The exception
Title 38 jobs can take a longer resume. Cutting yours anyway costs you.
The two-page limit covers competitive and excepted service positions under Title 5. Clinical roles at the VA are appointed under Title 38, a different authority — and those announcements can ask for a longer resume or a full CV.
Why this is the expensive mistake
Going over the limit when it applies is an inconvenience: USAJOBS refuses the upload, you find out immediately, you fix it.
Cutting when it doesn't apply is the opposite. A clinical CV carries the training history, licensure and certifications a panel is specifically looking for. Compress six pages of that into two because the internet told you the limit was universal, and nothing warns you. The upload succeeds. The application is simply weaker than the one you were asked for, and you never learn why it went nowhere.
How to tell which rule you are under
Not from a blog, and not from the job title alone. The announcement in front of you is the authority, and it usually says so plainly if you know what to look for.
- It asks for a CV, or a curriculum vitae
- A clear signal. Nothing under the two-page limit asks for a CV, because a CV that fits two pages is not a CV.
- It names a page count of its own
- Whatever it says is the number that governs your application. An announcement asking for five pages is not inviting you to send two.
- It lists a clinical occupation and a VA facility
- Physician, nurse, dentist, podiatrist, optometrist, chiropractor, psychologist and the rest of the clinical series at the VA are where Title 38 appointments live.
- It asks for licensure, board certification, or a full training history
- Residencies, fellowships, licence numbers and certifications are exactly the material that does not compress, and an announcement asking for them is not expecting two pages.
- It says nothing at all about length
- Then read it as covered by the two-page limit. Silence is not an exemption.
A caution worth stating plainly
The VA also runs so-called hybrid positions, appointed under both authorities, and the boundary is genuinely not obvious from the outside. We are not going to pretend otherwise, and neither should anyone selling you a template.
So the rule we apply is the conservative one: the announcement governs. Where it asks for a CV or names its own length, that is what you send. Where it is silent, treat the two-page limit as applying. If it is genuinely ambiguous, the HR contact named on the announcement can settle it in one email, and asking costs you nothing.
What Referred does with this
Paste the announcement alongside your resume and the check reads it: who may apply, the closing date, the documents required, the stated requirements — and whether it exempts you from the page limit. If it does, the check stops telling you to cut and starts checking the things that actually apply to you.
It runs on your device, so neither the resume nor the announcement reaches us. Free, no account, as many as you like.
Check my resume against my announcementGeneral information about how the announcements are written, not legal or career advice about your specific application. Referred is an independent product and is not affiliated with, endorsed by, or connected to OPM, the Department of Veterans Affairs, USAJOBS or any federal agency. The two-page limit, explained