How to Write a CV

Whether you’re applying for your first job or an experienced professional starting a fresh job hunt, you should know how to write a CV that captures the hiring manager’s attention and presents your relevant strengths in a compelling, professional format.

What is a CV?

A CV (or ‘curriculum vitae’) is a job application document that outlines your skills, experience, and qualifications and describes yourself for a potential employer.

The key to writing an impressive CV is job relevance and structure. Most successful job applicants use a concise CV format that emphasises their previous achievements — though there are other ways to lay out a CV if you don’t have any work experience yet.

Here’s what a standard professional CV looks like in 2025:

Copy to CV Maker

How to create a CV section by section

To create a job-winning CV from scratch, you’ll need to know what information to include and how to do so professionally.

Follow the 8 steps and writing tips below to write a CV that highlights your skills and makes a strong first impression on employers — even if you have no experience.

1. List your contact information in the header

Your header goes at the very top of your CV and includes the following personal details:

• first and last name
• relevant job title
• professional email address (e.g., ‘firstname.lastname@email.com’)
• mobile phone number
• your location or postal address

Other appropriate details for your CV include your driving licence, LinkedIn profile, and professional website — though these aren’t required. You should aim to make your header as brief and to the point as possible and avoid sharing irrelevant personal information such as your nationality, marriage status, or political affiliation.

2. Write a compelling CV personal statement

A personal statement is a 3-4 sentence summary of your key skills and qualifications listed at the top of your CV.

Think of your personal statement as a quick introduction. Its goal is to convince employers that your CV is worth their time.

Here’s how to write a personal statement for your CV:

1. Specify your professional title or area of expertise (e.g., ‘Registered Nurse’ or ‘Computer Science Graduate’)
2. State how much relevant experience you have in years or months (if you don’t have work experience yet, skip this step)
3. Outline your key achievements, skills, or qualifications
4. Highlight a relevant career goal or benefit you’ll bring to the company

Remember that your personal statement should always be focused on the employer’s needs. To get a clear idea of what the employer is looking for, check the job description and the company’s website and social media.

3. Describe your relevant work experience

The work experience section of your CV is what employers look to when deciding whether or not to invite you in for an interview. Think of it as the core of your CV.

List jobs on your CV chronologically, starting with your current or most recently held position.

For each job, include your job title, the company name, location, and your dates of employment. Highlight if a position was remote, especially if the job you’re targeting involves remote work.

Then describe the main functions of your job in 3–6 bullet points. Here’s how to do so effectively:

1. Use the first bullet point to specify your main responsibilities and who you worked with
2. Then use the following points to highlight key achievements or responsibilities that relate to the job opportunity
3. Begin each point with an action verb instead of the first person ‘I’ to make your writing more engaging and enthusiastic
4. Measure the impact of your achievements with hard numbers where possible to get the employer’s attention

If you’re unsure how to word your bullet points professionally, consider using ChatGPT to help write your CV. Write a rough draft using simple language and then have ChatGPT edit for flow. Here’s a prompt you can use:

Here is a job entry from my CV. Edit it so that it reads naturally and professionally. [Paste drafted job entry].

 

What to list if you have no work experience

If you’re writing a CV with no work experience, change the title of your experience section to Relevant Experience. This will give you space to list any and all experience you have that might interest employers.

For example, you could list any of the following in your relevant experience section:

• voluntary roles
• internships
• work placements
• part-time jobs
• personal or academic projects

Format any relevant experience entries the same as you would a regular job, listing the dates and employer or organisation. Additionally, make sure to include bullet points that outline any achievements.

Employers understand that everyone starts somewhere, and for entry-level applications, demonstrating a relevant skill set is more important than providing a lengthy work history.

4. Outline your education

Start your CV’s education section with the highest qualification you’ve attained at the top, following this order:

• doctorates (e.g., PhD)
• master’s degrees
• bachelor’s degrees
• 16–18-year-old qualifications (e.g., A Levels, Scottish Highers, US High School Diploma)
• GCSEs, Scottish N5s, or equivalents

Here’s an example of a properly formatted education section:

BSc (Hons) Accounting and Finance, 2:1
Swansea University, 20XX–20XX

If you’ve recently graduated or are still in school, college, or university, consider adding extra information to your CV’s education section, such as relevant classes, academic achievements, or societies that make you stand out.

BSc (Hons) Accounting and Finance, 2:1
Swansea University, 20XX–20XX

• Dissertation: Comparative Analysis of SRI Funds and Conventional Portfolios
• Relevant Modules: Investment Banking, Corporate Finance, Financial Services

You don’t need to include all your GCSEs if you have a university degree or A Levels. List your GCSEs if they are your highest formal qualification. Many employers require applicants to have GCSE-level qualifications in some important subjects like English, Maths, and Combined Science.

5. Highlight your most relevant skills

If you have skills that are important for your target job, list them in a separate skills section.

Your skills section should be a short bulleted list. Focus on your hard skills — the skills you have learned through training, self-study, or work experience — and include any relevant certifications.

Remember to keep it clear and simple. The employer should be able to view your list and get an immediate overview of your strengths. Here’s a good example section from a retail CV:

• Inventory management
• Customer support
• Point of sale systems (Shopify)
• Visual merchandising
• French (CEFR B1)

Putting soft skills on your CV

Soft skills are difficult to assess without context. For example, just writing ‘great communication skills’ isn’t clear to the employer. You could be a confident public speaker or a talented creative writer. Without context, the employer won’t be able to measure your communication skills or connect them to the company’s needs.

The best way to demonstrate your soft skills is through specific examples.

Your personal statement and work experience section are great places to do so. Aim to include specific achievements that clearly show the value your soft skills have previously delivered.

The personal statement from a customer service CV is a great example. The applicant proves their ability to deliver excellent help and support by providing a metric that employers can quickly check and verify.

Dedicated professional with 2 years of experience managing the customer support desk at a busy high-street clothing store. Skilled in handling inquiries, resolving complaints, and ensuring seamless shopping experiences. Recognised for excellent communication and people skills, having maintained a leading customer satisfaction score of over 95% during my time at the store.

6. Add any necessary additional sections

Adding additional sections (e.g., hobbies and interests) can help you highlight qualifications that may not stand out elsewhere on your CV. Sometimes, these details can be the difference between you and another candidate getting the job.

Below we’ve listed some popular additional sections for your CV and how to outline them. You should only add these sections if they are closely related to the job you’re applying for. Remember, the aim is to make your CV as concise and job-relevant as possible.

Section	Layout guidelines
Hobbies and interests	List 2–3 relevant interests that demonstrate transferable skills or align your personality with the role. Include examples of relevant achievements or goals to give adequate context.
Languages	List your languages in order of proficiency, starting with your strongest language. Include your highest language certification in each language or specify your skill level.
Certifications	Follow the same format as your education section, starting with the highest level certification you received.
Volunteering experience	Use the same layout as your work experience section. If you're short on space, you can list your volunteer and paid experience together.
Professional memberships	Order your active memberships by date, starting with your most recent membership. Include the organisation's name and the year that you joined.
Awards and honours	Order by date, including the award name, awarding organisation, and the year that you received the award.

7. Edit and save your CV

Thoroughly check your CV for spelling mistakes, grammar errors, and vague language. Tools like Grammarly can help you ensure your writing is clean and professional.

Once you’re finished, save your CV as a PDF.

PDF files keep their original formatting, no matter what application is used to open them. This means that when the employer opens your CV, it will look exactly the same as when you saved it. This may not be the case if you send a Pages or Docx file.

Give your PDF a professional file name that’s clear and easy to find. Here’s a good example that includes the target job title and the applicant’s full name:

marketing-assistant-james-smith-cv.pdf

8. Write a matching cover letter

Writing a cover letter is one of the most effective ways to connect your skill set and achievements to the employer’s needs.

A good cover letter gives context to your relevant strengths and explains why you’re applying for the job.

Most employers don’t require applicants to send a cover letter, but taking this extra step will positively reflect on your application and show your passion for the specific opportunity.

There are seven steps to writing a good cover letter:

1. Identify the employer’s needs
2. Format your name and contact details correctly
3. Address the employer by name
4. Write a personalised opening paragraph
5. Relate your most relevant achievements to the job
6. Conclude with a request to interview
7. Sign off with a formal closing

Free CV templates to download

While your CV’s content is most important, you should your application should be clean and well-structured. Using a professionally designed CV template can help you quickly upgrade your document’s design. Here are 3 great templates you can download for free:

1. Standard CV template

This template uses a format every employer will be familiar with, emphasising work experience in a simple vertical layout that lets your qualifications speak for themselves.

2. Graduate CV template

This graduate CV template is designed to emphasise your skills and education because these sections will have more of an impact early on in your career.

3. Creative CV template

Visual aids such as bar charts and CV icons can help highlight key information while also adding a personal touch to your application.

This template is a great choice for any creative professional who wants to emphasise a diverse skillset.

2 examples to help you write your CV

Sometimes the best way to learn how to write a CV is by looking at good examples.

Below are two CV examples to get you started — one CV with no experience and a second example written by a more senior job applicant.

No-experience CV example

Even if you’re writing a applying for your first job, you can still write a compelling CV, as shown by this example written by a university student:

Why this example works

This applicant puts together a compelling cafe CV by using a skills-based format that highlights their customer service skills, time management skills, and industry knowledge in plenty of detail.

Even though they’ve never formally worked in a cafe before, they present voluntary experience and extracurricular activities as evidence that they have many of the hard skills needed to thrive in a busy coffee shop.

Experienced CV example

If you’re writing a CV with plenty of work experience, your CV should reflect that by centring your previous responsibilities and achievements, like in this example:

Why this example works

This applicant starts with a detailed personal profile that summarises their diverse retail background and most noteworthy achievements.

Crucially, they use a simple format with a small CV font size to reduce distraction and emphasise their many professional achievements.

Frequently asked questions about writing a CV

Here are four additional questions you might have about writing your CV:

1. Should I put my face on my CV?

Whether you should put a photo on your CV depends on where you’re looking for a job.

Employers in many mainland European countries prefer to see a CV with a photo on it. If you think you need one, you can take a professional headshot with your phone. Make sure you have even lighting and a neutral background.

If you’re applying for a job in the UK or North America, do not attach a photo to your CV unless you’re applying for a job where the employer needs to know what you look like, like modelling or acting.

2. Do I need to include references on my CV?

It’s best not to include references on your CV or to write ‘References available on request’ on your CV.

Employers rarely need to see references on your initial application (academic CVs are an exception). Including a references section will just make your CV unnecessarily long or take away space from more valuable sections — like your work experience and skills.

3. How do you write a CV on an iPhone?

There are two ways to write a CV using an iPhone:

1. Use an online CV maker optimised for iOS.
2. Download a free word processor app and create your CV manually. If you’re using Google Docs, you can save time by using a free Google Docs CV template.

4. Is it worth paying someone to write my CV?

Although it’ll depend on your budget, it’s generally not worth paying someone to write your CV for you.

Though there are many high-quality CV-writing services out there, most charge £100+ for a CV. Generally, it’s only worth making this kind of investment if you’re applying for a highly competitive senior role.

If you’re applying for an entry-level or mid-level role or are pursuing multiple opportunities, a CV builder will be much more time-efficient and affordable. Most premium builders charge less than a cup of coffee and can produce a well-formatted professional application in minutes.

More CV Writing FAQs

• How do I write a CV in English if it’s not my mother tongue?
• What do employers look for in a CV?
• How do you write degree classification on a CV?
• How do I write a CV for freshers in India?
• How do I show a promotion on my CV?
• How do I write a CV for a part-time job?
• How do I write a career-change CV?
• How do I make a creative CV?
• How do I make a video CV?
• How do I write an academic CV?