How long should a CV be?

A curriculum vitae, or CV, is a document that outlines your education and professional experience. There's a lot of information you’ll want to put on your CV. But how long should it be? Generally, it’s better if your CV is short and sweet.

We’ll explain why it’s important to keep things concise and how to do just that by covering:

• How many pages should a CV be?
• What to include in your CV
• What not to include
• How to shorten your CV
• More CV advice

As a student or recent graduate, your CV should be one page. There’s no need for it to be any longer. Even if you’re further in your career, keep it two pages at the max.

To keep the length down, avoid unnecessary details and long descriptions. Make sure that everything you include in your CV is relevant to the position you're applying for.

Recruiters have a lot of CVs to get through, so they need to quickly get an idea of who you are and your experience. Some hiring managers will only scan a CV for seconds before deciding if they’ll discard your application or move you to the shiny acceptance pile. If your CV is too long to skim, you reduce your chances of making it to the next stage. So, cut the fluff and make your snappy CV stand out.

Although your CV needs to be short, there are certain things you always need to find room to include.

Here's a quick breakdown of the most important parts:

• Your contact information
• A summary (ie. a personal profile that gives an overview of yourself)
• Work experience
• Education and training
• Skills

Consider calling out the following if relevant too:

• Awards and achievements
• Notable research projects
• Published work
• Speaking engagements
• Languages
• Scholarships
• Memberships to professional bodies

With these elements, your CV covers everything an employer needs to know – without waffling on.

Remember to tailor your CV for the job you’re applying for. So, focus on the skills and experiences that are most relevant to the position and cut out anything that the recruiter won’t care about. Making the effort to adjust your CV for each job application will help you highlight why you’re the best person for the role.

As a student or recent graduate, it’s OK to not have work experience from the same industry you’re applying for. Remember that you’ll have learned transferable skills in past roles and uni, so focus on that when writing your CV. It’s also OK to skip any nice-to-have sections that don’t work for you. So, don’t force yourself to list languages if you only speak English.

Here's a list of the things employers and recruiters don't want to see on CVs:

• Unnecessary personal information (such as your age, height, marital status and religion)
• Photographs
• References (a simple “References available on request” at the bottom is fine)
• Reasons for leaving jobs
• Salary history
• Jargon and buzzwords
• Grammatical and spelling mistakes
• Anything unprofessional or irrelevant (although it’s fine to mention hobbies and uni societies if they show skills you’d use in the job)

If you’ve got any of the above on your CV, remove it.

Remember that a CV isn’t about listing everything you’ve done. Instead, it’s a summary of your top achievements relevant to the role you’re applying for. If your CV is clogged up with other stuff, it’s easy for recruiters to miss why you’re right for the job.

Already written a CV and realised it’s too long? You need to keep your CV concise, but we know that’s easier said than done sometimes. After all, there’s so much you want to tell employers about. So, how do you fit it all in one page? It’s hard but perfectly possible – and necessary.

Here are our tips for trimming down your CV:

Make sure every word in your CV relates to the role and why you’re the best person for it. Remove anything that isn’t related to the job.

So, if you’ve got a degree in a subject that isn’t relevant, there’s no need to go into more detail than the course title, timeframe and uni. Or, if you’ve got extra qualifications that an employer is unlikely to care about, remove them or condense them into a single line. Grouping your part-time uni jobs into one bullet point (ie. “Customer service experience as a barista in various coffee shops for three years”) is a great space-saver too. Minimising irrelevant information gives you the room to write about more important things.

Avoid lengthy explanations of your experience. Keep things brief, while still including the most important information.

Use bullet points to make it easier for employers to scan for the key details they need to know. Start these with specific action words to describe your experience and skills. For example, “Led a successful team who won ‘Best Sales Team in the North East’ at an industry awards night” is more powerful than “I was the team leader for a sales team in my company. We were awarded ‘Best Sales Team in the North East’ at an awards night for those in the property industry and I’m very proud of that achievement.” Both say the same thing, but the shorter statement is better.

Once you’ve listed a skill or experience, there’s no need to repeat it. Make sure that any extra information you include isn't redundant. Each sentence needs to offer something new. When you re-read your CV, look out for any repeats and delete them.

Your personal statement is a great way to introduce yourself and highlight why you’re the best person for the job. But it’s easy to go overboard. Keep it brief and relevant. Aim for no more than two small paragraphs or four sentences in total. Only include key details and it’ll be fluff-free.

Your cover letter is the best place to provide extra information about yourself, such as why you want the job and how you’d benefit the company. Your cover letter will give employers a better understanding of who you while keeping your CV short.

Tried cutting everything down and still struggling to keep your CV under the page limit? Reduce the font size. It will help you fit more information into a smaller space without making it overcrowded. However, avoid going below 10 points as tiny text will make your CV difficult to read. Still a squeeze? Try reducing the margins slightly.

Crafting an effective CV is a key part of the job search process. It’s important to include all relevant information and make sure it’s presented clearly. Avoid including irrelevant details and don’t be afraid to cut things out. Finally, double-check for any typos before sending it off as mistakes will hurt your chances of getting an interview.

With the right advice, you’ll create a CV that will get you noticed by employers and bring you closer to landing your dream job.

Writing a great CV is an essential step towards success in any job search. While this guide will give you a great starting point, we’ve got lots of other tips and tricks to share.