Resume helpWritingGuide
When your resume must be one page, and how to actually fit it
Banking, consulting and most graduate programs expect a single page. Cutting to one page is an editing discipline, not a font-size trick. Here's the order to cut in.
One page is a hard rule in investment banking and management consulting worldwide, and the safe default for anyone under ten years of experience applying in the US or to graduate programs. Recruiters at these firms read hundreds of resumes per role; a second page is a request for time they won't give you.
Cut in this order
- Duplicated evidence: if two bullets prove the same skill, keep the one with the bigger number.
- Oldest and least relevant roles: your part-time job from six years ago can be one line or gone.
- Adjectives and adverbs: “successfully managed” is “managed”. “Highly motivated” is nothing.
- Generic skills that every applicant claims: “teamwork” and “communication” earn no ranking points; specific tools do.
- The objective statement, if it says what everyone's says. A sharp two-line summary earns its space; a generic one doesn't.
What not to do
Don't shrink the font below ~10pt and don't strangle the margins, a crammed page reads worse than a trimmed one, on screen and in a recruiter's hand. Density is not the goal; selection is.
The Resume Lab's fit-to-one-page sizes type within safe bounds and tells you honestly when content simply must be cut instead.