CV-Two Pages or Longer?

If I were a Managing Director I don’t think the selection panel would be over impressed with my two-page crammer. Clearly the number of pages will be determined by your seniority and years of experience. I read a CV for its content, not its length.

If you are a student fresh from University with about six months work experience then you will use one or two pages to tell your story whilst if you have been working for ten years in different roles you will need to give more detail.

If you are a consultant or architect where the nature of your technical expertise is determined by the nature of the projects you performed which may include a variety of assignments, then you should list a sample of the projects separately as an addendum, detailing their content, purpose and your role.

Similarly, IT executives will list their experience of applications, programming languages and hardware. Creative candidates with graphic design expertise should have a portfolio that supports their technical experience required for the role. The various projects, their content and your involvement can be separately listed under the title ‘Addendum of projects’. This allows the recruiter or employer to refer to the information on a selective basis if they consider it relevant and does not make the CV appear too elongated.

This is an extract from The Psychology of Career Planning.