A one-page CV: when, how, and what to cut

Most CVs would be better on one page: it is what a recruiter reads all the way through, and it forces you to keep only what matters. But you don't get to one page by squeezing everything: you get there by cutting. This guide covers who can allow themselves two pages, the order to cut in, how to free up space without spoiling readability, and what the site does to help.

One page or two: who gets which

The site's ATS check sums it up in its “Right length” criterion: “One to two pages depending on experience: the essentials must fit on the first.” In practice:

• One page: students, first jobs, a few years' experience, career changers, and any application where everything relevant fits without forcing it (see the student CV).
• Two pages: a long career where each recent job brings something to the role you want, a specialist or senior executive profile with projects, publications or remits to detail (see the executive CV).

Either way, the first page has to stand on its own: headline, personal statement and latest jobs, with their results. A half-empty second page is a sign that one well-trimmed page would do better. For a long career, how to condense older jobs is covered in the CV after 50.

What to cut, in this order

1. The old: distant jobs shrink to one line (title, company, years); student jobs go once you have a real career; so does secondary school, as soon as you hold a higher qualification.
2. The repeated: two similar jobs share the same bullet points? Keep them under the most recent one and summarise the other. A skill mentioned in your statement, your skills section and several jobs? Once in the skills, once proved in your strongest job, is plenty.
3. The obvious: “Curriculum vitae” as a title, “References available on request”, “Internet skills”, your full address (the town is enough), your date of birth, nationality and marital status. Nothing is compulsory on a French CV (see the sources at the bottom of the page).
4. The weak: in each job, keep the lines that show a result and drop those that copy the job description. Three or four strong lines beat eight average ones.
5. Hollow sections: “Miscellaneous”, generic hobbies (see interests on a CV), a “Personal qualities” section that repeats your statement.

Shortening a line without losing the point

• Delete the warm-up phrases: “Actively involved in”, “In charge of”, “Responsible for managing”. An action verb is enough (see action verbs).
• Hunt down lone words at the end of a line: one word spilling onto a new line costs you a whole line. Reword so it moves back up.
• Merge the lists: four neighbouring tasks often fit into a single idea.

Freeing up space without hurting readability

• Spacing: uneven gaps between blocks waste space without anyone noticing. Even gaps, a little tighter, give a lot of it back.
• Margins: trim them a little if they are wide, never so far that the text hugs the edge of the page.
• The header: name, headline and contact details fit in a few lines. A very tall banner or a large photo eats up the top of the page, the most-read area.
• A side column: it tucks skills and languages into a narrow space, but calls for caution with ATS robots (see CV layout).

The trap: shrinking the font

It is the most common reflex, and the worst. Text that is too small or too cramped is hard to read on screen, and harder still on a phone, where applications sometimes get opened. The recruiter doesn't count your pages: they notice they are squinting. Keep your template's text size, and cut instead.

The site holds itself to the same rule. When it edits your PDF CV in place, it may tighten an over-long text slightly to make it fit; but once the letters are narrowed by more than 10% or the type size reduced by more than 3%, it treats the result as visibly cramped and also offers you your CV redrawn in the same look, where all the text fits without being squashed.

What the site does for you

1. Realign and tighten the spacing, with no AI: “Fix the spacing” evens out the gaps and “Tighter” closes them all by a notch, without touching the text (see fixing the spacing of a CV).
2. Shorten on request: in “Same layout”, write for example “Cut my two oldest jobs down to one line each”; the AI rewrites that text in place, without making anything up.
3. Remove without AI: in “My structure”, a section or a job comes out in one click, as often as you like.
4. Check: the CV analysis includes length among the criteria of its ATS check and tells you what to fix, word for word.