As you may know, we are looking to hire a few people at the moment at work. As the CVs have started to roll in I noticed one was 9 pages long. I immediately thought back to all the tutoring we had on this subject in high school and university where the mantra was always “one page plus cover letter”. So I commented to my manager about how long this particular CV was and whether anyone could bother reading nine pages.
In comparison, he felt it was a really good CV and helped describe the work this candidate had done as well as sell himself as a potential employee. He also thought 1 page was far too short for a CV. There are 3 of us in the team I’m in that went through tertiary education at roughly the same time. ALL of us had been taught to stick to that mantra of “one page plus cover letter”. So we ended up discussing this at length.
I know with the CV I used to apply for my current job I used 2 pages plus my cover letter. When I created it I did remember that one page mantra but deliberately chose to ignore it (hey, that’s what rules are for), but I would still feel 9 pages is excessive.
What were you taught? How many pages long should a CV be? Indeed, how long is your CV?
Comments
There are 2 responses to How long is yours
Wednesday, 21st June 2006 3:50 pm
I was never really taught anything but would struggle to go too long
I’d probably submit 4 or 5 pages.
I’d suspect that 9 would be already in your team as you’re a creative team. I’d expect to see some examples of work (perhaps not a complete portfolio but some examples anyway).
– JD
P.S. To sum up – “bigger than yours”
Wednesday, 21st June 2006 6:38 pm
I managed to get mine down to 5 pages. I was taught a resume is a one page review, but a CV is a multi page document featuring education, job history, etc.