Let me tell you about my cousin. Smart guy. Electrical engineering degree from a decent university. Three internships. Spoke two languages. Spent six weeks applying to jobs after graduation and got exactly zero interviews.
Zero.
He showed me his CV and I understood immediately. It was three pages long. The font was tiny. His contact details were stuffed inside a fancy header box that no ATS software on earth could read. He had listed every module from university. Every single one. Including "Introduction to Computing" from first year.
We sat down for two hours, rebuilt the whole thing from scratch, and he had three interview invitations within ten days. Same person. Same qualifications. Completely different result.
That is what a good CV does. It does not make you more qualified. It makes sure the qualifications you already have actually reach someone.
This guide walks through everything. Start to finish. Whether you are writing your first CV or rewriting one that has not been working, this is the playbook.
First Things First: What Even Is a CV?
CV stands for curriculum vitae. It is Latin for "course of life," which sounds dramatic for a document that is basically a professional highlight reel. In most of the world (UK, Europe, Middle East, Asia, Africa), a CV is the standard one to two page document you submit when applying for jobs.
In the US and Canada, they call the same thing a "resume." There is a longer version called a CV in North America too, but that is mostly for academics and researchers. If you are confused about the difference, we wrote a whole article about that.
For this guide, CV means the thing you send to get a job. One to two pages. Professional. Focused.
The Step Nobody Does (But Should)
Before you type a single word on your CV, you need to do something that most people skip entirely.
Read the job description. And I do not mean skim it. I mean really read it.
Open the job posting. Grab a highlighter (or just use Ctrl+F if you are fancy). Look for the skills, tools, qualifications, and phrases that appear more than once. Those are the keywords that the company considers important. Those are also the exact words that their ATS software is going to look for in your CV.
If the job says "project management" and your CV says "coordinating team initiatives," you might be talking about the same thing, but the computer does not know that. It is looking for an exact match. And if it does not find one, your CV goes into the digital bin before a human ever touches it.
Here is a quick trick: Copy the job description into a free word frequency tool online. See which nouns and skills show up the most. Now check whether those exact words appear in your CV. If they do not, add them. Obviously, only add things that are actually true about you. Lying on a CV is a terrible idea for reasons that should be obvious.
We have a full guide on tailoring your CV if you want to go deeper on this. But the short version is: your CV should be a mirror of the job description, not a generic document you blast to fifty companies.
Step 1: Pick the Right Format
There are three CV formats. Only one of them is right for most people.
Reverse Chronological (the one you should probably use)
You list your most recent job first and work backward through your career. Recruiters love this because they can see where you are now and how you got there. ATS software loves it because it is predictable and easy to parse. This is the default. Use it unless you have a very specific reason not to.
Functional (the one that sounds good but usually backfires)
This one groups your experience by skill category instead of by job. In theory, it sounds clever. In practice, most recruiters dislike it because it feels like you are trying to hide something. Career gap? Short tenure? The functional format screams "please do not look at my timeline."
Combination (the best of both worlds)
You lead with a skills summary, then follow with a standard chronological work history. This works well if you are mid career and want to highlight specific competencies while still showing a clear timeline. Think of it as the chronological format with a skills section on top.
Still not sure? Our complete format guide breaks this down in way more detail.
Step 2: Contact Details (Simpler Than You Think)
Put these at the very top. In the main body of the document. Not in a header or footer (some ATS systems cannot read those).
What to include:
- Full name (your actual name, not a nickname)
- Professional email ([email protected], not [email protected])
- Phone number (with country code if you are applying internationally)
- City and country (no need for your full street address, this is not a pizza delivery)
- LinkedIn profile (customized URL, not the random string of numbers)
- Portfolio or GitHub (if relevant to your field)
What to leave off:
- Date of birth (age discrimination is real)
- Marital status (irrelevant)
- Photo (in UK/US/Canada/Australia, skip it. In Germany/Austria, it is sometimes expected)
- National ID numbers (security risk on a document you are emailing around)
Step 3: Write a Professional Summary That Does Not Bore Everyone
This is the two to four sentence paragraph at the top of your CV, right below your contact details. Think of it as your elevator pitch if the elevator was very fast and the other person was checking their phone.
Here is the formula that works:
[Your title/role] with [X years] experience in [your specialty]. [Your biggest achievement or key strength]. [What you are looking for or what you bring to the table].
Let me show you what that looks like in practice.
❌ Weak Summary
Hardworking and motivated professional seeking a challenging position where I can utilize my skills and grow within a dynamic organization.
That could be literally anyone on the planet. It says nothing. It is the CV equivalent of elevator music.
✅ Strong Summary
Digital marketing manager with 6 years of experience in B2B SaaS. Grew organic traffic from 12K to 340K monthly sessions at a Series B startup. Looking to lead content strategy at a company where data actually drives decisions.
See the difference? Specific. Measurable. Human. The second one makes you want to keep reading. The first one makes you want to close the tab.
If you want more examples and formulas, check out our professional summary writing guide.
Step 4: Work Experience (Where You Prove You Can Actually Do Stuff)
This is the biggest section on most CVs and the one that matters most. Here is how to structure it:
For each role, include:
- Job title
- Company name
- Location (city, country)
- Dates (Month Year to Month Year, or Month Year to Present)
- 3 to 5 bullet points describing what you achieved
And here is where most people go wrong. They describe what they were responsible for instead of what they actually did.
❌ Responsibility Based (boring)
Responsible for managing the social media accounts and creating content for the marketing department.
✅ Achievement Based (actually impressive)
Built the company social media presence from scratch, growing Instagram from 0 to 28K followers in 14 months while reducing content production costs by 40% through in house creation.
The difference? Numbers. Context. Impact. Every bullet point should start with a strong action verb and ideally include at least one metric.
The Action Verb Starter Pack
Stop starting your bullet points with "Responsible for." Here are verbs that actually sound like you did something:
Led, Built, Launched, Increased, Reduced, Managed, Created, Implemented, Negotiated, Designed, Automated, Mentored, Delivered, Streamlined, Generated
Pick the one that is honest and accurate. "Led a team of 12" hits different than "Was part of a team."
We go much deeper on this in our work experience writing guide.
Step 5: Education (Keep It Brief Unless You Just Graduated)
If you have been working for five or more years, your education section can be pretty compact:
- Degree name (BSc Computer Science, MA English Literature, etc.)
- University name
- Graduation year
- Grade/honors (only if it was good, nobody needs to know about your 2:2)
If you are a recent graduate, this section gets more real estate. Include relevant coursework, dissertation title if it is impressive, academic awards, and any relevant extracurricular activities. For more detail, see our education section guide.
One thing that always surprises people: once you have two or three years of real work experience, nobody cares about your A levels. Or what grade you got GCSE maths. Let it go.
Step 6: Skills (The Section Everyone Gets Wrong)
The skills section is not a dumping ground for every buzzword you have ever heard. It is a targeted list of the specific hard and soft skills that match what the employer is looking for.
Hard Skills
These are the technical, teachable, measurable skills. Things like: Python, SQL, Adobe Photoshop, Google Analytics, Financial Modeling, HVAC Installation, Salesforce, AutoCAD. If you can prove you know how to use it and it is relevant to the role, include it.
Soft Skills
These are trickier. "Team player" and "good communicator" mean nothing on their own because everyone claims them. The trick is to demonstrate soft skills through your achievement bullets rather than just listing them. If your bullet says "Led a cross functional team of 8 to deliver a product launch two weeks ahead of schedule," you do not also need to write "Leadership" in your skills section. They can see it.
That said, some roles specifically scan for certain soft skill keywords. If the job description mentions "stakeholder management" four times, put it in your skills section.
Our best skills to put on a CV guide has a full breakdown by industry if you need inspiration.
Step 7: The Extra Sections That Can Set You Apart
These are optional but can genuinely make a difference when two candidates are equally qualified on paper.
Certifications
AWS Solutions Architect. Google Analytics Certified. PMP. PRINCE2. CFA. If you have a certification that is relevant to the role, include it. These are concrete proof that you actually learned something specific.
Languages
List each language with your honest proficiency level. Native, Fluent, Conversational, Basic. Do not list "Basic Spanish" unless you can actually survive a conversation. If you get to the interview and they switch to Spanish and you freeze up, that is not a great look.
Volunteer Work
Especially valuable if you are early in your career or changing industries. Volunteer work shows initiative, values, and transferable skills. Treat it like a work experience entry with achievement based bullets.
Projects
Personal projects, open source contributions, freelance work. If you built something real that demonstrates your abilities, include it. Particularly useful for developers, designers, and anyone in creative fields.
What NOT to Include
"References available upon request." Everyone knows. You do not need to waste a line on this. Also skip: hobbies like "socializing with friends" (that is called having a personality, not a skill), your full home address, or a personal statement about how passionate you are about synergy.
Step 8: Make It ATS Proof (This Is Where Most People Fail)
Here is a stat that makes people uncomfortable: roughly 75% of CVs get filtered out by software before a human ever reads them. That is three out of four applications going straight to a digital bin.
ATS stands for Applicant Tracking System. It is the software that sits between you and the recruiter. When you submit an application, the ATS reads your CV, extracts information, and scores you against the job requirements. Low score? You are out. The recruiter never even knows you applied.
Here is your ATS survival checklist:
- Single column layout. Two columns look nice but many ATS systems read across both columns and mix everything together
- Standard section headers. Work Experience, Education, Skills, Certifications. Not "My Career Journey" or "Where I Shined"
- No tables, text boxes, or images. ATS cannot read any of these
- Simple fonts. Arial, Calibri, Inter, Helvetica. Nothing decorative
- Keywords from the job description. Mirror their exact phrasing, not synonyms
- Save as PDF with selectable text (not a scanned image)
- Contact details in the main body, not in headers or footers
Want to know if your CV will survive ATS? Run it through our free ATS checker. Takes two minutes and tells you exactly what to fix.
For the full deep dive, we have both an ATS friendly CV guide and an article about why your CV keeps getting rejected by software.
Step 9: The 10 Minute Final Edit
Before you send your CV anywhere, run through this quick checklist. It takes ten minutes and can save you months of silence.
The Proofread
Read your CV out loud. Seriously. Out loud. Your brain will catch mistakes your eyes skip. If something sounds weird when you say it, it reads weird too. Also, "manger" is not the same as "manager" and spell check will not catch it because both are real words.
The Plain Text Test
Copy your entire CV. Paste it into Notepad or any plain text editor. All formatting disappears. What you see now is roughly what an ATS sees. Does it still make sense? Is the information in a logical order? If the plain text version is scrambled nonsense, that is the version the software is scoring.
The 6 Second Scan
Studies say recruiters spend about 6 to 7 seconds on an initial CV scan. Give your CV to a friend. Let them look at it for exactly six seconds, then take it away. Ask what they remember. If they cannot tell you your job title, company, and one key achievement, your formatting needs work. The important stuff should jump off the page.
The File Name
Name your file "FirstName_LastName_CV.pdf." Not "CV_final_FINAL_v3_REALFINAL.pdf." Not "document1.pdf." Not "my cv.docx." Professional file name. It takes three seconds and some recruiters actually judge this.
For common mistakes to avoid, check our 10 CV mistakes guide.
Real Before and After: What a Rewrite Looks Like
Let me show you what happens when you apply everything from this guide. Here is a real (anonymized) summary section rewrite.
❌ The Before
Name: John Smith Email: [email protected] Objective: To obtain a challenging position in a reputable organization where I can utilize my skills and experience to contribute to the growth of the company while also developing my own professional career. Experience: - Worked at ABC Corp doing various marketing tasks - Helped with social media and emails - Was part of the team that did the website redesign - Attended meetings and took notes
✅ The After
John Smith [email protected] | +44 7700 123456 | London, UK linkedin.com/in/johnsmith Digital marketer with 4 years of experience in content strategy and paid acquisition for B2B SaaS companies. Grew email subscriber base from 2,100 to 18,400 and managed a £120K annual ad budget with consistent 4.2x ROAS. Marketing Executive | ABC Corp | London, UK Sep 2022 to Present - Managed all social channels, growing combined following from 3,200 to 41,000 in 18 months through organic content strategy - Led email marketing program, achieving 34% open rate and 12% click through rate (industry average: 21% / 2.5%) - Collaborated with dev team on full website redesign, reducing bounce rate by 28% and increasing lead form submissions by 47% - Built monthly analytics reporting dashboard used by C suite for quarterly planning
Same person. Same experience. Completely different impression. The first version makes you think "meh." The second makes you think "we should talk to this person."
That is the power of writing your CV properly. You are not inventing a better career. You are presenting the career you already have in a way that actually registers.
Quick Cheat Sheet: The Whole Process in 60 Seconds
Your CV Writing Checklist
- Read the job description and pull out keywords before writing anything
- Pick reverse chronological format (unless you have a good reason not to)
- Contact details at the top, in the main body, not in a header
- Professional summary: 2 to 4 sentences, specific, with at least one number
- Work experience: action verb + what you did + measurable result
- Education: brief for experienced professionals, detailed for recent grads
- Skills: targeted to the role, not a random word cloud
- Simple formatting: one column, standard fonts, no graphics or tables
- Proofread out loud, run the plain text test, check the 6 second scan
- Save as PDF, name it properly, and tailor it for each application
Frequently Asked Questions
How long should a CV be?
One page for most people with fewer than 10 years of experience. Two pages maximum for senior professionals. The goal is not to fill space. It is to include everything that is relevant and nothing that is not. If you are padding your CV to reach a second page, cut it back to one. Quality over quantity, always.
What is the best CV format?
Reverse chronological. Most recent job first, then work backward. It is what recruiters expect, what ATS software parses best, and what clearly shows your career progression. Use it unless you have a specific strategic reason to try something different.
Should I include a photo on my CV?
In the UK, US, Canada, and Australia: no. It can trigger unconscious bias and some companies have policies against it. In Germany, Austria, Switzerland, and parts of Asia, a professional headshot is sometimes expected. Check the norms for where you are applying and follow them.
What if I have no work experience?
You still have a CV worth writing. Focus on education, volunteer work, personal projects, internships, and any transferable skills from part time jobs or university activities. Frame everything in terms of impact and results. We have an entire guide for writing a CV with no experience that walks through this in detail.
How do I make my CV ATS friendly?
Single column layout, standard fonts, standard section names, no tables or images, and keywords from the job description. Save as PDF. Test it with our free ATS checker before you submit. Most ATS problems are formatting issues, not qualification issues.
What is the difference between a CV and a resume?
Outside North America, they are the same thing. In the US and Canada, a "resume" is the short job application document and a "CV" is a longer academic document. If you are reading this from the UK, Europe, the Middle East, or anywhere else, your CV and their resume are identical.
How often should I update my CV?
Every time something meaningful changes. New job, new achievement, new certification. Even if you are not looking for work, review it every three to six months. Opportunities show up without warning and you do not want to be scrambling to remember what you did two years ago.
Should I tailor my CV for every application?
Yes. At minimum, adjust your summary and skills to match the job description. Ideally, reorder your bullet points so the most relevant achievements are first. Sending the exact same CV to 50 jobs is one of the biggest reasons people hear nothing back. It takes 15 minutes per application and it genuinely works.
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