A CV is a job application document that shows employers why you deserve an interview. A good CV clearly highlights your educational and professional background, including your:
- key professional skills
- work experience
- qualifications and certifications
Knowing how to write a CV that features these CV elements is important if you want to get a job.
For most people, the ideal CV length is two pages. Two pages should give you the chance to fully describe your work history, education, and skills, while also adding a touch of your personality — like your hobbies and interests.
To save you time, you’ll find many good CV templates on the internet that you can download and fill in with your information, featuring traditional but eye-catching CV designs that stand out to employers and clearly present your background.
What does CV stand for?
‘CV’ stands for ‘curriculum vitae’. This Latin term means ‘the path of your life’, which makes sense because a CV walks employers through the path of your career and education.
What does a CV look like?
This is what a CV looks like:
Here are the sections you should include in your CV:
CV title
The very top of your CV, where you should provide your name, phone number, and email address.
Personal statement
Three to four sentences under your CV title that sum up your main achievements, skills, and qualifications. A personal statement is sometimes also called a CV summary or CV profile.
Work experience
In this section, you should include your current and previous jobs from most recent to oldest (top to bottom). For each role, include your job title, the company’s name and location, and the dates you worked there.
After that, add 3–5 bullet points describing your achievements — use hard numbers for emphasis. If you don’t have much work experience yet, put this part after your education section.
Education
Your education section should provide details about any degrees you have, your A-Levels, and GCSEs as well as your grades. If you haven’t got your marks yet, you can add predicted grades and the expected date you’ll get your qualifications.
Skills
List any skills on your CV that you have. These skills can be ones you learn in school or in a job (hard skills) or ones linked to personality (soft skills).
Hobbies and interests
Provide some examples of the activities you do outside of school and work.
The best hobbies and interests to put on a CV are ones that show you have the skills for the job you’re applying for. For instance, you might put ‘member of local football team’ in this section to highlight your teamwork skills.
Frequently asked questions
Here are the answers to a few common questions about CVs:
What is a CV template?
A CV template is a premade CV that you can modify and use as your own. Using a professional CV template to make a CV is faster because you don’t need to set up the layout of your CV — you can immediately start filling it in.
Some people also call job-specific CV samples ‘templates’ because they act as a template for you to work from as you write your own CV.
What’s the difference between a CV and a cover letter?
A CV is a document that outlines your work history, skills, and qualifications. A cover letter is a business letter written to formally apply for a position.
You should learn how to write a cover letter and do so every time you apply for a job because you can use your letter to support your CV. Specifically, your cover letter gives you room to explain how the experience and skills you mentioned on your CV make you the right person for the job being advertised.
How do you format your CV?
CV formatting should be as follows:
- Font: Choose a commonly used sans serif CV font like Arial that’s between 10.5 and 12 points in font size
- Margins: Set your margins to between 1.25 cm and 2.5 cm all the way around your page
- Line spacing: Set your line spacing to ‘1’ in your word processor
- Colour: Other than black and white, use one extra colour as a highlight to make sure your CV is seen by employers. Darker shades are the most professional, for example, maroon, royal blue, and British racing green
Is a CV the same as a resume?
A CV is mostly the same as a resume. Americans say ‘resume’ instead of ‘CV’. The main difference between a CV and a resume is that a CV is usually two pages long, whereas a resume is usually one page long.
