Curriculum Vitae in application for PhD I have contacted a professor (in Europe) informally and asked for a PhD position. She answered in positive manner and asked for a CV.

What should I include?
Do people in academia care about the usual 2-page restriction?
Generally I would say No, people do not put restrictions on CVs unless specifically asking for it. 

In a case such as the one you decribe you should send a complete CV that lists everything that can be meriting for the position you will apply for. The following would be of interest:


A brief description of your drive and interest to pursue a PhD 
Course work includig grades
Scientific/equivalent experience is a given of course. 
Any publications and scientific/equivalent reports you have written. If you have some significant report/thesis that you have written during your education, you can list that as well. I would say that any report longer than, say, 10 pages of text might be useful to list. In such cases you should perhaps add inwhat context (Course) the text was written. In the end what a person looking for a PhD position will be looking for is someone who can successfully complete work and write it up in written form.
Scientific/equivalent presentations in a public context, open department seminar, scientific meeting etc.
Any academic work experience such as working inlabs etc.
General work experience. This can be listed to highlght work experience of any kind. This shows how active you are.
Anything else that you think will be meriting.


If you have written a paper (thesis) of some sort, provide a copy. Only one, the most important though. If you do not have one that is fine, no one would expect you to have written much.

Despite the length of the list try to make it brief and clear so that it can be assessed with ease. ry to find a good layout that make sthe structure easy to see.