what's your maximum page count for CV for mid-career self employed types

[hatwoman]

just updated mine and it's hard to keep the page count down. none of what's on it is irrelevant. honest. what's the most you would tolerate? in a quasi-academic / need to have published stuff / need technical expertise type environment?

Totally agree about the jobs more than 10 years ago - and if that's where you got a few vital skills add them to your skills list on the first page (the one that says things like "10 years of experience with x")

I guess I AM a poncy designer and the people who read my CV would expect it to be properly typeset. OK, you can ignore my advice!

All goes to show how industry specific these things are. I would expect the CV of a graphic designer to be beautiful

it is, it is...

Surely 3 pages of nicely spaced, bulleted pointed text is better than 2 pages of squashed text?

I struggle to get mine to fit 2 pages - just because of the number of employers - need a new heading each one. iykwim.

Like the idea of explaining more in the covering letter though.

A covering letter can be great because it can "tell the story" of your career in a way which your cv does not. e.g. "During this time I moved into a supervisory role and I studied for a management qualification to increase my knowledge."

It should still be relatively short though and should add to your cv not repeat it.

Also, if there are numerous applications, they may do the sift on cvs, and will not read your covering letter unless your cv has already demonstrated that you have the skills / experience they are looking for.

I think 2 pages is generally best even for mid career - mine is 2 pages. My first couple of one to two year just-graduated jobs have been left off - I now only have 14 years of employers mentioned - and that's only cos I worked for one place for 12 years! Going back 10 years worth of employers shoudl be enough. If previous roles were relevant then a blanket 'March 1990 to January 1998' Variious junior management / trainee roles for blue chip complanies' type of thing.

For an academic you couid get away with 3 pages as long as publications was the only thing on the last page.