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How, When, and Why You Can Use a Two-Page Resume?

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Sep 8, 2022 9 min read

Crafting a resume is a tricky business.

Everything from choosing the experience that you’ll include to picking the right outline is hard.

And even after you’ve made these small decisions, there’s another problem coming your way–you can’t fit everything on a single page.

Oh, no! A two-page resume won’t cut it!

Or would it?

Well, at Enhancv, we’re well known to take a different spin on resumes. In other words, we believe a 2-page resume can be an excellent fit for positions that require more experience or for people who’ve had a great run in their career.

That’s why we really got interested in the topic of extending your resume to a second page. Once we started working on it, it became very clear that to create a resume that extends on two or more pages, you should really think through the layout and how you’re going to structure everything in your resume.

Well, we think we’ve found the secret sauce to two-page resumes. I mean, Sam landed her dream job at Spotify by using a two-page cv by Enhancv. 😊

Two-page resume FAQs.

Enhancv How, When, and Why You Can Use a Two-Page Resume?

Before we start going in-depth on the topic of two-page resumes, we think it’s best to get some frequent questions out of the way first.

How long should a resume be?

Most recruiters seem to favor the one-page resume. It’s short, concise, and easy to read. However, at Enhancv, we think your application’s length should be determined by the position you’re applying for and the amount of relevant experience you have. Hence why we’ve made two-page resume templates for you to choose from.

That said, if you’re an experienced professional and you can’t fit your relevant experience on a single page, it’s okay to expand your resume to a second page.

How long should а resume be for entry-level professionals?

When you’re just starting in your career, it’s tough to score a job interview. But a mistake all newbies make is that they’ll put on every piece of experience they’ve had in their life.

You have to understand that recruiters are busy people, so if you have less than five years of professional experience, you should keep your resume on a single page. Omit anything that isn’t valuable to the recruiter and relevant to the position you’re applying to.

Is a 2-page CV okay if you have a lot of experience?

While most people will hate on longer resumes, recruiters don’t have anything against them as long as the information you’ve provided is relevant and helps them decide. For example, if you have many skills that you can feature on your resume, then don’t shy away from expanding on a second page.

A 2-page resume is okay for people who have more than five years of experience in a given industry. The rule of thumb is to fill up at the very least half of the second page.

How to write a two-page resume in 2021?

Now that we have some of the more general questions out of the way and made it clear that it’s okay to have a two-page resume in 2021, we can dive more in-depth on the topic.

Namely, we want to cover a couple of things that people often overlook when making their CVs.

Keep the resume header on both pages.

When you can’t fit your resume on a single page, it’s best to treat the second page as a continuation of the first. You should keep the same header on the second page as you have on the first one.

Most likely, you’re well aware that recruiters are a very busy bunch. By making sure your name and contact information are present on both pages, you’re making things easier for them.

Make sure the most crucial information is presented on the first page of your resume.

It’s only normal for people to pay more attention when they’re reading the first page of your resume. When crafting your CV, present the most important and relevant information first.

For example, your achievements and successes, supported by numbers, should always come first, followed by relevant experience, while leaving the hobby section for page two.

Include contact information on both pages.

We briefly mentioned keeping the resume header on both pages. Still, to stress even more on that, we’re going to point out to keep your contact information on both pages of your resume.

In some instances, recruiters can go over a thousand resumes a week. That’s a whole lot! Make it easier for them by including your contact information in the header of both pages.

Treat the second page of your resume as a place to feature additional information.

Using a two-page resume means that you have tonnes of relevant experience. You can push your education and hobbies on your resume’s second page, leaving the first one to wow the recruiters.

If you want to include a degree or some other education on your first page, you can do so in the summary section. We’ve made a pretty detailed guide on building a powerful summary, so go give it a read!

The second page should be at least half full.

When you’re using two pages to present your experience, it’s essential to put in the effort and fill the second page at least halfway. There’s nothing more unprofessional than a two-page resume with only two sentences on the second page (I mean, you could’ve easily made some parts shorter to fit everything on a single page).

If you can’t seem to quite fill the page, then you can use some of Enhancv’s unique sections that can show a bit more about you.

How to format a two-page resume.

There are five main points that you have to follow when you’re crafting your two-page resume. Of course, if you’re using a tool like Enhancv, the resume builder will take care of 95% of those things, but here’s a list to follow if you’re doing your resume by yourself:

  1. Put your name and contact information on both pages;
  2. Use the same font and letter size on all pages;
  3. Focus only on the last 10 years of your professional experience;
  4. Keep things as concise as possible;
  5. Place the most important and relevant information first.

By simply following these five points above, you can be pretty sure your resume is relevant to the position you’re applying to.

What goes on the second page of a resume?

Enhancv How, When, and Why You Can Use a Two-Page Resume?

Now that you know how to format your 2-page resume, it’s time for us to take a more detailed look at what exactly you should feature on the second page.

Briefly put, the second page of a resume should be reserved for information that’s important but not vital.

But how do I know what’s vital?

Great question! When you’re writing your resume, you can ask yourself one question to determine whether something is vital or not.

That question is, “If I skip this, would I still qualify for the job?”.

Let’s take the education section, for example. Suppose you’ve been a marketing director for the past decade. What’s more valuable–where you went to school or what you achieved as director of marketing at the last company you worked for?

The answer is pretty obvious, your education can be neatly placed on the second page of your resume.

How to structure the second page of your resume?

Now that you understand what information should go on the second page of your resume and how to structure that page, let’s take a look at how to structure the page.

For starters, it’s important to keep the design of the page uniform to the first page. The Enhancv resume builder does this automatically, so why don’t you go pick a template and start building yours now, for free?

Make sure the font and size are the same across both pages and that you fill at least half of the second page of your resume.

At Enhancv, we like real-life examples, so let’s take a closer look at Sam’s resume from the beginning of the article. Remember her? She stood out among 20,000 candidates applying for the same position at Spotify.

Sam did one of the most amazing things that you can do with your resume. She featured her experience prominently on the first page, accompanied by a powerful summary and a cheeky section about how she spends her time.

On the second page of her resume, Sam expanded her experience section with still relevant but not vital information. And to make sure the second page is just as impactful. She shared her favorite reads and her cooking chops. It’s cheeky and memorable.

How many people of those 20,000 do you think put how good at cooking they are?

Exactly. 😉

When to go with a two-page resume?

We’ve briefly answered this question above in the article, but I’d like us to go over it one more time. To determine when you should go with a two-page (or even longer) resume, you have to ask yourself the question of how far back you should go.

Two-page resume when you have less than five years of professional experience.

In most resume examples, when you have less than five years of professional experience, it’s best to keep your resume to a single page length.

However, if you believe you have a lot of relevant academic experience that you can feature, then expand it to a second page.

Two-page resume when you have between five and 10 years of professional experience.

On the other hand, if you’re an experienced professional, then you can definitely expand your resume to a second page.

In fact, recruiters will praise you for properly spacing the words and not causing them a headache when reading your application.

Enhancv How, When, and Why You Can Use a Two-Page Resume?

How to format a two-page resume?

One of the biggest pluses of a two-page resume is the extra space that you get. It allows you to feature more about yourself without sacrificing readability.

While we’ve absolutely omitted the need to format your resume with our resume builder, when you’re making your resume in Word, it’s best to stick to fonts and sizes that are easy to read.

Here’s a little cheat sheet for you when formatting your 2-page resume:

  • Font: Arial Regular (Bold for titles);
  • Font Size: 11 (minimum);
  • Margins: 1-inch on each side.

Simple yet super useful. These same settings can be used for single-page resumes as well.

How to print (and save) a two-page resume?

Now that you know how to format your two-page resume comes the next step–saving and printing.

If you’re sending a physical resume to a company, you have to make sure the resume is printed on two separate pages. Like, think about it, many people won’t even turn a page on the other side. The rule of thumb is to stick to single-side printing per page.

When sending a resume online, the best way to save it is as a PDF. When done right, it will keep links active, and no one will be able to edit it. This is also how each Enhancv resume is saved automatically.

Should you staple or paper clip the resume?

Okay, now that you’ve printed your resume, you have two separate pages that you want to keep together.

So, do you staple or paper clip your resume? We advise you to paper clip it. When stapled, it can be annoying to read, and if handled improperly, it can result in a tearing of the pages.

And that’s it! There’s the most comprehensive guide on two-page resumes you can ever read.

Everything from how to staple your resume, to actually properly formatting and using the right font. And if you don’t want to spend time tweaking font sizes and margins, then go with the more sophisticated approach and create your first proper resume with Enhancv!

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Kal Dimitrov
Kal is a resume expert @ Enhancv. He frequently publishes blog posts around resume writing, cover letters & job applications. Kal also runs a Career Accelerator Bootcamp for young graduates.
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