I have 10 years of experience in embedded systems and hardware design. My resume is two pages. Every few months someone tells me with total confidence that two-page resumes kill applications. Every few months someone else tells me with equal confidence that one-page resumes are only for new grads.
I decided to actually look into this instead of going with vibes.
Here's what I found talking to recruiters and hiring managers across hardware, software, and a few cross-functional roles:
One-page camp: Mostly applies to new grads and early career (0-3 YOE). Strong preference from some large tech companies doing high-volume screening where recruiters literally have 10 seconds per resume. A few recruiters said they use page count as a proxy for "can this person edit themselves" which I think is a little silly but it's real.
Two-page camp: Standard for 7+ YOE in most technical fields. Expected in some fields (academia, research, government). At the senior and staff level, interviewers often want to see depth. One engineering director told me she gets suspicious of one-page resumes from people with 10+ years because it suggests they're hiding something or can't articulate their work.
What actually matters more than length: Density. A one-page resume in 8pt font is harder to read than a clean two-pager in 11pt. If your page 2 is half empty, combine it. If your resume is two dense, readable pages with actually different content on each page, two is fine.
I kept mine at two pages. I think the debate is mostly noise and the actual signal is: can a stranger understand what you did in 30 seconds. Length is a variable, not the answer.
Hardware and embedded people: curious if you're seeing anything different in 2026 given how many companies are now doing defense/chips adjacent work.