How do I decide what to cut when my resume is too long?

Cut anything that does not help the reader decide you can do the job you are applying for. Read each line and ask: would a hiring manager for this role miss it if it disappeared? If not, it goes.

Work through the resume in this order:

• Remove whole items that are irrelevant to the target role, such as an unrelated part-time job from many years ago.
• Shorten older roles to one or two bullets, or a single line.
• Delete repeated points: if three jobs say "handled customer enquiries", keep it once, where it is strongest.
• Trim wordy phrases inside bullets ("was responsible for the management of" becomes "managed").
• Drop optional extras last, such as hobbies or a long list of minor courses.

Keep your contact details, current or most recent role, key qualifications and dates. Those are the parts readers look for first, so they are never the place to save space.