How long should a CV be?

Should you write a one page CV or should it be two pages? Are there situations where a CV should be three pages? Will the world end if you produce a four page CV? Maybe you are wondering if there is an average length that a hiring manager or recruiter wants to see?

The truth is, there are situations where you would send a one page CV, two page CV, three page CV and maybe even a four page CV. Read on for some top tips and all will be revealed.

Your curriculum vitae, which of course, we all abbreviate to CV, is your personal marketing brochure when looking for jobs. Most people will include bullet points on relevant information such as:

• Employment history

• Work experience

• Relevant skills

• Projects and achievements

• qualifications

But do you have an overly long CV? Is the length of your CV the ideal length?

Well, there is no definitive right or wrong but there are some accepted conventions, and it also depends where in the world you are.

How long should a CV be in the UK?

So, let's start with some tips for the UK.

Your CV should be, for a more senior person, up to three pages.

If you're early in your career, then two pages is just about right.

A lot of people think that a CV should never be any longer than two pages and this is somewhat of an urban myth.

Research into the ideal CV length

There was some research done a few years back by one of the national newspapers that was quite interesting; it wasn't specific to contracting or permanent job seekers, but it did provide some useful findings.

They surveyed several thousand job seekers and several hundred recruiters.

How long should a CV be? The verdict from the research...

83% of job seekers thought their CV had to be two pages.

76% of recruiters disagreed and said it could be longer than two pages.

So, there you have it! There is a massive chasm of miscommunication somewhere along the line. But certainly, if you are a mid to senior career job seeker, you're going to really struggle to get your CV on to two pages and may as a result miss out important information.

So, amongst people in the recruitment industry and people who hire staff, it's generally accepted that when you're looking for a permanent role, up to three pages is fine.

How many pages should a CV be for a junior person?

If you're more junior in your career, with a more junior job title, then the length of your CV would usually be two pages. Some employers may specifically ask for a single page document, but this is quite rare. It's common to send both a CV and cover letter, so in total, you are providing quite a bit of information.

How long should a CV be for independent professionals?

Are you an independent professional? In this case, a three page CV is spot on, but you might have a four-page CV depending on how many client assignments you have delivered. The rule of thumb is to focus on the last 5 - 6 years of your career opposed to a permanent job seeker who would focus on the last 8 - 10 years of their career. CVs that can be up to 4 pages include professionals operating as:

• Contractors

• Consultants

• Interim Managers

• Portfolio career professionals

Why would you have a CV longer than one page?

It may seem like a daft question, but many job seekers take the route of least resistance and if they could get away with producing just one page, they would.

The problem is; one page of information is unlikely to be sufficient to sell you to a potential employer. It's accepted that a CV will usually be between two and four pages long.

CV length in the US

Now let's look at other areas of the world starting with the USA, where it's called a resume rather than a CV (CVs exist in the USA but that's usually for academic professionals). Now, in the US, it's okay to have a three pager, but the preference is for just two pages.

The PARW, which is the body that oversee professional resume writing in the US actively promote the fact that a resume can be three pages, however in our experience, there is quite a movement towards a resume being no more than two pages. If it just tips over onto a third page, our advice is to work it back to two pages.

To summarise, there is certainly more brevity required for the US market than there is for example in the UK.

CV length in South Africa

There are lots of variations throughout the world and in South Africa, it's quite acceptable to have a six or seven page CV, although it could be argued that there would be lots of superfluous information to create a CV that long.

What's the best font size for a CV?

When it comes to ATS optimisation, fonts and font size can play a role in your CVs readability, so play it safe and stick to common serif or sans serif fonts such as Arial and Calibri. Smaller fonts are hard to read so keep the text at either size 10 or 11 depending on the font you use.

Conversely, don’t use a really large font – as long as it is readable, you want more space to sell yourself. In addition, leave some white space so your CV doesn’t look too cluttered.

What's the average CV length?

If you were to take a mean average across the world, most people are fairly comfortable for mid to senior career professionals with that CV or resume being onto a third page.

The amount of vital information that a recruiter or hiring manager wants or needs has increased over the years.  

We should also consider recruitment behaviour (and when I say recruitment behaviour, I mean from both recruitment agencies and hiring managers) where it has become typical business behaviour to check out the LinkedIn profiles of shortlisted candidates.

Statistically, this happens 85% of the time. So given this fact, it is clear that those responsible for making recruitment decisions want more information and not less, even though some sources will suggest to keep your CV more concise.

How long should a legal CV be?

The Legal profession is often traditional and conservative, so a bog standard two-page CV is most hirer’s expectation. If you are more senior, it is not the end of the world if your CV ends up being three pages, although some recruiters or hirers may try to persuade you otherwise.

Ultimately, the length of your CV is secondary to the quality and relevance of the content and making sure all your key skills are listed; if page one of your CV provides compelling evidence of your abilities, the fact your CV has spilled onto page three shouldn’t really matter. The most important factor is that your CV matches the job description.

How long should a graduate CV be?

Graduate recruitment tends to be a bit more structured with usually clear guidelines on requirements. It’s important to check what those requirements are and act accordingly, writing your CV as the employer has stipulated.

If the instructions from the hiring manager indicate you should be sending a one-page CV, then do that, but if no CV length is stipulated, the general consensus is that a graduate CV should be two-pages.

It may be tempting to produce a one-page CV because that is less work, but if no page limit has been set, a two-pager that alongside details of your education and qualifications, lists some transferable skills (with evidence of where you obtained those skills) will serve you well. You may also be asked to send a cover letter to support your CV.

How long should a teacher CV be?

CVs for professionals in the education sector usually follow the general rule that two pages is spot on, but more senior job seekers can get away with three-pages.

Obviously a more junior person will have less to talk about than someone who has been a head teacher, so there will be length differences depending on your level of seniority.

In many cases, the more senior education sector roles require a personal statement rather than writing a CV, so the argument on CV length is somewhat moot. The recruitment decision makers and hiring manager will be much more aligned with a detailed cover letter that many call a CV personal statement or supporting statement.

How long should a consulting CV be?

Consultants can showcase their professional career, experience and client assignments by including case studies in their CV, and by their very nature, consultants are more senior professionals and will require a slightly longer CV than your average job seeker.

With this in mind, three pages is perfect but a recruiter or hiring manager will forgive a consultant if their CV has spilled onto a fourth page. For example, if you have been a contractor for 20 years and done lots of short term assignments, it’s likely to be impossible to keep your CV short.

Our advice is to have both a chronological CV and a case study style CV where your professional experience is dropped in favour of a portfolio of case studies.

How many pages should a CV be for contractors?

Four pages is about right for an experienced contractor and up to three pages is acceptable for those exploring permanent roles.

Many of the large UK organisations who have recruitment PSLs stipulate that their preferred recruitment suppliers should limit the length of CVs for contractors to four pages.

This is enforced to the extent that a longer CV will be rejected on those grounds alone. 

Contractors should focus on the last 5 -6 years of their career whereas a permanent job seeker might focus on the last 8 - 10. Any previous roles should then be tucked away as one-liners in an Earlier Career section.

There may be some exceptions to this if relevant or important jobs or contracts are omitted from the main career history / work experience but as a yardstick, these guidelines will apply most of the time.

Including your earlier roles on your CV in your case studies 

If you do find that some of your earlier roles are missing and you feel they are worthy of more than a one-liner, then using case studies on page one could serve you well.

Our chronological CV methodology has a section that we call Career Highlights, which appears on page one before the Career History (what some people call Work Experience or Employment); in this section, you would have three stand-out achievements or projects (written as six-line case studies using the STAR methodology) that relate to the position that you are applying for. 

It is acceptable to write a case study about a piece of work from earlier in your career and place this on page one as a way of promoting this same information and making it more prominent.

In fact, the case studies I refer to are a great way of getting around the issue of ‘last job syndrome’ where your most recent contract / professional experience may not be the most relevant for future applications.

By adding some relevant case studies to page one, you are promoting this information into a more prominent position that will be read before the Career History and therefore beat the constraints of your career chronology.

Next, find out what action words are in your CV.