How to write a CV that makes your experience clear

A CV has one job: to show an employer, quickly, what you can do and where you have done it. Most hiring managers read a CV in less than a minute before deciding whether to read it properly. This guide covers how to organise yours so that the important parts are impossible to miss.

Start with a structure that works

Keep the order predictable. A reader who has to hunt for your work history will give up before they find it.

• Name and contact details. Full name, phone number, email address and the city and state where you live. A professional profile link if you have one.
• A short summary. Three or four lines: what you do, how long you have done it, and the kind of role you are looking for now.
• Work experience. Most recent first, with job title, organisation, location and dates.
• Education and qualifications. Institution, qualification and year. Add professional certifications here.
• Skills. Specific tools, systems and languages, not personal qualities.
• Anything that supports your case. Volunteering, projects, publications, NYSC service, memberships.

Two pages is the right length for most people. One page is fine early in your career. Three or more pages is only reasonable if you are in academia or have a long specialist record.

Write what you did, not what you were responsible for

The most common weakness in a CV is a list of duties copied from a job description. Duties tell the reader what the role involved. They do not tell the reader what you personally contributed.

Compare these two lines for the same job:

• Responsible for social media accounts and content creation.
• Ran three social media accounts, moved from ad hoc posting to a weekly content plan, and grew the audience from 400 to 2,300 over eight months.

The second line is the same job, described so that a stranger can judge it. Where you have numbers, use them: volumes handled, money managed, people trained, time saved, errors reduced. Where you do not have numbers, describe the change you made. “Introduced”, “rebuilt”, “reduced”, “trained” and “negotiated” all say more than “responsible for”.

Use three to five bullet points per role, and give more space to the roles closest to the job you are applying for.

Tailor it to the advert

Sending the same CV to every vacancy is the fastest way to be passed over. You do not need to rewrite it each time. You need to adjust the top third of it.

• Read the advert and note the words the employer uses for the work. If they say “receivables” and you say “debtors”, use their word where it is honestly yours.
• Rewrite your summary so it points at that role rather than at your career in general.
• Move the most relevant experience and skills higher up the page.
• Cut anything that does not help the reader decide about this role.

Never claim a skill or qualification you do not have. It is checked more often than people expect, and losing an offer at reference stage is worse than not being shortlisted.

Formatting that survives contact with a recruiter

• One clear font, black text, consistent spacing. No photographs, tables or columns unless you work in design.
• Send a PDF unless the employer asks for Word. A PDF looks the same on every device.
• Name the file properly: Chidi-Okonkwo-CV.pdf, not cv final final2.pdf.
• Give a working phone number and an email address you check daily. A professional-looking email address is worth the five minutes it takes to create.
• Explain long gaps in one short line rather than leaving the reader to guess.

Before you send it

Read it aloud. Anything you stumble over is probably badly written. Then check the spelling of the employer’s name, your own dates, and every phone number and email address on the page. Ask someone who does not know your work to read it and tell you what job they think you do. If their answer surprises you, the CV is not clear yet.

When it is ready, search current vacancies and apply to the roles where your experience genuinely fits the requirements.