 8 years of experience. Two pages past 8 years if you have substantial content. Tech and creative roles often stay one page regardless of years. Three pages is academic CV territory only.
Cut bullets that don't quantify. Compress older roles to 1 to 2 bullets. Inline the contact info. Reduce font from 11pt to 10.5pt if needed (not below). Don't shrink margins below 0.5 inches.
Better at certain career stages (early to mid-career, tech, creative). Worse when it forces you to drop substantial relevant experience or pad to look bigger than the content supports.
11pt is standard. 10.5pt is acceptable for dense content. 10pt is the floor; below that the document reads cramped and parsers can struggle with very dense layouts.
Two pages, almost always. VP+ roles have scope, headcount, P&L, and outcome detail that can't fit on one page without becoming generic. One-page executive CVs read as underweight at that level.
Free. See if you've squeezed too hard.
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