Resume guides

How to write a CV that gets interviews

Most CVs are rejected in the first screen not because the candidate is weak, but because the document makes the reader work too hard. This guide walks through the structure recruiters expect and the details that decide whether you get a call.

The structure recruiters expect

A hiring manager spends well under a minute on a first pass. Use the order below so the most decision-relevant information appears where the eye already goes.

1. Header: name, job title you are targeting, city, phone, email, LinkedIn.
2. Professional summary: three to four lines that state your role, years of experience, domain and one measurable achievement.
3. Work experience: reverse-chronological, most recent first.
4. Education: degree, institution, year. Move above experience only if you graduated within the last year.
5. Skills: tools, methods and languages that appear in the job posting.
6. Optional: certifications, publications, volunteering, projects.

Write bullet points that carry evidence

Replace duty descriptions with outcomes. A duty says what you were assigned; an outcome says what changed because you were there. The simplest reliable pattern is action verb + what you did + measurable result.

If you have no hard numbers, quantify scope instead: team size, budget, number of clients, volume handled, geography covered.

How long should a CV be?

• 0–5 years of experience: one page.
• 5–15 years: two pages, with the first page carrying your strongest material.
• Academic or research CVs: length follows publication record, not a page rule.

What to cut

• Objective statements about what you want — the summary should say what you offer.
• "References available on request" — assumed.
• Full home address; city and country are enough.
• Skill rating bars; they communicate nothing verifiable.
• Jobs older than ~15 years, unless directly relevant. Compress them into one 'Earlier career' line.

Tailor before you send

Read the posting and mark the five requirements that appear first or repeat. Those five should be visible in your summary and your top three bullet points, in the employer's wording. This single step raises reply rates more than any design change.

Final checks

1. Read every bullet aloud — anything you stumble over gets rewritten.
2. Check tense: present for the current role, past for everything else.
3. Confirm dates have no unexplained gaps.
4. Export as PDF and name the file Firstname-Lastname-CV.pdf.
5. Have one person outside your field read it and tell you what you do for a living.