In this Project Management Recruitment Ideas, the question How Long Should a Project Manager CV be?* might seem a boringly easy question and one that should require no thought at all. However it is a populate search term that people are using to find the Camel so it’s my duty to provide a post that covers this off once and for all.
How Long Should a Project Manager CV be?
Right, I’m not going to take any prisoners, the length of a CV (and this is not just about project managers) should be 2 sides of A4, 3 max. We’ll let you do three sides if you really must but if you’re going to do three sides, make sure it is and not 2 sides with about 3 lines on the 3rd page. There you go, that’s it
But hold on a minute, Mr PM who has been working for 25 years plus says he can’t possibly put his entire career down on 2 sides (3 max) and must be allowed to use 7 sides. OK if that’s how you feel go ahead, but the reader has every right not to bother reading it. Seems like a fair deal to me.
How can a project professional with years experience condense his or her experience into 2 sides (3 max – see how I’m emphasising that?) It’s easy if you bear these two points in mind (a) employers are only really interested in what you’ve done in the last 10 years (b) track records are important but the miniscule of detail isn’t. A professional PM CV will have good details spanning the last 10 years and then after that it will be one or two lines to show the track record of you being a PM for a number of years before that. Makes sense doesn’t it? Employers are not interested in the details of a project you delivered 15 years ago because (a) the project you delivered is probably not even relevant anymore i.e., the software you delivered doesn’t even exist or the regulation you implemented is archaic and defunct (b) it holds no relevance or bearing on the job you’re going for today.
One final word if you’re still thinking about going for a 7 page CV (remember 2, max 3), think for a second about the person reading it and also remember the purpose of a CV. Someone reading your CV is not doing it in isolation; they also have a huge number of other people’s CV to wade through too. When I see a 7 page CV, I sigh first of all, then read where they’re working now, if it doesn’t look like a good fit, it goes in the reject pile. If you can’t be clear, concise, to the point and free of waffle; you can’t realistically expect someone else to wade through the diatribe trying to find out if there is something in it relevant to the post you’re applying for. Secondly, CVs are a promotional tool, that’s their true purpose. If you think about a promotional sales tool, like a leaflet or brochure you know that you will get the headline information on the product or service; you never get the instruction manual at that first point of contact. Remember this in relation to your CV; what headlines or selling points do you want to give away that will be enough to hook someone so they will want to contact you to find out more (i.e., the interview).
*And it’s 2 sides, 3 max.
