In a highly competitive job market in which hiring managers get dozens, or even hundreds, of resumes for one vacancy, your CV has to stand out from the crowd. It’s not merely a resume setting out your working history and education—it’s your personal sales brochure, your sales pitch to potential employers, and your golden ticket to a life-enhancing experience. A great CV is a story well told: it describes where you’ve come from, celebrates what you’ve done, and sets out where you’re able to go next. It’s also your initial impression—and as the old saying goes, you never get a second chance to make a good one.
Most individuals approach CV writing as something to be done in haste, using out-of-date styles or copied text. Yet a strong CV demand thought and planning. But a good CV needs thinking and planning. It needs to be tailored for every position you go for, highlighting the strengths, skills, and experiences that best fit the job. This JobsBuster blog provides an overall view, and in subsequent posts, we will cover each section with even greater pinpointing.
The Purpose of a CV: Your Personal Marketing Document
Consider your CV to be your own advertisement. It sells your strengths, accomplishments, and potential to employers. When presented well, it demonstrates your capability to produce results, be resilient to change, and develop in a company.
It’s also significant to remember that your CV tends to be the initial moment of human or automated contact. A superb CV makes you not only seen but also gets you to the next level in the recruitment process. It’s not merely about securing any job—it’s about securing the correct job.
Contact Details: Small Section, Big Impact
While it might seem like the most basic part of your CV, your contact information is essential. Even one small error here—a mistyped phone number or outdated email address—can cost you an interview. Your name should be prominent at the top, followed by a phone number and a professional email address. If you’re still using a casual or outdated email, now is the time to create a polished one using your real name. Including a LinkedIn profile or a personal website/portfolio is highly recommended, particularly for roles in media, design, tech, or consultancy, where your digital presence adds value. However, always ensure that these links are up to date and reflect the same level of professionalism as your CV.
Personal Summary: Capturing the Essence of Who You Are
The personal summary, or the personal statement or professional profile, is at the very beginning of your CV and is similar to a brief elevator pitch. It must be no more than a couple of sentences, but those sentences have importance. This is where you get to tell them who you are, what you can bring to the table, and where you’re headed in your career—all with a few powerful sentences. Consider it like an instant way to respond to the question, “Why should we hire you?”
For example, rather than saying, “Hard-working and enthusiastic marketing job-seeking graduate,” try, “Results-driven, hands-on experience in social media campaign development, copywriting, and brand study marketing graduate searching to apply innovative ideas to an energetic marketing group.” This does more to elaborate, has more of a certain tone, and is geared specifically to an aspect of the work. Always tailor this section to the job you’re applying for. Your personal summary must differ from one application to another because it has to address precisely what that employer seeks.
Skills: The Bridge Between You and the Job
Your skills section should be a big-picture, considered, high-level summary of the types of things you do. Think of it as the bridge between the position you’re applying for and your experience. Advertise the particular skills employers will require. On job postings, a lot of times there will be certain skills or experiences that they expect. Consider breaking your skills out into categories like “Technical Skills” & “Soft Skills”, if it makes sense. For example, a data analyst would list “SQL, Python, Tableau” in technical skills, then “analytical thinking” and “communication” in soft skills.
Employers aren’t simply seeking an individual who can, as they say, hit the ground running. They are looking for the person who’ll be able to tackle it in a more innovative and more inclusive way. That’s what makes adding other types of soft skills, especially non-technical interpersonal skills, all the more critical. Avoid overused clichés like “great communication skills” or “team player” unless you are able to prove those traits with clear examples through your work experience bullets. Abilities should be specific, practical and preferably quantifiable. Wherever possible, validate them with items such as certifications or tools you’ve used to develop the skills mentioned.
Work Experience: Your Track Record of Results
Your work experience section is the CV’s important part. It’s easy to forget that your resume is about more than just where you’ve been and when. On each resume job position, be sure to include your position title, the name of the employer, where you worked (city and state), and dates worked. After that, directly below each role, list out your primary functions of the job, but more importantly, what you accomplished within those functions. Whenever you can, include metrics to demonstrate your successes with data, percent increases, dollar savings or anything with real metrics behind it.
So, for instance, rather than listing an accomplishment as, “Managed social media accounts,” write, “Spearheaded a strategic overhaul of the company’s Instagram account, leading to a 40% spike in engagement over three months.” That shows leadership, effectiveness and a direct result. If you’re new to the workforce or transitioning between fields, emphasise your relevant transferable skills and any experience on projects that demonstrates your adaptability and willingness to learn new things. The purpose of the resume is to demonstrate to the employer that you’ve added value in previous positions and that you will do the same for them.
Education: More Than Just Degrees
Your education is the bedrock of your expertise, especially if you’re applying to jobs that have hard qualifications. For each qualification, starting with the most recent – degree title, institution and date(s) of attendance. If you’re a new grad or still in school, consider listing some pertinent coursework, academic honours, or your dissertation topic—particularly if it pertains directly to the career path you seek.
Education isn’t just a university pathway. Fill in certifications, licences, and other training that make you a more marketable candidate. These may be brief trainings from webinar hosts like the National League of Cities or in-person trainings. For instance, you might be a marketer with a Google Ads certification or a finance professional with an Excel for Financial Modelling course completed. Include these to show your commitment to continuous learning.
Volunteering, Projects & Additional Experience: The Hidden Strengths
This is an area that many candidates completely skip on; volunteer and freelance work can be just as relevant as traditional paid jobs. This is particularly true for students, recent grads or career changers who must prove their abilities in a practical, real-world setting. Any experiences that demonstrate your leadership, collaborative nature, or ability to solve unique problems will convey a great deal about your initiative and character. In much the same way as side projects, such as starting a personal blog, hosting a community event, or working on open-source software, make applications memorable.
For each relevant item, provide a concise description of what you implemented and what you accomplished. All of these experiences showcase soft skills and a go-getter spirit, both of which are incredibly important to employers.
Final Tips: Keeping It Clean, Clear, and Concise
A CV should only ever be a maximum of two pages, and even that is pushing it, especially within the UK. Create a crisp, business-like document with plenty of white space, plain English and uniform formatting. Choose a simple font like Arial, Calibri or Times New Roman, and stick with 10 points to 12 points. Only use as many colours, fonts, graphics, etc., as necessary, unless you’re going for a highly creative role. Avoid including sensitive information like your date of birth, nationality or photo unless required by the employer.
Review your CV multiple times and have someone else review your CV thoroughly. Even the tiniest typos, or the most casual grammar, can convey signals of general inattentiveness, and it’s enough to undermine your credibility. If writing isn’t your strong suit, seek out a mentor or other trusted colleague who can read through your piece before it’s due. An objective viewpoint will allow you to identify mistakes you missed and provide feedback on how attention-grabbing your prose is likely to be.
In Conclusion: Your CV Is a Living Document
Writing a great CV is not just a one-time thing – it is an ongoing process that changes with time. As you engage in more undertakings, get promoted, or acquire new skills, your CV should display that transmutation. The easiest thing to do is to tuck it away somewhere in a dark corner, but the more you update it regularly and make appropriate amendments to it, the more it starts to meet the requirements of the current opportunities. Cleaning up your CV the right way brings out not only your qualifications but also a human connection, which clearly explains to employers why they should hire you.
Essentially, what you have here is just the starting point of the conversation. In the next articles of our CV Writing Series, we will go through all the main sections of the CV, with the first about writing an attention-grabbing personal statement. Even if you are rebuilding your CV or making it out of the blue, this series will guide you through each step, making the process absolutely clear and exuding confidence.
One of the most important things you can do is to keep working on your CV and using it as a medium of self-representation.