Ask a Resume Writer: How Do I Make My Resume More Concise?

Your resume is often an employer’s first impression of you, and you want to make it count. While no job seeker expects hiring managers to read their autobiography, should a resume always be short?

Your resume should be as concise as possible, but not at the expense of effectively marketing you as the best candidate for the job. It can be hard to know what to remove to make your resume shorter, especially if you have had a long and successful career. Even new grads and entry-level candidates can struggle with how much information to include on their resumes, especially if they’re high achievers.

We asked Jenna Sylvester, Certified Resume Writer at iHire, how to shorten a resume to one page or two pages by editing your content and formatting.

Remove Unnecessary Information

“To instantly make your resume more concise, check if it has an objective statement or the classic line, ‘References Available Upon Request,’” said Sylvester. “Both of these are not only unnecessary, but also outdated resume trends at this point. Erase them, and you’ll quickly save at least a few lines on your document.”

Other space-wasting things that don’t belong on your resume include:

• Multiple addresses or phone numbers
• Your headshot
• Personal information (e.g., your birthdate, birthplace, marital status, etc.)

Remove Old, Irrelevant & Short-Term Jobs

An easy way to make your resume shorter is to remove positions held more than 15 years ago. With most resume formats, individual jobs are presented with a short paragraph and a list of bullet points. If you’ve had a lengthy career, cutting old positions could save you half a page or more.

“Employers are most interested in your recent and relevant experience. You can create a separate achievements section if there are accomplishments from early in your career that may still be worth including, but those roles should not take up significant space on your resume anymore,” said Sylvester.

You don’t have to include every job you’ve had in the past 15 years either, especially if taking off a position doesn’t leave an apparent gap in your career history. Your resume is a marketing document, and everything you include should help – not hinder – your career goals.

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Tighten Up Your Spacing & Formatting

Let’s say you’re happy with the content on your resume, but it’s just barely spilling onto a second or third page.

“Adjusting your spacing and formatting should do the trick,” continued Sylvester. “You can make your margins as narrow as .5″, and see if a slightly smaller or different font helps. Also, you could reduce the space between each section a little bit.”

At the end of the day, however, your resume still needs to be reader-friendly. Don’t make your margins so slim and your font so small that your resume turns into an overwhelming block of words.

Use Resume Templates With Caution

There are tons of free resume templates out there, and while some may look amazing, they’re so focused on being visually appealing that there’s little room left for actual information about you.

“Some resume templates use incredibly large font sizes for your name, random graphics, page borders, textboxes, and other elements that just waste space,” said Sylvester. “And unless you have pretty advanced Word skills, it can be challenging to adjust those templates to your needs.”

Plus, the template you find might not be compatible with Applicant Tracking Systems (ATSs) and cause parts of your resume to be unreadable by scanning software.

Get even more expert resume writing advice in our Resource Center. And if you’re looking for reliable resume templates, check out iHire's Resume Builder. Created by our resume writing team, the templates in our Resume Builder tool are visually appealing yet simple to update and edit as you progress in your career.