How Long Should a CV Be?

The safest default for most candidates is two pages. Long enough to show real substance, short enough that a recruiter will actually read the whole thing.

If you're early career — under three years of experience — one page is usually enough, and padding it to two with weak content hurts more than it helps. Recruiters can tell the difference between substance and filler.

If you're senior, with ten-plus years or multiple significant roles, two to three pages is reasonable, but every section still needs to earn its place. The instinct to list every project from every job going back two decades usually makes a CV harder to read, not more impressive — prioritize relevance to the specific role over completeness.

The one length rule that's actually universal: never let formatting decide the page count. If your CV spills onto a near-empty third page because of one long bullet point, tighten the wording rather than accept the extra page.