Surely, since you are struggling with the creation of your curriculum vitae, you have asked yourself many questions: what format should I use? Which resume template is best for my situation? Among the many questions and numerous questions, you will surely have also asked yourself the fateful question: how many pages should my curriculum vitae be?
There has already been much talk on the subject and certainly, you will have received much different advice and you will have listened to even conflicting opinions. What advice to follow?
There are those who say that a resume that is too long is wrong and also those who say that a single-page resume is very effective.
Then, there are also those who say that a single-page resume is too short and is absolutely not adequate for a professional, perhaps only for a completely inexperienced student. Where is the truth?
Synthetic is better
Let us specify immediately that there is no precise rule. Do not listen to those who tell you that the curriculum vitae must necessarily be one page because the CV is read in just nine seconds. On the other hand, don’t take at face value even those who tell you that a single-page CV is not even considered and that a curriculum vitae, to be considered serious, must be at least two or three pages long.
As often happens, the truth is right in the middle and depends on the occasion and varies for each candidate.
So do what makes sense in your situation and in your location. If, for example, you are struggling with an inexperienced curriculum vitae, do not dwell on adding spaces or experiences that are absolutely not important just to make your CV longer than two pages! In this case, a well-done page is much better, that two pulls by the ears, also because, whoever finds himself having to read your curriculum vitae, know it, in 99% of cases he is an experienced professional and knows very well how things work!
Short yes, but not at all costs
Are you a professional with years of experience? Your CV will certainly reflect your situation and there is nothing wrong with that. If you are a professional, your CV can easily be two or three pages long, as long as your experiences are all relevant and the space is well optimized.
If, however, you have the impression that your CV is too long and needs to be trimmed, do it properly.
Select, select!
The first thing to do when you find yourself in a such situation is to select the content of your curriculum vitae. One account is in fact a long CV because it contains only important and relevant experiences, for example in the case of a professional curriculum, another is an unnecessarily long CV that contains information that could be easily eliminated or work experience that is not in line with the position sought or the position for which you are applying.
Why having an unnecessarily long curriculum is never a good idea ? Of course, you will never want to bore to death the reader! But the boredom of the recruiter is not the most important aspect: what will make you want to scissor your CV is the fact that you are off topic.
If you are applying, for example , for a senior project manager position, the time has come to eliminate your first experiences as an entertainer in the summer and bartenders at the beach bar, or as Santa’s helpers during the holidays! These jobs should be left in the curricula of students without experience, to show that they are people with a desire to do and work and that they have a lot of spirit of adaptation.
Furthermore, you will give the impression of not knowing how to select the information important and not knowing how to prioritize the information entered.
How to thin and streamline your curriculum vitae?
How to make your resume shorter without deleting important information?
The effective solution is and can only be one: create a targeted and effective curriculum. How to do it? You have to direct your curriculum vitae to the job offer you are applying for, which means spending time, every time, to make your resume in line with the job offer, eliminating those work experiences or skills that do not are in no way interesting for the job offer you are applying to.
In this way, not only will you demonstrate that you understand the importance of selecting and going straight to the point, but you will also get a cv leaner and easier to read and understand.
The exception: the European cv
Although as we have said, except in some cases, a cv should not exceed two pages in length, there is always the exception, as in everything. In this case, the exception is represented by the European curriculum: for this special type of curriculum vitae, which definitely deserves a separate chapter, it is not easy to thin out and shorten.
The Europass CV is in fact it presents itself as a structurally long curriculum. However, we advise you to use this type of curriculum vitae only if it is expressly requested in the job offer, or if you are in the academic field.
In short, the European curriculum has a very difficult structure already set up to be changed and that must be followed and filled in more or less faithfully.
To conclude: except for the cv in Europass format, CVs could be one page long, in the case of inexperienced students looking for their first job, two for all the others, and three or maximum four in the case of the European format for the curriculum vitae or in the case of professionals with a lot of experience. The important thing is precisely to adapt to the situation and to orient one’s curriculum vitae accordingly, also in terms of length.
