How to Make a One Page Resume: 6 Examples That Fit
By Mustafa Tarabya, founder of CVBooster · Published · Updated
9 min read
To make a one page resume, cut before you format: keep only the last ten to fifteen years, give each job three to five bullets that show a result, merge or drop anything the target job does not ask for, and only then set the font to 10 or 11 points with margins of half an inch to one inch. Shrinking the font to 8 points is not making a one page resume, it is hiding a two page one. The one constraint is honesty about your history: one page suits students, early career applicants and most people up to about ten years in one field, and a long senior career can earn a second page. University career centers at MIT and Berkeley give the same limits, quoted below, and the page has six complete one page resumes. Written by Mustafa Tarabya, who hired for his own company, read every application himself and now writes CVBooster's guides.
If your resume currently spills four lines onto page two and you have spent an hour nudging the margins, you are fighting the wrong battle. Start with the simplest case.
The one page resume for a student
With little work history, the page is short by nature. The work is choosing what proves you can do the job.
Entry level: college senior, accounting internship, one page (121 words)
Priya Raman Austin, TX | (512) 555-0147 | priya.raman@email.com | linkedin.com/in/priyaraman
Education BBA in Accounting, University of Texas at Austin, expected May 2027. GPA 3.6 Relevant coursework: Intermediate Accounting I and II, Auditing, Federal Taxation
Experience Audit Intern, regional CPA firm, Austin, TX (June to August 2026) - Tested revenue samples for two nonprofit clients and documented results in the firm's audit software. - Prepared bank confirmation requests and tracked replies for six engagements.
Bookkeeping Assistant, campus dining services (2024 to 2026) - Reconciled daily register reports for three dining halls and flagged shortages to the manager.
Leadership Treasurer, Accounting Students Association. Managed a budget for twelve events a year.
Skills Excel (pivot tables, XLOOKUP), QuickBooks Online, CaseWare, Spanish (conversational)
How to make a one page resume: the order of cuts
Most resumes that run long are long for the same reasons. Work through these in order and stop when the page fits.
- Delete the objective. Replace it with a two line summary or nothing at all.
- Cut anything older than ten to fifteen years to a single "Earlier experience" line with titles and employers, no bullets.
- Limit bullets to three to five per job, fewer for older jobs. Keep the ones with a number or a result.
- Remove duties everyone in the role does. "Answered phones" adds nothing to a receptionist resume.
- Drop "References available on request" and your full street address. City and state are enough.
- Merge short roles at one employer under one heading with the titles listed.
- Shorten the skills list to the ten or so the posting actually names.
- Only now adjust format: font, margins, line spacing.
The order matters. People who format first end up with a cramped page that still says nothing. Our guide to resume action verbs helps when a bullet needs to say more in fewer words.
The font and margin limits that still read well
Career centers give remarkably consistent numbers. MIT's career office advises: "Use a conservative font no smaller than 10pt and leave at least half inch margins on all sides. Stick to one page, unless you have extensive experience or an advanced degree." (MIT CAPD). Berkeley's career center says much the same: "Choose a simple format with a 10-11 point font size and between .5-inch to one-inch margins all around." (UC Berkeley Career Engagement).
White space is part of the limit. Purdue's writing lab suggests imagining the page in four quadrants and notes that "Each one of your quadrants should have an equal amount of text and white space" (Purdue OWL). If the page is solid text from edge to edge, it fits on one page but nobody reads it.
Entry level: first job in the trades, one page with certifications up top (129 words)
Marcus Bell Dayton, OH | (937) 555-0119 | marcus.bell@email.com
Summary Electrical apprentice candidate with two years of residential helper experience, an OSHA 10 card and a valid driver's license. Reliable on early starts and comfortable on ladders and in crawl spaces.
Certifications OSHA 10 Hour Construction, 2025 Pre apprenticeship certificate, Sinclair Community College, 2025
Experience Electrician's Helper, local residential contractor (2024 to present) - Pull wire, mount boxes and run conduit on new build homes under a licensed electrician. - Load the van each morning from the job list and return unused material to stock.
Warehouse Associate, distribution center (2023 to 2024) - Picked and packed orders on a scanner with no missed shifts in ten months.
Skills Hand and power tools, blueprint reading (basic), conduit bending, forklift
One page with five to ten years of experience
This is where most people struggle, because there is now enough to fill two pages. Keep the current job detailed and let older jobs shrink.
Mid level: registered nurse, six years, one page (138 words)
Danielle Ortiz, RN, BSN Phoenix, AZ | (602) 555-0163 | danielle.ortiz@email.com
Summary Registered nurse with six years in medical surgical and telemetry units, charge nurse on nights, and a CCRN in progress.
Licenses and Certifications RN, Arizona (multistate compact). BLS, ACLS, PCCN
Experience Registered Nurse, Telemetry, a 400 bed hospital, Phoenix, AZ (2022 to present) - Care for four to five telemetry patients per shift and act as charge nurse two nights a week. - Precept new graduate nurses through a twelve week orientation; trained seven so far. - Led the unit's fall prevention huddle, which the unit kept as a standing practice.
Registered Nurse, Medical Surgical, community hospital, Mesa, AZ (2020 to 2022) - Cared for five to six post surgical patients per shift, including wound care and drain management.
Education BSN, Arizona State University, 2020
Mid level: teacher moving into instructional design, one page (139 words)
Jordan Lee Columbus, OH | (614) 555-0108 | jordan.lee@email.com | portfolio: jordanlee.design
Summary Middle school science teacher of seven years moving into instructional design. Built three complete online units in the district's learning platform and trained colleagues to use them.
Relevant Projects - Designed a six week online unit on ecosystems with videos, quizzes and rubrics, used by five teachers across two schools. - Created a short training course on the learning platform for new staff, completed by twenty colleagues.
Experience Science Teacher, public middle school, Columbus, OH (2019 to present) - Teach five sections of seventh grade science and write the department's common assessments. - Lead the grade level team's data meetings each quarter.
Education and Training MEd, Curriculum and Instruction, Ohio State University, 2021 Instructional design certificate, online program, 2026
Tools Articulate Rise, Canva, Google Classroom, Schoology
One page for a senior career: when it works
A senior resume can fit on one page if the target job values one track. The trick is the "Earlier experience" line, which keeps the history visible without the bullets. When the job asks for a long list of projects, publications or clearances, a second page is the honest choice, and our guide to the two page resume shows how to lay it out.
Senior: operations manager, sixteen years, one page with an earlier experience line (132 words)
Robert Chen Charlotte, NC | (704) 555-0182 | robert.chen@email.com
Summary Operations manager with sixteen years in distribution, the last eight running a 300,000 square foot facility with 140 employees across two shifts.
Experience Operations Manager, regional distribution center, Charlotte, NC (2018 to present) - Run inbound, picking and outbound for a facility sending out around 9,000 orders a day. - Brought the building's recordable injury rate down over three years by rebuilding the safety committee. - Hired and developed four supervisors, two now running their own buildings.
Operations Supervisor, third party logistics provider, Charlotte, NC (2013 to 2018) - Supervised a second shift of 45 associates and cut mispicks by reorganizing slotting.
Earlier experience Inventory Lead and Warehouse Associate, two distribution companies (2010 to 2013)
Education BS in Business Administration, UNC Charlotte
Senior: sales director, cut from two pages to one (136 words)
Alicia Moreno Denver, CO | (303) 555-0155 | alicia.moreno@email.com
Summary Sales director with fourteen years in B2B software sales, leading a team of nine account executives selling to mid market healthcare companies.
Experience Director of Sales, healthcare software company, Denver, CO (2020 to present) - Lead nine account executives and two sales engineers covering the western region. - Rebuilt the forecasting process in the CRM so that each quarter's commit was reviewed weekly. - Hired five of the current team and promoted two to senior roles.
Regional Sales Manager, software company, Denver, CO (2016 to 2020) - Managed a team of five and the region's three largest accounts.
Earlier experience Account Executive and Sales Development Representative, two software companies (2012 to 2016)
Education BA in Communications, University of Colorado Boulder
Skills Salesforce, Gong, MEDDIC, contract negotiation
The two page version of that resume had eight bullets for every job, a skills section with thirty entries and a list of every award. The one page version kept the newest role in full and turned eight years of earlier work into two lines. Nothing an interviewer would ask about was lost.
Mistakes that make a one page resume worse
- Shrinking the font below 10 points. It fits, and it is the first thing a reader notices.
- Margins under half an inch. The page looks crammed and may print cut off.
- Cutting the numbers instead of the duties. Keep the result, drop the routine.
- Two columns with tiny text. Applicant tracking systems can misread them, and they rarely save space.
- Removing dates to save room. Missing dates look like you are hiding a gap.
If you are still unsure whether one page is right, our guide on how long a resume should be explains when to stop at one and when two is better, and the resume format guide covers the layout choices that affect length.
Frequently asked questions
Should a resume be one page?
For students, recent graduates and most people with under ten years in one field, yes. Career centers such as MIT's recommend one page unless you have extensive experience or an advanced degree. A senior candidate with a long relevant history can use two pages, as long as every line on the second page earns its place.
How do I fit my resume on one page in Word or Google Docs?
Cut content first, then set the font to 10 or 11 points, margins to half an inch to one inch, and paragraph spacing to zero before and a few points after. Remove empty lines between sections and use one font. If it still runs over, cut a bullet rather than shrinking anything further.
What font size should a one page resume use?
Use 10 to 11 points for body text and 12 to 14 for your name and section headings. Berkeley's career center recommends a 10 to 11 point font with margins between half an inch and one inch. Anything smaller is hard to read on paper and on a phone screen.
Can I have a one page resume with ten years of experience?
Yes, if your experience is in one field and the target job does not ask for a long list of projects or publications. Keep full bullets for the last two jobs, give older jobs one line each in an earlier experience section, and keep the skills list to what the posting names.
What should I remove first to make my resume one page?
Remove the objective, references line, full street address and any job older than fifteen years first. Then cut bullets that describe routine duties rather than results, and trim the skills list to the skills the posting asks for. Formatting changes come last, after the content is already short.
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