How Long Should a CV Be? UK Length & Format Guide 2026

"How long should my CV be?" is one of the most searched UK job-hunting questions — and unlike the Common App's hard 650-word wall, there's no system enforcing a CV length limit. It's entirely convention. Here's what UK recruiters actually expect, and how to hit it.

The UK Standard: Two Pages

For the complete interactive reference with all fields for every platform, visit our all-platforms character limit cheat sheet — with 16 platforms in one page and links to a dedicated tool for each.

Why Two Pages, Not One

UK CV convention allows more room than the strict one-page rule common in US resume advice — two A4 pages is the standard expectation for most candidates with a few years of experience. This isn't an invitation to pad content: a two-page CV with genuine substance consistently outperforms a cramped one-page CV that omits relevant detail, or a rambling three-page CV that loses a recruiter's attention.

Section-by-Section Length Guidance

What UK CVs Conventionally Leave Out

Unlike CVs common in many European countries, a UK CV conventionally omits a photograph, date of birth, marital status, and nationality. Including these isn't a technical error, but it deviates from UK norms and can occasionally raise unintended bias concerns for the recruiter reviewing it — most UK CV guidance recommends leaving them off.

Why Recruiters Actually Care About Length

UK recruiters and hiring managers frequently review dozens of CVs per role, often spending well under a minute on an initial pass. A CV significantly longer than two pages risks the most relevant information — recent, specific achievements — getting buried past where attention typically drops off. A CV significantly shorter than one page for an experienced candidate can read as underdeveloped, even though brevity is otherwise valued.

Practical Steps to Hit the Right Length

• Write your full career history first without worrying about length, then cut down — it's easier to trim than to pad convincingly
• Older or less relevant roles can be condensed to a single line rather than a full bullet-point breakdown
• Quantify achievements briefly ("Increased regional sales by 18%") rather than describing responsibilities at length
• Use consistent formatting and font sizing — inconsistent formatting often signals padding even when the actual word count is reasonable

See our CV & LinkedIn character limits guide for field-by-field character limits, and our resume & LinkedIn character limits guide for the US-terminology equivalent. If you're also applying to university alongside job hunting, see our Common App essay word limit guide.