The Most Important Question to Consider When Updating Your CV (No, It’s Not 'How do I make it 2 pages?')
As a recruiter, conversations about CVs are a daily occurrence and offering advice on how it can be approved should be part of the service to your candidates. Whether it’s discussing the content, the layout or key achievements - standing out from the crowd becomes even more important for anyone looking for a new job given how competitive the market is right now.
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One question that often comes up is how long a CV should be. Years ago someone took a stance that no CV should be more than 2 pages long and if I ever got them on the phone it would be a Liam Neeson in Taken esque conversation because honestly it is nonsense.
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The question to ask isn’t “Should my CV be 2 pages” or “Is my CV too long”. The most important question you should ask yourself can be condensed to 3 little words:
Is it relevant?
Is it relevant to include key achievements from your recent roles that highlight the value your work added to those employers? Absolutely
Is it relevant to have half a page of bullet point about a role you did 10 years ago when that was a junior position compared to your current management role? Probably not.
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A good CV will show what you’ve done and what you can bring to the business you are expressing an interest in. If you’re bringing a lot to the table this is exactly the document you want to highlight that in so don’t worry if you go half a page longer than you were expecting. Don’t get me wrong, if your CV is going up to 10-15 pages then there might be a question to ask if you are condensing the information concisely and communication skills are important in most roles these days.
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I did a survey recently from a role we’ve placed and from a sample of 50 applicants the average CV length was 2.8 pages with a couple of 1 pagers and the longest being 6. 2 was the most popular but the majority (41 of the 50) were between 2 and 4 pages.
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What other questions do you think are important to ask yourself when updating your CV?
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