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CV Length – Some useful CV Writing Tips

Writing CVs: Help with CV Length

CV Writing is Very Subjective

CV writing is of course very subjective and ideal CV solutions will vary from person to person. There are no hard and fast rules, but there is a consensus in terms of following certain best practice guidelines.

What is the Optimal CV Length?

Perhaps one of the most common questions relating to CV writing is: What is the optimal length of a CV? Traditionally, the ideal CV length was between 1 and 2 pages, with a 2-page CV perhaps being the optimal CV length.

Defining Optimal CV Length

Now, as roles become ever more technical, employers demanding ever more skills, candidates moving more frequently between jobs and people having long-established employment track records, the ideal CV length is certainly 2-3 pages. It is thought that one page CVs are too short and anything over 3 pages is too long. Certainly, for executive CVs and more technical CVs, chances are that CVs will end up going onto a third page.

Limiting CV Length

As experienced Professional CV Writers, we see many CVs longer than 3 pages. These need to be cut down and optimised for 2-3 pages. We believe that the core of a 3-page CV should be on the first two pages. The third page should be no more than a summary list of older/formative work experience, technical skills, training courses and professional development.

CV Length – Some Exceptions

There are exceptions to the rule on CV length. Full medical CVs are typically 9-12 pages long because there is a traditional structure/format to follow where certain skills, specialities, experience, teaching, research and training have to be captured in a particular way. Other situations requiring a longer CV length may include extremely technical roles or very specialist roles associated with the United Nations.

CV Length – Important Considerations

Overall, candidates must think of how to maintain attention of the reader and CV length is an important factor. Therefore, excessive CV length could imply certain things.

- Recruiters losing attention span – recruiter will only spend 30 seconds or so scanning CVs
- Long CVs could imply a poor writing style (i.e. not concise enough or poorly structured)
- Little attention has been paid to developing CV strategy (i.e. not targeted enough).
- Changing jobs many times can affect CV length, thus implying an employability issue.

CV Length – Conclusion

Regardless an ideal CV length, we firmly believe the optimal CV length should be 2-3 pages. If CVs are heading to a fourth page, this should indicate the CV is getting too long and would need cutting down. Alternatively, seek Professional CV Writing advice to optimise the CV strategy and CV length.

Winning CV is a professional CV writing company offering professional CV and executive CV writing services for career-minded professionals. As professional CV writers , Winning CV also offers services for Graduate CV writing and technical CV writing .

Winning CV is also well-placed to offer further advice on writing CVs , job interview skills and careers help as well as search for jobs in over 60 countries worldwide.

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Tags: best cv length, cv, cv format, cv length, cv pages, length of cvs, optimal cv length

This entry was posted on Tuesday, May 17th, 2011 at 10:18 am and is filed under CV Length, Uncategorized. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed.