How long should your CV be? The 2-page myth

Matt Craven explains why so many people are fixated on CV length, and provides some useful advice for contractors seeking to impress potential clients and agents.

Origins of the 2-page CV myth

So far this year, we have delivered over 100 public speaking engagements on advanced CV writing. Pretty much without fail, we have been asked “how long should a CV be?” at every single session.

As a former recruiter and someone who has dedicated the last ten years of my life to understanding what people do and don’t like about CVs, it is easy to be somewhat blasé about CV length. However, it is clearly a concern for many job seekers and contractors.

Unfortunately, someone somewhere (nobody knows who) once mentioned that the world will explode if a CV stretches beyond two pages.

As much as I would like to give them a shake, the best I can do is write a blog to attempt to dispel this myth and bring some clarity to what is a surprisingly emotive topic.

The reality – no ‘one size fits all’ rule

Firstly, it depends on your level of experience. An executive with a 25-year career will obviously have a longer CV than a school leaver.

Secondly, it depends on whether you are a permanent job seeker or a contractor.

A contractor has more individual entries to add to their CV. As a result, they would naturally be expected to have a longer document.

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Some large employers have ‘length of CV’ stipulations for their recruitment providers. In many cases, this is set at four pages for contract roles.

Another consideration is the non-human side of recruitment. This includes applicant tracking systems, recruitment software, and CV databases. Somewhere along the line, keyword searches are being run, or software is being used to source and shortlist candidates.

With this in mind, it could be argued that more information and more relevant keywords can actually help you to be found by the machine.

I have read research from one of the UK’s business schools that found that hiring managers now prefer longer CVs than they did previously. This mirrors our own findings.

This makes sense. In recent years, companies have become far more careful about whom they hire, leading to greater due diligence. If you want to do more due diligence, you need more information, not less.

Most savvy contract recruiters also recognise that contractors cannot realistically squeeze all of their experience into two pages. In many cases, it would take an extraordinary feat of formatting even to try.

What a contractor’s CV should focus on

• Focus primarily on the last six years of your career
• Include a strong Professional Summary at the top
• Add a clearly defined Key Skills section
• Use a generous spread of achievements and outcomes, not just responsibilities
• Include a Career Highlights section, ideally with short case studies (around six lines each)
• Add a Technical Appendix for tools, platforms, and methodologies
• Include Recommendations where available
• List your Education and Qualifications
• For each contract in the last six years, include the mandatory half-dozen bullet points covering scope, technologies, and outcomes

If you follow this structure, the CV will naturally end up at the right length and will not be far off the mark.

Conclusion

To conclude, the current rule of thumb is up to three pages for a permanent job seeker (and even better if it fits on two), and up to four pages for a contractor.

If you front-load the CV with the most compelling content, you greatly improve your chances of hooking the reader.

Inother words, start with the Professional Summary, Key Skills, and Career Highlights. Then move the more list-based information to the end (earlier career, personal details, education, technical appendix),

Ideally, you will have convinced them to invite you for an interview long before they even notice how long the CV is.

Would you benefit from a free expert opinion?

Matt Craven is the founder of The CV & Interview Advisors. If you would like a completely free expert critique of your CV and LinkedIn profile, click here for more details.

For more tips, see our own concise guide to CV writing.