The length of a contractor's CV?

[Ben_Butterfield]

I have seen CVs up to 20 odd pages long, which aren't much use IMO. I would say anywhere between 2 and 4 pages is fine. Quite a few of the more experienced contractors I know have a few variations of their CV, which often saves messing around with a CV to put the best foot forward with a tricky / picky client.

[SandyDown]

Mine is two pages, making sure that it includes a general description and list of skills at the top, with careful formatting and bullet points to highlight the "interesting" bit. If the CV grows too big to include everything in two pages, I would suggest to have an "appendix" with details of previous jobs/gigs, or even a note saying "more details available on request".

My loosely related question now is:

Do you mention the actual names of the places you have been working or do you just write something like "Global Telecommunication Company"?

I mention the name definitely, IMO it reassures the client that you have worked in a similar environment - you may even be selected on the basis of having worked somewhere. E.g.; my brother was selected for his role because 3 years ago he was working for a specific company within a specific department, it happened that the interviewer worked in that company few years ago, and he knew about that team, my brother thought he was sure that the interview was just formal as the interviewer already decided to gave him the job prior to starting.

Mind you I know some senior people who recruit, and if they know people in the company you mention in your CV they’d quite happily pick the phone up and enquire about you from their contact (without your permission) I saw this myself as one partner (within the big 4) was reviewing the CV, he noticed a name of a company that he had contact in so he just picked the phone and asked him, have you worked with so and so?? What was he like??
So mentioning the names can be good or bad, depending on the person they contact.