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How Long Should Your CV Be? (Kenya, Tanzania & Uganda)

4 August 2026 · 4 min read

"How long should my CV be?" is one of the most common questions job seekers in East Africa ask — and getting it wrong quietly costs interviews. Here's the straight answer.

The simple rule

  • 0–3 years of experience (including graduates): one page.
  • 3–10 years: two pages.
  • 10+ years or senior/technical roles: two pages, occasionally three if truly needed.

    • If you're sending a 5-page CV in Nairobi, Dar es Salaam or Kampala, it's almost certainly too long. Recruiters skim — a tight CV respects their time and reads as confident.

    How to cut a long CV down

  • Remove old roles: jobs from 10+ years ago can be a single line, or dropped entirely.
  • Cut personal details: photo, marital status, religion, ID and date of birth all go.
  • Trim each role to 3–5 bullets — your best, most relevant achievements only.
  • Delete the long objective and replace it with a 2–3 line summary.
  • Tailor to the job: remove anything not relevant to the specific role.

    • Length isn't the real goal — relevance is

    A great two-page CV beats a cramped one page, and a focused one page beats a padded two. Ask of every line: does this help me get this specific job? If not, cut it.

    Let the template handle it

    TemplateHub's templates are spaced to fit the right amount of content per page, so your CV looks full but never cramped. Build yours free and see your length and ATS score in real time.

    Put it into practice

    Build an ATS-ready CV in minutes — free.

    Check my CV's ATS score