I ran a CV surgery online. These 3 things IT job-seekers said they wanted to know most

Chinese whispers, urban myths, and when tech careerists can ‘let it all hang out’ — revealed. Plus, why the 80:20 rule massively matters for your CV and IT career prospects.

The most interactive part of my webinars on how to land a top technology job in 2026 effectively hands the microphone to participants. 

It lets them - technology job-seekers - ask me - a CV and LinkedIn expert with IT work-winning strategies - what they really want to know. 

So if I spent the web event explaining how to land a dream technology job using personal branding, but all you hoped to hear was how to write a standout tech résumé as a new computer science graduate, you can speak up and ask directly.

What two items top the agenda for my IT job-hunting webinar?

Before I delve deeper, and reveal the three big things that IT job-seekers really wanted to know, a stronger CV and personal branding to secure a tech role will come together very soon.

In fact, both strategies are the top two items already on the agenda for “How To Develop a Job-Hunting Strategy to Accelerate Career Success.”

That’s a webinar I’m hosting, and it’s free for Free-Work users, writes CV & Interview Advisors (CVIA) founder Matt Craven, a career coach with 19 years’ IT sector experience, and a former senior recruiter for Hays and UBS. 

The webinar is on Thursday, April 23rd, at midday. 

You can register here.

But I digress!

What three things did CV surgery attendees ask me about their IT careers?

In no particular order, here are the three questions that three separate attendees came forward to ask me at past CVIA-Free-Workwebinars and CV surgeries.

N.B. You’ll get the same opportunity to pose your very own IT career query to me at the end of “How to Develop a Job-Hunting Strategy…” on April 23rd. 

How many pages should a CV be with 10+ years of tech career experience?

The question of appropriate CV length when you’ve got a lot of experience is probably one of the most frequently asked questions that my team and I face.

And be aware, the answer is often subject to Chinese whispers and urban myths! 

Many people will tell you to stick to two pages for your CV, but quite where the ‘2-page rule’ came from— no one really knows. 

Two pages for a CV is not a bad yardstick for mid-career technologists and below. 

But my advice is that your CV should be as long as it needs to be without becoming War and Peace — the intimidatingly long novel of over 1,000 pages.

What about using a small font to reduce CV length?

Understandably, an entry-level IT job candidate will have a shorter CV than a C-suite executive. 

Oh, and there comes a point where a smaller font and narrower margins are just a fool's errand! 

How long can a CV be if you have a lot of experience?

I’m sympathetic to IT professionals with extensive experience who are unsure of the ideal CV length. We recommend that anything up to three pages for a qualified or senior technologist is absolutely fine.

If you work in the interim/contract market (as many Free-Work users do), even a four-page CV is not going to raise too many eyebrows. 

What CV length is best for IT jobs in Europe, the Middle East, and America?

If you are a technology job-seeker based in Europe, the Middle East, or the USA, keep in mind that two pages for a CV might be more expected than in the UK. 

This preference for a two-page CV, in these regions, is even more likely among more traditional employers.

Nevertheless, we still see plenty of three-page technology CVs in 2026, and we know that recruiters and employer-side hiring managers in the UK find these three-page résumés perfectly acceptable. 

For a tech job application in South Africa, how long might CVs be?

On the other hand, be potentially ready to ‘let it all hang out’ if applying for a technology job in Cape Town or Johannesburg. 

In fact, employers in South Africa are used to receiving CVs that might be five or six pages in length!  

So, let’s accept that there are regional nuances with CV length.

Therefore, IT job-hopefuls might need to add or subtract pages depending on where the prospective client or employer is located.

How important is CV length as an experienced tech worker?

But if you do have an extensive IT career, you should be reassured by the fact that the length of your CV is not the be-all and end-all. 

Whether you’ve got three months’ experience or 30 years’ experience, the trick is to make sure that page one of your CV contains all the juicy details — details that lead the reader 80% of the way towards shortlisting you.

What’s the 80:20 rule with a CV?

What a CV’s reader sees on the subsequent pages — the remaining 20% — should simply confirm their thinking. 

The 80:20 rule is something all tech careerists need to check that their CV is in obeyance too in 2026.

Remember, it would be somewhat odd if an IT job applicant got rejected because their CV spilled onto a third page, when pages one and two largely met the requirements! 

How to write a CV as an employee who’s now branching out into freelance IT contracting? 

The Free-Work webinar participant who asked the above question posed a follow-up question.

“And how would I word the CV since my freelance technology ‘business’ has never had any ‘experiences’? It's only me who has a career history.

Writing a CV for the contract technology or interim IT jobs market has some nuances that come into play, based on Experience and Status. 

a) Experience 

If you are new to IT contracting, your CV is likely to look very similar to a permanent job seeker's CV, as you’ll be relying on your employed experience to make your ‘business case.’

In this scenario, it would be wise to include any completed project work on your new IT contractor CV. And past projects (when you were employed) should be presented as “case studies” to showcase them to a potential client. 

Should an experienced IT contractor use a chronological CV?

If you are a seasoned contractor with dozens of short-term IT assignments, or if client work has overlapped, it might be that a chronological CV falls short as a suitable format. 

Instead, such experienced IT contractors can consider replacing it with a more portfolio-based document.

That said, certain caveats apply here because not all recruiters and industry sectors are at one with anything other than a chronological CV, particularly generalist recruiters.

b) Status

If you are working as a contractor or interim, but you are on the client’s payroll (what we would call ‘Inside IR35’ in the UK), then a chronological CV should always be used. 

However, if you are working as a commercial supplier (‘Outside IR35’), that more portfolio-based document can be very effective — and it’s certainly more in keeping with operating as a business rather than a quasi-job seeker. 

Should IT freelancers tweak CV wording to reflect their status?

Where you are operating as a bona fide independent professional, and regardless of whether you use a chronological or portfolio-based CV, I would consider tweaking the wording to include terminology that reflects your freelance status.

For example, consider renaming the key CV section “Employment History” to “Experience,” and then make smaller tweaks, like replacing “Hired to…” with “Engaged to…” 

Elsewhere on your contractor CV, I also recommend including your company’s name and your contract/interim status, so organisations understand that you are an independent professional/consultant, and not a 9-to-5 job-seeker. 

Should I write my CV’s Profile/Summary in the third person? 

A CV that is written in the third person, in the Profile/Summary section, might state: “Jan is an experienced Software Engineer.” 

Whether writing in the third person on your CV is appropriate is an eternally debated subject!

Our usual answer to “Is it better to write a CV in the first or third person?” might surprise you. 

The answer we tend to give is “Technically, neither is better!”

On a CV, you should not refer to yourself as Jan, nor should you use pronouns (“I” and “my”). 

What is the correct style of writing on a CV?

The correct style of writing on a CV for roles in IT and other industries is referred to as implied first person.

Taking the example used in the question, you would say “An experienced Software Engineer…”

Why is ‘implied first-person’ best throughout a CV, even though it’s tricky to pull off?

It’s not the easiest way to write, and many tech job-seekers feel more comfortable using “I” and “my” throughout their CV.

However, first-person implied does feel like a slightly more sophisticated way to communicate.

And in 2026, among CV writing professionals and the UK technology recruitment industry as a whole,implied first person is typically seen as the correct writing style for your CV.

I will be back on Free-Work on the week of my webinar (w/c April 20th), to offer a little hack when writing a CV’s Profile. And related, I’ll address the thorny issue of whether, due to improvements in AI in 2026, it’s now okay to use ChatGPT to write your CV— or not.

Want to get a feel for how your CV measures up to the competition? Matt’s team at the CVIA offers 1-2-1 and confidential CV reviews — find out more here: https://cvandinterviewadvisors.co.uk/partners/free-work