Improving Your CV, Chapter 5: Deciding on the length of your CV

Part of Course 1: Improving your CV · Chapter 5 of 29 · 8 min

About this chapter

How long should a CV be? There's no fixed answer, but I give a practical guide for the UK: one page early in your career, around two to two-and-a-half once you have experience, and longer where your profession or market expects it.

Key points

• Graduate and apprenticeship applications often ask for one page, and that suits early-career candidates.
• Mid-career in the UK, two pages or a bit more is fine; page two is where you give context on where you came from.
• Expectations differ by country: more detail is often welcomed in the Middle East, more brevity in parts of Europe, and one page in the US.
• Don't squeeze everything onto one page with a tiny font and three thin bullet points; you lose the detail a hiring manager wants.
• If an application states a page limit, follow it.

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