The short answer
One page if you have less than about 10 years of relevant experience. Two pages maximum for senior professionals with a long, relevant track record. Three pages is almost never justified outside academic CVs and some federal roles.
- Students & new grads: one page, always.
- Up to ~10 years experience: one page.
- Senior / 10+ years: one or two pages.
- Academic CV / research: length as needed.
Why recruiters favor shorter
The first pass on a resume takes recruiters only a handful of seconds. A tight, high-signal page beats a padded two-pager because it makes your strongest achievements impossible to miss. Length is not a measure of experience — relevance is.
How to cut without losing impact
If you are over length, cut by relevance, not by shrinking margins to nothing.
- Drop roles older than ~10–15 years or compress them to one line.
- Cut duties that every candidate could claim; keep quantified wins.
- Remove the objective statement; use a one-line summary instead.
- Trim skills to the ones the job actually asks for.
- Merge redundant bullets and delete filler adjectives.
Keep bullets to one or two lines. If a bullet wraps to a third line, it is usually two ideas that should be split or trimmed.