Since September 27, 2025, every resume submitted through USAJOBS has been capped at two pages under OPM’s Merit Hiring Plan. USAJOBS is also rolling out a technical check that will block resumes over the limit from being submitted at all — not flagged for review, blocked.
If your resume is still four, five, or six pages, this isn’t a formatting exercise. It’s the difference between being considered and being automatically screened out before a human ever opens your application.
What’s required on the 2-page resume
The page limit didn’t remove any of the compliance fields federal HR still needs. For every position you list, you still need:
- Your supervisor’s name
- Hours worked per week
- Salary or GS grade and step
- Month/year start and end dates
- The official federal position title and series/grade, not an informal working title
Those fields take up real space. Which means everything else on the page has to earn its place.
The essay questions moved — they didn’t disappear
For GS-05 and above, applicants now submit four 200-word essay questions inside the USAJOBS questionnaire, separate from the resume upload. This is actually good news for your resume: content that used to get crammed into bullet points to “prove” a qualification can move into the essays instead, freeing up resume space for the compliance fields above.
What to cut first
Open the job announcement you’re applying to and find the specialized experience language — usually a paragraph describing exactly what OPM and the agency are screening for at that grade. Then go bullet by bullet through your resume and ask one question: does this bullet directly support that specific language?
If it doesn’t, it’s a candidate to cut, no matter how proud you are of the work. Common things that get cut first:
- Duplicate duties repeated across multiple positions
- General mission statements about your old office or agency
- Soft-skill claims without a specific result attached
- Anything more than 10–12 years old, unless it’s your only proof of a required qualification
What to protect
Don’t cut acting assignments, details, or collateral duties — these are often exactly what proves you’ve already been performing at the next grade level, which matters for the “52-week rule” (one year of specialized experience at the next lower grade). Call these out explicitly, with dates, rather than folding them into your regular duties.
This post is general guidance based on published OPM Merit Hiring Plan policy and is not a substitute for reviewing your specific job announcement's requirements.