CV writing toolkit

This section should include:

• Your name
• Location
• Contact phone number
• A professional email address
• LinkedIn profile link (optional but encouraged)and phone number

You do not need to include your full address, date of birth or a photograph in this section.

A personal profile or summary is a short paragraph at the top of your CV that briefly introduces yourself and what you can bring to the role.

It is an optional section, but if you decide to include one, make sure that it:

• Is short and snappy - around 3-4 lines is ideal
• Covers who you are, what you can offer, and what your objective is
• Focuses on skills and strengths relevant to the role

Try to avoid generic or cliched statements like 'hard-working team player' or 'passionate and dedicated individual'.

List your educational qualifications in reverse chronological order (most recent first). Most of this content in this section should come under your degree, including the following:

• Course title and institution
• Dates
• Relevant modules, projects or research
• Grades or predicted grades (if required)
• Degree accreditation (if applicable)

At this stage, although your secondary and further educational qualifications should be included on your CV, they should take up no more than a line of space.

List your work experience in reverse chronological order, and detail in bullet points your key tasks, achievements and skills acquired throughout.

This can include:

• Paid work
• Placements or internships
• Volunteering
• Student roles such as course rep or committee positions

If you have work experience that you consider to be particularly relevant to the job you are applying to, you could split your work experience into ‘relevant’ and ‘other’, which means you 'get around' the chronological requirements.

If you have space to have it, a section including your interests and hobbies can be a good addition to your CV. This could include details of university societies or sports teams you have joined, as well as any other activities you enjoy in your spare time.

If you do decide to have this section, make sure to highlight any attributes or skills your interests have given you. For example, if you go to the gym regularly, this could showcase dedication to reaching a goal. 

This section is not always necessary, but you could look to include information that doesn’t ‘fit’ elsewhere on the CV (if applicable), such as:

• Driving licence
• Languages
• First Aid training
• DBS certifications
• Willingness to relocate/commute for the opportunity

References are people who can comment on your suitability for a role by confirming your skills, experience and work ethic. They are usually someone who has supervised you in a work or academic capacity, such as a line manager or personal tutor.

References are normally requested later in the recruitment process - with this in mind, it is not necessary to provide details of your references actually on the CV itself. A statement to the effect of ‘References Available On Request’ should be sufficient.

When it comes to layout, simple is often best - you don’t want to make your CV difficult to read, or sacrifice content in order to use an elaborate template. Laying out your CV in columns can sometimes make the information tricky to follow; instead think about having one section under the other, and using bolder headings and possibly subheadings to clearly mark out your sections.

An easily readable font is also important - fonts like Arial, Calibri or Verdana in size 11-12 work well. This will ensure your CV is simple for both ATS software and human recruiters to decipher. Avoid using tables, graphs and images as these can be difficult to manipulate and take up valuable space.

In most cases, your CV should be no more than two pages of A4 in length (the exception to this is a CV for academic purposes, which can be longer). It is important that your first page is your ‘power page’, and has all your most relevant and recent information, such as your degree studies, and any relevant work experience.

You might find that a one page CV is more appropriate for a part time job, or employers might specifically request a one page CV for some graduate level roles. You can always change the length to suit the purpose of your CV.

It is important not to have ‘white space’ on your CV if possible, so try to stick to either one or two full pages. If you are really struggling to fit your content onto two pages, changing the margins to ‘narrow’ on your document can help with this.

Bullet points are a great way to structure the information under your CV headings. They help to break your content down into short phrases and make it easier for the recruiter to read and identify your skills - rather than them being confronted with a large paragraph of text that they have to decipher.

When it comes to formulating your bullet points, it’s a good idea to avoid personal pronouns (I, me, my) and try to start each one with an Action Word (see below).