How long should a CV be? Pages, sections and how to cut it down

No longer than two A4 pages. That's the advice Prospects quotes from the careers service at the University of Chester, adding that CVs for part-time student jobs may be shorter and academic CVs slightly longer. Recruitment firms say the same: Michael Page calls two pages the ideal length unless you're applying for an entry-level job.

Two pages is a ceiling, not a target. A one-page CV that says everything relevant is a good CV. What matters is that every line helps the employer decide whether to interview you for this job.

Prospects notes that a three-page CV may be needed for high-level roles or people who've worked in many jobs over the last five to ten years. Michael Page puts the absolute ceiling at four pages for long careers, and treats academic CVs as the only common exception. For a research post, see our academic CV example.

Go for one page if:

• you're at school, at college or at university, or you've just graduated without a placement year;
• you have one or two jobs to show, or you're applying for a part-time, seasonal or entry-level role;
• the employer or the advert asks for a one-page CV.

Go for two pages if:

• you have several relevant jobs, each with results worth reading;
• the role asks for qualifications, licences or technical skills you need room to list;
• squeezing onto one page would mean text under 10 pt or deleting your best evidence.

• Contact details: two or three lines. Name, phone, email, town, LinkedIn. No date of birth, age, marital status or nationality: the National Careers Service says to leave them out.
• Personal statement: 50 to 150 words, around 100 is ideal. See how to write a CV personal statement.
• Work history: the biggest part, often two thirds of the CV. The National Careers Service suggests 2 to 3 lines per job, using the STAR method.
• Education: a few lines; more if you're a student or graduate, less as your experience grows.
• Skills: five to eight key skills, in a few words each. See skills for CV.
• Interests: one or two lines, and only if they add something. See hobbies and interests for CV.
• References: usually none. See references on CV.

Detail the last ten years. Prospects advises summarising old detail from ten years ago, and Michael Page suggests listing earlier positions by employer, job title and dates only. A role from 2009 rarely needs four bullet points in 2026: one line keeps the timeline complete without eating space.

Cut content first, layout last. In this order:

1. Remove what this job doesn't need: duties that don't match the advert, a hobby list with no point, a references section.
2. Shorten old roles to one line each, beyond ten years.
3. Merge bullets that say the same thing, and delete bullets with no result.
4. Keep the personal statement to about 100 words.
5. Drop your secondary school detail once you have a degree or several years of work.
6. Then adjust the layout: slightly smaller margins or line spacing, without going below 10 pt for the text.

Half a page rarely gives an employer enough to go on. If you're starting out, the National Careers Service suggests focusing on skills learned through projects, work experience or volunteering, and adding interests that show a skill. Add:

• school, college or university projects with what you produced;
• volunteering, a Saturday job, babysitting, helping in a family business;
• Duke of Edinburgh, sports teams, clubs you helped run, with a result;
• IT skills, a language, a driving licence, a first aid or food hygiene certificate.

Our student CV examples and the CV with no experience example show full one-page CVs built this way.

In the Kandiq CV builder, the preview shows how many A4 pages your CV takes as you write. The summary step is complete between 70 and 120 words, which keeps your personal statement in range. In the last step, “Auto-fit” finds the largest text size that fits your CV on one or two pages, tightening line spacing and margins as it goes. It doesn't use AI credits. If it can only fit by going below 10 pt, cut content instead: the “Dense” template already fits about ten years of experience on one page without dropping under 10 points.

The AI CV checker then measures the estimated length (one to two pages, two being the UK norm), warns when the last page is almost empty, checks that the text size and margins stay readable, and flags bullets that are too long to skim.