Free tool
One page or two, and what goes where.
In developmentSix questions about your history and the role you are chasing. You get back a length, an order for the sections, and a short list of what to leave off, with the reason for each.
- Six questions
- A structure, not a template
- No email required
How it will work
Years of experience, gaps, whether you are changing field, whether you have a degree that matters, and what the advert asks for. Six answers, one structure back.
- 1
Answer six questions
Nothing personal, nothing identifying. Years in the field, longest gap, changing field or not, education relevance, seniority of the role and country.
- 2
Get your structure
The length, the order of the sections, and whether the summary earns its space in your particular case.
- 3
Apply it to what you have
Reorder your existing document. This tool does not write anything, it decides the shape.
Why the order matters more than the length
A recruiter gives the first screen somewhere between seven and thirty seconds. Whatever sits in the top third of page one is what gets read, and everything else is skimmed at best.
So the question is never really one page or two. It is what deserves the top third. A graduate with a relevant degree and one placement should lead with education. The same person four years later should not, and most people never move it.
The other half is knowing what to remove. Objectives, references available on request, hobbies that say socialising with friends, a full address, a date of birth, a photo where photos are a liability. Each one costs you space in the only part of the page anybody reads.
Rules of thumb it applies
The judgements the tool makes, so you can make them yourself in the meantime.
- Your situationUnder 10 years of relevant workWhat it should look likeOne page, experience first, education as a short block at the bottom
- Your situationGraduate, under a year of workWhat it should look likeOne page, education first, then placements, projects and part time work
- Your situationOver 10 years, or a senior roleWhat it should look likeTwo pages, a real summary line, oldest roles cut to one line each
- Your situationChanging fieldWhat it should look likeOne page, a summary that names the target role, transferable achievements first
Do it by hand today
Six decisions, in this order. Fifteen minutes, and it fixes the thing most people never think to check.
- 1Decide the length firstUnder about ten years of relevant history, one page. More than that, or a senior role, two. Never three, and never one page achieved by dropping to nine point type.
- 2Put the strongest evidence in the top thirdFor most people that is current experience. For a recent graduate it is education. For a career changer it is the summary line naming the target role.
- 3Keep the summary only if it is specificTwo lines naming the role, the years and one number. If it says driven professional seeking a challenging opportunity, delete it and gain three lines.
- 4Cut the old roles to one line eachAnything older than eight to ten years is a title, employer and dates. The detail there is not helping you.
- 5Remove the standard fillerObjective, references available on request, full postal address, date of birth, marital status, and hobbies unless they are genuinely relevant to the job.
- 6Check it survives being read badlyCopy the whole page and paste it into a plain text file. If the order still makes sense there, it will make sense to the software that parses it.
Or skip the work
Every template already ships in one page and two page versions, both built to these rules, so you can simply open the one that matches your case and start editing.
Find your job titleQuestions about this tool
When will the tool be live?
It is in build. No date is published because an invented one would be the least honest thing on this site. The six decisions above are exactly what it automates.
Is a two page resume really acceptable?
Yes, above roughly ten years or at senior level, and it has been for a long time. What is not acceptable is two pages of padding, or a second page carrying three lines.
What about a CV rather than a resume?
In the United Kingdom, Ireland and much of Europe the same document is called a CV and two pages is the norm. An academic CV is a different thing entirely and these rules do not apply to it.
Where do skills go?
A short block near the top if the role is technical and the tools are the point, otherwise below experience. Either way keep it to hard skills that can be tested.
Does the tool store my answers?
No. The six answers are not personal, and nothing about them is stored or sent anywhere.
Everything these tools check is already written into the templates. The Career Kit carries the keyword bank, the bullet library and the formatting guidance for your job title today.