How to shorten your CV

Long CV’s get less attention that short concise ones.

By shortening it you can increase readability and make it easier for your strongest points to be found. No matter what job you’re applying for, the length of your CV can have an impact on its success.

The problem is that cutting back a CV can be difficult for candidates who’ve had long and varied careers. It’s hard to know what to add, what’s important and how to fit it all into two pages.

On this page you will learn how to trim your CV without losing any of its power. Our step by step guide will show you how to keep your CV short with excluding the most valuable parts.

By: Iejaz Uddin – Updated: 1 June 2024

Page overview:

• How long should a CV be?
• A CV should be 2 pages
• How to shorten your CV
• 4 Steps to shortening your CV
• Tips on shortening your CV

How long should a CV be?

A very common question, to which there is a simple answer. For the best results as short as possible, ideally a CV should be no more than two pages.

A CV is the first impression a recruiter will get of you. They do not want to read a candidate’s autobiography or to be confronted with a wall of text. Hiring managers are very busy people who typically have to process 100’s of job applications on a weekly basis. Every job they advertise will attract a large number of candidates that have to be processed. For them, time is money, and lengthy CV’s can take up lots of time.

Keeping everything in it concise and straightforward will increase its chances of being read.

A CV should be 2 pages

A CVs length is a big factor in grabbing a recruiter’s attention.

Essentially, the more information you put in a CV, the more difficult it is for an employer to find the skills and experiences they’re looking for in a candidate. Longer CVs can also test a busy hiring manager’s attention span, something you do not want to do.

Most recruiters who have been surveyed in the past have said the ideal length is 2 pages. Although this depends on the extent of a job seekers career. Someone with 10 years’ work experience will have more to say about themselves than a graduate or school leaver.

For those who have just left education, a one-page CV is fine. But experienced professionals will need two pages or more to showcase their relevant career history, skills and accomplishments. For senior roles, academics, or exceptional candidates a three-page CV is acceptable.

So, whist there are no strict rules, or one size fits all formula, brevity is the name of the game. Always strive to incorporate the most relevant information in as few words as possible.

Related: How long should a CV be?

How to shorten your CV

The best way to do this is to say more with fewer words.

A golden rule of CV writing is to make your CV as short as possible. There are good reasons for this, with the main one being the work load of the average hiring manager. They are busy people with only a few seconds to scan each job application. The longer your CV is the less chance they’ll have of spotting your strengths.

The good news is that there are lots of things you can do to cut your CV down to size. Below are tips and guidance on how to make your CV a lean and mean interview winning machine.

4 Steps to shortening your CV

This best way to cut your CV down to size is to find out exactly what the recruiter wants and then only give them that. By writing a targeted CV that only includes what’s relevant to the job you are applying for you can leave things out that don’t need to be in your CV. Thereby saving yourself a considerable amount of space.

Here’s how to do this;

1. Read the job description

The job description is a goldmine of information that can be used word for word in your own CV. In it you will find details of the;

• Duties to be performed by the employee.
• Skill sets required from the applicant.
• Preferred and recommended qualifications.
• Experience needed.

All the above will give you a clear picture of what the employer wants in the ideal candidate.

2. Identify what the employer is looking for

Make a list of all the keywords and phrases that describe the abilities, skills, expertise and traits the recruiter wants. These are what you need to include in your CV.

This may not be easy all the time. Some adverts are generic, vague and unhelpful, but most are filled with juicy buzzwords.

3. Review your career

Find competencies that match the list you’ve just compiled. Compile a list of these, as they must be included in the CV you are about to write.

4. Start writing your CV

Tactically include the skills, experience and qualifications that you have just listed.

Keep your personal summary short

The top part of the CV is a great place to write a brief introductory paragraph that immediately grabs the reader’s attention. It’ also a good place to save space, which you can do by only including your strongest and most relevant points and ruthlessly excluding everything else.

Aim to make your objective statement as short as possible.

• Ideally it should be no more than 150 words.

What to focus on;

• Your relevant skills, duties, experience and qualifications that the hiring company is looking for in a candidate.
• How you can benefit the company.
• Your credentials.
• Career achievements.

What to exclude;

• An autobiography, no need to write your life story, just a couple of sentences will do.
• Future plans
• Career ambitions
• Hobbies and interests
• Your desire to work for them
• How you look forward to hearing from them.

Exclude old job roles

Another quick way to shorten any drawn-out CV is to only give very brief details of any positions you’ve had five, ten or even twenty years ago. This is fine because prospective employers are only really interested in what you’ve doing now or within the last few years.

For anything over say 5 years old, all you should show is your job title, employers name, location and employment dates and perhaps a single line explaining your responsibilities.

Example;

OFFICE MANAGER – Start Date – Present
Employers name – Location
Responsible for managing a team of ten staff and ensuring the office ran efficiently.

Casual and unrelated previous jobs (i.e. paper rounds)

Leave out any previous minor positions that are not relevant to the job you are applying for. Instead have a statement saying;

“Previous employment history available upon request”

Tips on shortening your CV

Avoid repetition in your CV

Another great way to save space is to avoid repeating your abilities in your CV. Despite being an obvious point, it’s one many job seekers still fall foul of. It’s easy to mention a specific skill in your work section and then to emphasis it further, mention it again in your skills field or Personal Profile.

Who is at greatest risk of repeating themselves?

People who have worked in the same field for a long time. Jobseekers who have done similar work for different companies through their career will often have done the same duties in in many of them.

Reasons to avoid repetition;

• It uses up unnecessary space.
• Repeating yourself can send the message that you have nothing new to say about yourself.
• Can show you as a lazy writer who is cutting and pasting.
• Makes you appear unprofessional and boring.
• Makes every job you’ve done sound the same.

How to avoid repetition:

• Use the ‘find’ tool in MS Word to search for the number of times you’ve mentioned a specific skill.
• Read your CV out aloud. It’s a good way to catch out repetition.
• If you find you have used a specific word repeatedly then use a thesaurus to check for alternatives.

Avoid keyword pollution

Be careful not to overdo it with the keywords. Instead aim to carefully sprinkle a limited amount these around the CV.

Avoid lists of single words

Do not just make a long list of keywords, instead insert them into well-crafted and supportive sentences. A long list of single words may get noticed but can take up too much space.

Merge different sections together

If you’re struggling to make more space, then consider the ultimate option which is to combine multiple sections into one. Each CV has up to four different sections for your personal summary, work experience, skills and education. Individually these take up a lot of space. Consider putting some of these into a one general section called ‘Additional information’.

Use bullet points

Use these instead of long-winded paragraphs, blocks of text or sentences. Bullet points also have other advantages such as;

• Making key information easy to digest.
• Quickly highlighting your strengths.
• Making a CV easier to read.

Font size

Reducing to a smaller size can save you further space. Anything from 9pt to 11pt is acceptable. Don’t make the font text to small. You want it readable without forcing the HR Manager to squint. Be consistent and keep the same size throughout your CV.

Quadrants

Use them to create space. Most CVs are written from left to right which usually results in a fair amount of space on the right-hand side of the CV being left blank. It’s therefore a good idea to use a quadrant system to divide the CV to make maximum usage of the different sections.

Academic Qualifications

Just summarise these to the bare essential. Simply give details of the institution when you attended and what grades you achieved. There is no need to give specific details of modules etc.

Example:

College name        Qualifications                Study Dates

Related: How to write your education on a CV

Multi-Purpose Lines

Use one line instead of two. Look for opportunities to combine information into one line, such as your address and contact information, or your listed skills. Another example is combining your job title, employer’s name, and employment duration in one line instead of two.

Example – employer’s details:

JOB TITLE – Employers Name – Start Date – Present

Example – contact details:

Your name, address, email, phone number
Dayjob.com – 120 Vyse Street, Birmingham B18 6NF, T: 0044 123 456 7890 E: info@dayjob.com

CV Layout

Keep your CV layout simple so that it’s easy for a hiring manager to scan and pick out important information about you. Do this by using a minimalistic design template that utilises every part of a Word document. Ideally one with no images, tables and little white space.

Contact info

Keep your contact information to an absolute minimum by just including your name, phone number, email and the name of the city or town you live in. There’s no need to list your full postal address, just the name of the City or Town will do.

Keep sentences brief

Get across what you want to say in a few words. Do this by focusing each sentence on a single idea. Avoid long monotonous and rambling sentences that can confuse the reader and show poor communication skills.

A good way to do this is to repeatedly re-read what you have written and see ways in which you could simplify it. Other ways to do this:

• Never use two words when one will do.
• Use your active voice.
• Find and get rid of redundant words.
• Focus on nouns and verbs.

Irrelevant content

Mercilessly get rid of content that is not directly relevant to the job you are applying for. Do this my putting every section under a microscope to identify anything that may be surplus to requirements.

Always ask yourself;

• Is this relevant to the job description?
• Does what I am writing match what the recruiter wants?

Examples of unnecessary information;

• Photos of yourself
• Your age
• Why you left your last company
• Your competence in everyday tools such as Microsoft Office.
• Work duties that are not relevant to the position you are applying for.
• Skills that are not related to the vacancy.
• Hobbies and interests.
• Marital status
• The contact details of referees and references.

Avoid cliches

Do not use common and overused expressions such as;

• ‘Works well with others and as part of a team.’
• ‘Always focused on the job at hand.’

Page Margins

Most MS Word pages are set at a standard one- or two-inch margins. Reducing these page margins to narrow instead of the default normal can free up even more space. This is easy to do and a great way to immediately gain extra room. However, try not to go smaller than 1 inch all around. Also, ensure that if you do a custom trim, then what you set is consistent all the way round. This way you page will look symmetrical, professional and well balanced.

Line gaps and letter spacing

Minimise both of these as much as you can. In MS Word, manually set the spacing between lines and sections to as little as possible (without making the document look crammed). This is a good way to fit more text on each page by closing the gaps. After making any changes, check to ensure the document is still readable.

Section headers

Remove unnecessary ones. There is no need for some sections such as your Career Objective or contact details to have their own headers. The reader will know they’re for. This another way to free up a few more extra lines.

Hobbies and interests

Do not include this. Unless there’s something there that’s very relevant to the role you are applying for or a major achievement that’s going to impress the recruiter i.e. you played Football for England in the past.

References

Do not give the names or addresses of referees, instead have a simple line saying;

‘References – Available upon request.’