CVs are our opportunity to give an excellent first impression to the people shortlisting for a job. The overall appearance of your CV is vitally important, as the content and layout of the front page at least can put your recruiter off you in the first few seconds. Aside from content, an essential dimension of your CV is its size.
There are several thoughts around the recruitment industry about the right size for a CV, i.e. how many pages it should be. We thought we’d add ours into the mix:
A CV Should be 2 or 3 Pages Long
A CV that is at most either 2 or 3 pages long is ideal. We say this for the following reasons:
- A document much longer can be off-putting to recruiters, meaning they will quickly reach a negative view without even reading the content. You need to capture the interest of the recruiters, and if you turn them off instead, that is a major loss.
- Recruiters generally form a view about candidates in the first few seconds of seeing their CV, so along with layout/format, your CV needs to be the ideal size. Taking the time to get this right will give you a much better chance of being shortlisted for the interview stage.
- Recruiters regularly skim CVs without reading the detail. Keeping your CV short means you can focus on the critical aspects of your career or skills and qualifications so they stand out and are more likely to be seen. Read “How to include Your Skills on Your CV” for more information on how to achieve this.
- A document any shorter than two pages can give the impression that you haven’t worked hard enough to demonstrate your skills and experience. Either that, or you don’t have much of a career under your belt. (Having said this, anyone just leaving school/college could struggle to write a CV much longer than a page if they haven’t had much work experience, in which case 1 page is ok).
- And finally, everyone needs to remember that a CV should NOT replicate all the job descriptions you’ve ever had. It should demonstrate a summary of your jobs and your key skills and achievements. This is actually a very important point and one that should be self-explanatory.
The purpose of your CV is to demonstrate the particular skills that relate to the job you are applying for now rather than a generic account of your employment history. People who take the time to tailor their CV to a particular job tend to do better.
Now, the one main exception to all of the above is if you are an academic, i.e. a teacher or scholar in a university or other institute of higher education, you’ll be expected to add more than usual to a CV.
So, whilst your main CV may be 2 or 3 pages, your publications, referenced work, and other academic achievements should be included in an Appendix, which we've seen running to many, many pages!
