How Long Should a CV Be

How Long Should a CV Be? A Guide to Ideal Page Length for Your CV


Writing a resume to land the dream job could be great hustle and could be extremely intimidating for a lot of people. Job hunting itself is not easy and can be nerve-wracking yet back-breaking.

Incongruously, we are the ones who make the process of job hunting a lot more difficult for ourselves by not writing good resumes.

The recruiters and hiring managers nowadays just take 7 seconds to look at the CV and in these few seconds, they decide the fate of the resume. This shows that the job-seekers are having a very short time span of limited seconds to showcase their abilities.

The candidates in this competitive world are trying their best to reach out to the best organizations and are presenting their skillset but still, a lot of them are unable to land the interview even! This is just because of the CV rejection right on the first step.

Understanding your struggle rightly, crafting a perfect resume can be daunting for so many individuals.

People/ students/ executives from different industries are unable to paint their skills, achievements, and accomplishments in a decent way on the resume. This creates a hurdle for them in landing their dream job and they miss the opportunity just because of the shoddily written CV.

This is one great struggle to write a market-competitive and convincing resume!

But, if you have written an outstanding resume and have portrayed your skills and talents in an incredible way then you may get noticed and if not, then the resume would surely land in the trash.

WHAT IS A CV? A BRIEF INTRODUCTION TO THE WRITING OF RESUME!

The experts believe curriculum vitae or the CV is the marketing tool of the person’s expertise and skills. This is the way to land the interviews and then get on the job board. Having a perfect fit and market-competitive resume could be difficult since the competition in the market is way higher than ever before!

To land an amazing job and to stand tall in the career field, you need to have an outclass resume. This is what the rule is in the competitive world! There is huge competition among the pool of candidates.

Obviously, when it is about the building of the career, each individual wants to shine out brighter than others. This could be very difficult to showcase your expertise and skills in an effective way when there is a whole good bunch of excellent candidates all around you!

From the educational background to the work experience, qualifications, major accomplishments, and outstanding skills; everything sums up your resume.

But wait, do you know what you must add to your resume and how much space you must allot to the specific sections?

If the answer is no then keep on reading this article for further information about writing an effective and impressive CV.

PIVOTAL SECTIONS OF RESUME- WHAT TO INCLUDE IN A CV?

A lot of people make a common mistake and that is the creation of a whole long log of the job history. Believe it or not, but this is totally useless. There is no need to bombard your CV with your personal and professional life history because this can contribute to your rejection.

Keeping the resume professional and career-oriented is very important. Agreeing with the fact that writing a resume that could help you position yourself in the market effectively could be highly daunting.

Another blunder that one can do is not to tailor the resume for different job positions. Since every job advertisement is having a different job description and responsibilities, this is very important to tailor the CV before applying to any open position.

Breaking it all down for you, below are some important points that you must keep in mind before writing the resume. Have a look that what you must include in the CV.

  • First thing first, write down the objective and the personal statement in your resume because this will showcase your interest in the open job position.
  • How can you even forget your name, email address, date of birth, contact number, and personal address? By writing your personal information, you gain the trust of the recruiter.
  • Do not neglect the achievements and experience. Ensure to dedicate a small section to showcase your experience in the industry and your great contributions of the past.
  • Your hobbies and interest do matter a lot to the hiring manager. Add them up!

Keep in mind, there is a huge difference between sharing the achievements and dictating the responsibilities. Pain yourself as the best candidate that the organization could ever have for the open job position.

Furthermore, there is no need to include a long history. Keep the CV exact up to a maximum of “two pages’. This is an ideal length of the resume. A very short resume or a very long CV, both could lead to rejection so keep it perfectly balanced with two pages.

BIG DONT’S OF RESUME! WHAT TO NOT INCLUDE IN A CV?

A resume is the very first step of every individual towards professional life. You need to be highly vigilant about your resume as this could either make or break your future.

The recruiting manager can just decide within 7 seconds about your employment so make sure to make the most of it. Here are some big dont’s of the resume. Take them seriously and stay careful that you haven’t included any of them in your professional CV.

  • Providing the recruiting with irrelevant personal information and an unprofessional email address could be dangerous. This is unethical as well so take care of the information that is included in the resume.
  • Do not miss any important element of your professional life as this could impact your CV highly.
  • Writing a long CV with unrecognized and minor lies is highly prohibited. This is completely unlawful and could impact your professional life negatively.
  • Double-check your CV for silly errors and spelling mistakes. Furthermore, keep the CV in a suitable format to make it look perfect with the view.
  • No addition of keywords can also contribute to the job rejection so don’t forget to optimize the CV with the proper keywords from the job description.

Your resume paints you for what you personally are! Make sure that your resume looks professional and is highly keyword-optimized while being industry and career-oriented. You will surely not like to get rejected just on the basis of your resume.

HOW MANY PAGES SHOULD A CV BE? – STAY CAREFUL HERE!

The answer is 2 pages. That’s it!

An ideal length of the CV should be around two or a maximum of three pages. However, the CV writing experts call the 2 page CV an ideal one!

Understanding the thought that the recruiting managers do not have strict requirements of the CV length. But still, making your CV stand out from the crowd is not easy and could be a lot disappointing!

So to avoid any mishaps and obstacles in the future, don’t take a chance and get into the process of writing a 2-page resume for your next job.

Along with the CV, you must write a cover letter to accompany your resume. This would help the hiring manager to understand your interest in the job. Writing an overly long CV can harm you rather than being good enough for your professional fate.

The entry-level or the intermediate-level CV must be of two pages only! Ensure to incorporate the CV with the relevant facts only. There must be no irrelevant information in your resume as this could make you sound way too desperate to land the job.

Stick with the ideal length of 2 pages while writing a CV. You can divide different sections of the resume on the basis of your experience, exposure, and qualifications.

HOW TO REDUCE A CV LENGTH? – QUICK TIPS TO REDUCE LENGTHY RESUME:

Have you written a great lengthy resume of almost 5 pages and now struggling to cut it down? Follow these quick tips to shorten up your CV.

  • Try to come up with a concise, sharp, and short personal profile.
  • Avoid the duplication of the information as this could increase the length of the CV and would be of no use.
  • If you are an experience holder then limit the sharing of the experience just to the past 10 years.

We understand the great hustle of editing the CV but with a keen concentration on the experience and personal information, you can keep your CV right on point and precise as well.

WHAT IS THE STANDARD FONT FOR CV?

Are you thinking that what is the best font to use for a CV that is easy to read yet visually appealing?

Well, this goes a long list because there are so many fonts that look great on the template and structure. You can choose any of the fonts from the following list;

  • Arial
  • Cambria
  • Calibri
  • Didot
  • Garamond
  • Times New Roman
  • Helvetica

FINAL TAKEAWAY:

This long and comprehensive guide is revolving around the basics of CV writing. From the length of the CV to the format, font, and information addition; this guide would definitely turn out to be the best companion in helping you to write an excellent CV professionally. Take the notes right now and get into the process of outstanding CV writing to set everything on fire!

Leave a Reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *