Resume Length

Very common question – how long should my resume be—a quick one-pager or a sprawling CV? Honestly, it depends (former tax guy lingo). A resume is a concise snapshot of your career—typically one to two pages—while a CV dives deep into academic and professional history, often stretching longer for academic & medical positions, graduate programs, fellowships & grants. For most pros, recruiters want brevity: 68% of recruiters are ok with two pagers for experienced hires (LinkedIn, March 29) and 75% prefer one pagers for lesser experienced (indeed, March 2025). CVs? Save those for academia & physicians. 🧑🏻‍⚕️👩🏻‍⚕️

Length matters—80% of recruiters spend under 60 seconds scanning resumes (Forbes, March 27, 2025). My experience – 100% correct. Experienced CPAs and finance execs should front-load the top half of page one with a direct summary, a clear objective, and standout accomplishments. Why? ATS systems and hiring managers skim resumes first, so your credentials need to pop. Remember, hiring managers decide in seven seconds whether to dive deeper into a resume based on what grabs their attention – if anything (Glassdoor, March 28, 2025). That’s one stat that hasn’t changed over the years. ⏱️

Resume trends show a shift—five years ago, 60% of recruiters favored one-page (SHRM, 2020) resumes; today it’s 75% (Indeed, 2025). Two-page resume acceptance stayed about the same from 65% (LinkedIn, 2020) to 68% (LinkedIn, March 29), but longer resumes lost ground—25% were acceptable in 2020, now just 10% (Forbes, 2025). Good general rules to try to stick by. 📐

So, seasoned pros—pack that top half of page one with skills and wins. No one’s digging all the way through to page three to read experience from your 1990s gig. It’s not that difficult. If you’re an experienced CPA or finance exec, most of the edits or revisions can be done to the back half of your resume. Your most recent experience (last 7-10 years) is generally the most relevant. Accounting & finance roles move quickly—need resume advice that lands you in the game? Drop me a note. 🗣️

#CPACareers #ResumeTips #FinancePros #HiringTrends #JobSearch2025 #CPA