How to Write a CV for a Job in 7 Easy Steps (15+ Examples) by Michael Tomaszewski

So, you’re looking for a new job?

Seems thrilling, isn’t it? Such plenty of exciting opportunities to grasp and all it takes to seize one is to send a
good CV.

Picture this:

You’ve found this dream job. You know you’d be a perfect fit. You send your CV and you breathlessly wait for
the call-back. But it never happens.

Sound familiar? Yeah, it does for most of us. But how’s that possible?

Why, I happen to know the answer to that:

Your CV has never been read. It wasn’t good enough.

Take heart, this nightmare scenario isn’t unfolding ever again. That’s cause you’re about to learn a sure-fire
way to transform your run-of-the-mill CV into a fab one.

Read this guide and you’ll see:

 A CV sample better than 9 out of 10 other CVs.

 How to write a curriculum vitae even if you have no experience.

 Tips and examples of how to put skills and achievements on a perfect CV.

 How to describe your experience on a CV to get any job you want.

Here’s how to write a CV:

1. Make sure you know when to use a CV

2. Pick the best CV format

3. Add your contact information the right way

4. Start with a CV personal profile (CV summary or CV objective)

5. List your relevant work experience & key achievements

6. Build your CV education section correctly

7. Put relevant skills that fit the job opening

8. Include additional CV sections to impress the recruiter

9. Organize this all on a professional CV template

10. Complement your CV with a cover letter

Want to see a sample job-winning CV for your profession and a dedicated guide on how to write one? See: CV
Examples and Writing Guides for 99+ Jobs

Targeting a job in the US? Learn how to write an American resume that stands out from the crowd. Read our
guide: How to Make a Resume: A Step-by-Step Guide (30+ Examples)
If you're looking for a job in India, you might want a biodata format. We've got it: Biodata Format: Free
Templates for a Job [Free Download]

Make Sure that You Know When to Use a CV

Let’s start with the basics to make CV writing easy:

What is a CV?

In its full form, CV stands for curriculum vitae (latin for: course of life). In the US, Canada, and Australia, a CV is
a document you use for academic purposes. The US academic CV outlines every detail of your scholarly career.
In other countries, CV is an equivalent of an American resume. You use it when you apply for jobs.

Because this document is named differently across different countries, a lot of folks keep asking:

What is the difference between a CV and a resume?

Let’s get this straight, once and for all:

In the hiring industry, nowadays there’s almost no formal difference between a CV and a resume. It’s the same
thing that Brits call a CV and Americans—a resume.

Just like they do with chips and french fries, football and soccer, or Queen Elizabeth and Queen Bey.

So, if you're applying to a European company, you should create a CV. But if you're applying to a US-based
employer, you should make a resume.

Pick the Best CV Format

Here’s a disturbing thought:

Every time you’re looking for a job, you compete against 250 other candidates on average.

Yes, you read that right.

Imagine you are the recruiter and you have to review 250 job applications. Do you thoroughly read all of them?
Nah, of course you don’t.

Recruiters spend only 6 seconds scanning each CV. So the very first impression is key. If you submit a neat,
properly organised document, you’ll convince the recruiters to spend more time on your CV.

A poorly formatted CV, on the other hand, will get you discarded in the first-round review.

Here’s how to format a CV the right way.

Start with creating a CV outline divided into the following sections:

Sample CV Format

1. CV Header with Contact Information

2. Personal Profile: CV Objective or CV Summary

3. Work Experience
 4. Education

5. Skills

6. Additional Sections

Pro Tip: If you’re fresh out of uni and need to write a student CV with no experience, or if you've graduated
from a very prestigious institution within the last 5 years, put your education section above your work
experience.

When filling in the sections, always keep in mind the gold CV formatting rules:

1. Choose clear, legible fonts

Go for one of the standard CV typefaces: Arial, Tahoma, or Helvetica if you prefer sans-serif fonts, and Times
New Roman or Bookman Old Style if serif fonts are your usual pick.

Use 11 to 12 pt font size and single spacing. For your name and section titles, pick 14 to 16 pt font size.

2. Be consistent with your CV layout

Set one-inch margins for all four sides.

Stick to a single dates format on your CV: for example 11-2017, or November 2017.

3. Don’t cram your CV with gimmicky graphics

Less is more.

White space is your friend—recruiters need some breathing room!

Plus, most of the time, after you send out your CV, it’s going to be printed in black ink on white paper. Too many
graphics might make it illegible.

4. Get photos off of your CV

Unless you’re explicitly asked to include your photograph in the job ad.

If so—make sure to use a professional looking picture, but not as stiff as an ID photo.

5. Make your CV brief and relevant

Don’t be one of those candidates stuck in the nineties who think they have to include every single detail about
their lives on their CVs.

Hiring, nowadays, is one hell of a hectic business. Nobody’s got the time to care for what high school you’ve
attended or to read 10+ bullet point descriptions of past jobs. We’ll get to that later on.

Pro Tip: Once you’ve finished writing, save your CV in PDF to make sure your CV layout stays intact. But pay
close attention to the job description. Some employers won’t accept a PDF CV. If such is the case, send your CV
in Word.

Learn more about CV formatting from this quick dedicated guide I've written recently: CV Formatting—The
Ideal Structure for a CV

Alright, so you’ve got the best CV template ready for ya and you know the basic CV writing rules. Time to dive
in!
 3

Add Your Contact Information the Right Way

You want the recruiters to get back to you, so you need to let them know how they can reach you.

In the contact information section, enter your:

 Full name

 Professional title

 Email address

 Telephone number

 LinkedIn profile

 Home address

The contact information section seems fairly straightforward, but here’s the one reason it might be tricky:

Recruiters will use it to research you online. If your social media profiles are unprofessional, or if your LinkedIn
profile information doesn’t match that on your CV, you’re immediately out of the race.

Want to avoid it? Read our guide: How to Check Your Online Presence Before Recruiters Look You Up.

Start with a CV Personal Profile (CV Summary or CV Objective)

After listing their contact information on a CV, most candidates jump right into their work experience or
education.

But you’ll do better than that. You will actually get remembered by the employer.

So, how to make a CV pop?

All it takes is a CV personal profile statement—a short, snappy paragraph of 100 words tops that tells the
recruiters why you are just the candidate they’ve been looking for.

Your personal profile will either be a CV objective or a CV summary.

What’s the difference?

A CV objective shows what skills you’ve mastered and how you’d fit in. It’s a good choice if you’ve got little work
experience relevant to the job you’re trying to land, for example, if you’re writing a student CV.

A CV summary, in turn, highlights your career progress and achievements. Use it if you’re a seasoned
professional and have a lot of experience in your field.

Now, have a look at some examples. Let’s say there’s a posting for a nursing job. Here are sample nursing CV
objectives and summaries.

Example of a CV Objective
wrong

Newly licensed Nurse looking for a challenging nursing role in a medical facility where I can put my skills to the
test.

Not awful, right? The problem is, in this CV objective, the bottom line is basically “I want a job because I learnt
for the job.”

Have a look at another CV objective sample.

Objective for a CV—Example

right

Dependable licensed NMC Registered Nurse trained to work in high-stress environments and stay calm under
pressure. Seeking to leverage meticulous record-keeping and analytical skills to help St Francis Hospital with
your upcoming challenges.

See the difference? The latter candidate focused solely on what she can offer her future employer. She also
mentioned the name of the specific hospital to which she’s applying.

And yes, name-dropping is something you, too, should definitely do in your CV objective.

True, it means you won’t be able to spam your CV out to every company that’s currently hiring but, then again,
when was the last time you replied to a “Dear User” email?

As we said before, if you’ve got some relevant job experience under your belt, begin your CV with a CV
summary instead of an objective.

Check out these sample CV summaries.

Sample CV Summary

right

Bilingual (English and Dutch) Pediatric Nurse with 15+ years of experience in the intensive and neonatal care
units of a community hospital. Seeking to leverage management experience as Chief Pediatric Nurse at General
Hospital, helping to implement new staff training programmes.

The General Hospital Director just picked up the phone to call this candidate.

What’s so great about this CV summary?

Above all, it’s super-specific. It gives a complete outline of the candidate’s background and shows how her
experience will help her tackle particular problems the hospital is facing.

Here’s another example of a CV summary.

CV Example—Summary

wrong

Pediatric Nurse with years of experience supervising the medication and health records of newborns.

This one, on the other hand, says little more than “I am a nurse.” It presents nothing but generic responsibilities
all nurses have.

In your CV summary, don’t ever go for meaningless buzzwords.

When you’re done, Zety’s resume builder will score your resume and tell you exactly how to make it better.

Writing an objective or a summary for your professional CV is tricky and we know it. That's why we've put
together a dedicated guide to crafting this section: 20+ CV Personal Statement/Personal Profile Examples
(Writing Guide)

For more detailed examples of summaries or objectives, check out: How To Write A CV Summary: 21 Best
Examples You Will See and 20+ CV Objective Examples—Use Them On Your CV (Tips)

List Your Relevant Work Experience & Key Achievements

More often than not, your work experience section is the most important part of your whole CV—the one that
gets the most eyetime.

If you’re thinking “Easy, I just need to list my previous positions, the dates worked, and my responsibilities,”
think again.
All of the above are must-haves in a basic CV. But “basic” won’t get you that dream job.

The thing is: recruiters know what you did. They want to know how well you did it and what you can offer your
prospective employer.

Here’s how to make your work experience section illustrate that:

1. Focus on your measurable, relevant achievements, not just your duties.

2. Use action verbs: “created,” “analysed,” “implemented,” not “responsible for creating, analysis and
implementation.”

3. Tailor your CV to the job posting—read the job description carefully and check what tasks will be
expected of you. If you’ve done them before—put them on your CV, even if those weren’t your primary
responsibilities.

Let’s see a real-life CV example.

Here’s a sample job description for a position of a junior product marketing specialist.

Responsibilities:

 Filling product placement requests from the media

 Creating and maintaining media lists as needed (1)

 Writing product pitches (2)

 Researching new media opportunities (3)

 Support creating media materials and press kits (4)

 Lead a small project (5) from start to finish

 Help in the organization of events (6)

 Respond to media inquiries (7)

Now, have a look at this example of a CV work experience entry.

CV Example—Work Experience Section

Product Marketer

Nike, 10-2015–present

London

 Created and maintained lists of media contacts (1)

 Researched opportunities (3) across online media channels

 Produced product pitches (2) and press kits (4)

 Supported event organization (6)

 Responded to media inquiries (7)

Key achievement: Lead a project team (5) in designing and implementing a comprehensive social media relations
strategy for a new line of lifestyle products, grew Facebook fan base from 0 to 12,000 in 4 months [LINK to the
Facebook fanpage], gained 35,000 Instagram followers [LINK to the Instagram account] in 3 months.
“Wow, we need this one to work with us!”

This entry is sure to bring that sort of response from the hiring manager.

What makes it so great?

First, it’s perfectly tailored to the job ad (have another look at the numbered phrases in bold). The candidate
showed she’ll be able to manage her most important future tasks because she’s done them before.

Secondly, it’s action-verbs-packed. “Created and maintained” instead of “responsible for creating and
maintaining,” “produced product pitches,” not “product pitches production.”

Last but not least, its central focus is the candidate’s achievements. Like the candidate above, if you want your
CV to impress, add a “key achievement” sub-section. Then, include hard numbers. Don’t say you “significantly
increased sales.” Say how much exactly. Numbers pop!

To make sure your achievements on a CV shine as they’re supposed to, follow the PAR (Problem Action Result)
formula to describe them.

Like in the CV example discussed:

Key achievement: Lead a project team in designing and implementing a comprehensive social media relations
strategy for a new line of lifestyle products, grew Facebook fanbase from 0 to 12,000 in 4 months, gained
35,000 Instagram followers in 3 months.

Problem: Lack of sufficient social media promotion for a new line of lifestyle products

Action: New social media strategy

Result: 12,000 Facebook fans in 4 months, and 35,000 Instagram followers in 3 months.

If you learn how to list your achievements on a CV the right way, you’ll outperform 9 out of 10 other candidates.
Have a read of our dedicated guide: Achievements to Put on a CV: Complete Guide (30+ Examples)

Build Your CV Education Section Correctly

Good news is, putting your education on a CV is usually simple.

If you’ve got any post-secondary education, include only it on your CV. Don’t mention your high school, unless
it’s your highest degree of education. List:

 Graduation year (if you’re still studying, enter your expected graduation date)

 Your degree

 Institution name

 Sub-hons (if applicable)

Pro Tip: Including your honours is optional. If you don’t want them to do you more harm than good, add them
only if they’re 2:1 or higher for the undergrad degrees, and “merit” or “distinction” for postgrads.

Like this:

CV Example—Education Section

2014 B.A. in French

2:1

Easy, right?

But what if you’re writing a CV with little or no work experience? What if you’ve just graduated and are looking
for your first full-blown job?

If such is the case, you should do two things:

First of all, place your education section above your work experience.

Secondly, elaborate a bit more on your academic experience. Include, for instance:

 Your dissertation title

 Favourite fields of study

 Relevant coursework

 Your best achievements

 Extracurricular academic activities.

A lot of fresh graduates don’t know how to make their CVs’ education section stand out. If you want to have an
edge over them, read our comprehensive guide: How to Put Your Education on a CV [Tips & Examples]

Put Relevant Skills that Fit the Job Opening

Now, for your skills. You’ve probably got plenty of these. But would a list of a dozen and a half skills look good
on a CV?

Anything but.

When it comes to skills for a CV, one issue is more important than any other: relevance. The skills you decide to
include on your CV have to be relevant to the job you’re trying to land.

Remember when I mentioned tailoring your CV to the job description? Here it comes again.

How to do it?

Start with a spreadsheet. In it, list all your professional skills (that’s right, it means “eyebrow dancing” doesn’t
count). Then check the job description for the skills desired by your prospective employer.

Do they match some of the skills from your spreadsheet? Presto! These are the ones to put in your CV skills
section.

Pro Tip: When you list your skills, add a short description of each to indicate your level of proficiency. For
example “Excellent,” “Advanced,” or “Basic.”

Want to find out which skills on a CV are most valued by employers in 2018? Check out this piece and impress
every recruiter: 30+ Best Examples of What Skills to Put on a CV (Proven Tips)
 8

Include Additional CV Sections to Impress the Recruiter

Let us all confess to something.

We constantly lie about ourselves. We just can’t help it—those little white lies that help put us in a slightly
better light.

Care to venture a guess what group of people excels in lying?

Job seekers.

They all lie on their CVs in frail hopes that recruiters won’t be bothered to verify, say, “full bilingual proficiency
in French.”

Here’s the thing: recruiters are trained to spot liars, so don’t even entertain the thought of embellishing your
past achievements or skills.

But what if you could help the recruiters avoid interviewing CV fabulists altogether? There’s a surefire way to do
it:

On your CV, include an additional section in which you show off your unquestionable triumphs: things that
prove your value as a candidate.

Such as?

The following:

Sample CV Additional Sections

 Industry awards

 Professional certifications

 Publications

 Professional affiliations

 Conferences attended

 Additional training

A well-crafted additional section can be the decisive factor in choosing you over another candidate with a
seemingly similar background. Don’t ignore this chance to stand out from the crowd. Learn more from our
handy guide: How to List Certifications on a CV: Guide (20+ Examples)

Don’t worry if you’re still studying and can yet showcase none of the above.

A good student CV will still benefit from an additional section. Here are some ideas:

Sample Student CV Additional Sections

 Volunteer experience

 Hobbies and interests

 Academic achievements

 Personal blog
For more, see: What to Include in a Curriculum Vitae Section by Section

Right, if you apply all the strategies we discussed, you’ll make a perfect CV. But hey—Want to do it the easy
way?

Organize this All on a Professional CV Template

Let’s face it—

No one likes to mess around with formatting a CV in MS Word.

Luckily, there are hundreds of ready, fill-in-the-blanks CV templates available online. And we happen to offer
some truly cracking ones.

Check out some of the CV templates available in our CV maker:

CV Templates UK—See 20+ CV templates and create your CV here

And for the final word, here’s what every job seeker ought to know:

10

Complement Your CV with a Cover Letter

“Stalk your prospective boss to show commitment.”

Sound like the worst career advice one can get?

Well… And probably is so. But guess what—

“You don’t need to write a cover letter” comes in a close second.

Why?
Because as many as 45 out of 100 recruiters won’t even get around to reviewing your CV if there’s no cover
letter attached. True, the other 55 might think a cover letter for a CV is redundant. But here’s who does read
cover letters:

Hiring managers. And, at the end of the day, it’s their decision whether or not you’re getting the job.

Most people hate writing cover letters for CVs because they are clueless about how to write them properly. And
writing great cover letters is much easier than it seems.

Want to learn how to do it? Here’s the only guide you’ll need: How To Write A Cover Letter in 8 Simple Steps

Key Takeaway

Hiring has changed drastically. It’s fast and furious. To get your foot in the door, you’ll need to go an extra mile
with your CV. Here's how to make a CV:

 Begin your CV with a personal profile—either a summary or a CV objective. Write a short and sweet
paragraph telling why you’re just the candidate the employer’s been looking for.

 When describing your work experience, focus on your achievements and accomplishments. No recruiter
wants to read a dull list of bullet points describing past duties.

 Validate your worth as a candidate by adding a section with your top wins: certifications, awards,
publications, or even extracurricular training or attended conferences.

 Finally, attach a cover letter to your job application and double your chances of getting hired.

 All check? Get ready for all those interview call-ins!

Do you have any more questions on how to write a job-winning CV? Give us a shout in the comments and
we’ll answer your queries!

Michael is a career expert and the coordinator of Zety's newsletter. He reaches out to recruitment and hiring
gurus to help you learn the most effective strategies for managing your career,

Resume Expert at Zety (https://zety.com/blog/how-to-write-a-cv) - Updated 06/04/2019