When it comes to the hiring process, most hiring managers and recruiters are spending mere seconds making decisions as they rifle through endless piles of resumes. From my own perspective as well as opinions of other hiring professionals, no one has time to read through two pages. Consider the amount of applications the average manager must go through before making their decisions on who will be called for the next step in the hiring process. They are going to take one look at a two-pager and immediately toss that to the side (or whatever hiring managers do when they ex-nay a resume choice, I always imagined them tossing them over their shoulder, but that seems messy and unrealistic.)
But my job history won't fit on one page!
This is certainly a common concern for people who are more comfortable with the two-paged style. However, the first issue you must address is - how old is this employment history? If it's over 15 years old, consider that completely irrelevant. The only time this would be OK is if you began your career with a certain industry, ambled out into a different type of work for many years, and decided you wanted to get back into it. In this case, this history would need to be included, but the more recent history could be cut out. Either way, we are removing the excess, useless information that does not address your current employment goals.
My skills, font, header, bullets won't fit on one page!
Yes, they will. I can assure you, especially if you hire a skilled resume writer (hey, that's me over here!), all of these items can still fit onto one page. Consider the list of skills you have. No matter the variety or sameness in your job history, there will be items that are extra or essentially don't say anything. Ambitious hard worker does not tell anyone a thing about you. No one is actually going to stick on their resume: hey, i'm not super ambitious and I run for the hills any times hard work is involved, but please hire me! Lines filled with random adjectives don't really highlight your abilities or achievements. Most of these can be cut out. As far as the layout of the resume, there are countless ways to format the font size, style, and insert tables to maximize the space you do have.
I'm extraordinarily passionate about the one-page style. As I said before, most hiring professionals aren't going to waste their precious time on anything longer than a page. Your resume isn't meant to delve into every single aspect of your job history. When you want to get a little more personal and in depth with your qualifications, that's where the cover letter comes in. Your resume is a piece of writing meant to highlight your achievements and applicable skills to the current job you are applying to. It's not an endless laundry list of the last 20 jobs you worked at. Keeping it one page will allow you to market yourself more effectively in today's competitive job market.