Q: How many pages should my CV be?
A: Most employers will spend ONLY one minute on your CV, so how you present yourself on paper is very important.
It is one time where LESS IS MORE! Employers and Human Resource Managers are busy people. For every job advertised they can receive hundreds of CVs and they go through them rapidly to see whether you match their requirements.
To make their jobs easier do this:
- No cover page with just your name on it. It wastes time scrolling down. If you prove worthy of further attention, the CV would be printed and this cover page is a waste of paper and ink.
- If you are just leaving school or have up to 3 work experiences, you only need 1 page.
- When you have 4-10 work experiences, you only need 2 pages!
- Most applicants think more is more, but there are ways to make an impact while using the least amount of space.
Here is how:
- Use bullet points instead of complete sentences: eg instead of I was a school prefect in Grade 12
- School prefect.
- Read the advertisement carefully and take out every bit which does not contribute to answering the question: Are you the right person for the job?
- Reference details are not needed. Just say ‘References letters available.’
- Copies of certificates and ID’s are not needed unless requested. Just say copies of certificate and ID available.
BUT you do need a COVER LETTER!
