Resume / CV

What is a Resume / CV?

A resume is a one or two page account of what you have done, written to be scanned in under a minute by somebody with forty others to read. It is not a biography and it is not an application form. Send a badly organised one and the reader cannot find the thing that would have got you the interview, which from your side is indistinguishable from not being good enough.

Everybody applying for work uses one, but the reading contexts differ more than people expect. A recruiter screening for an agency spends well under a minute on the first pass, looking for job titles, employers and dates. A hiring manager reads more slowly and looks for evidence against their own criteria. An applicant tracking system parses the file into fields before any human sees it. The same document has to survive all three, which is why a heavily designed layout that reads beautifully on screen can arrive at the employer as scrambled text.

Conventions differ by country. In the US, Canada, the UK and Australia a photograph, date of birth, marital status or nationality are normally left off, because employers there avoid receiving information that could support a discrimination complaint, and some recruiters discard documents containing it. In parts of continental Europe and in India a photograph and personal details remain common and are sometimes expected. Length conventions differ too — the two-page CV in the UK, the one-page resume in the US, longer academic CVs everywhere. Check the norm for the country and sector you are applying in.

A resume does not get you a job; it gets you a conversation, and every line should be there because it earns one. It is not a legal declaration, but everything in it must be true — background checks routinely verify dates, titles and qualifications, and an offer withdrawn over an inflated job title is a common outcome. It does not replace a cover letter where one is asked for, and it cannot explain a career change or a long gap the way three sentences of context can.

What to put in a Resume / CV

These are the details this template asks for. Anything left blank is marked in red on the preview so you can see what is still missing.

How to write a Resume / CV

1. Put the evidence in the top third

   The first screen decides whether the rest is read. Name, contact details, one line saying what you are, then either a three-line summary or straight into the most recent role. Skip the objective statement about seeking a challenging position in a dynamic organisation — it says nothing and it occupies the space where a recruiter is looking for your current job title and employer.

2. Write achievements, not duties

   For each role, one line of context and then three to five bullets on what changed because you were there. ‘Cut supplier onboarding from eleven days to four by replacing the paper approval chain’ is an achievement. ‘Responsible for supplier onboarding’ is a job description, and the reader has already assumed it from your title. Use real numbers where you have them and never invent one.

3. Match the wording to the advert

   Read the job description and use the same terms for the same things. If they say accounts payable and you have written purchase ledger, an automated screen may not connect the two and a busy human may not either. This is not keyword stuffing — it is describing your experience in the reader's vocabulary. Tailor the top third for each application, even if the rest stays fixed.

4. Keep the file simple and parseable

   Single column, standard headings, no text boxes, no tables used for layout, no critical information in the header or footer, no graphics carrying meaning. Many application systems read the file into fields, and two-column designs with sidebars are where that goes wrong. Name the file with your own name and the role. Check how it looks printed in black and white, because plenty of shortlisting still happens on paper.

5. Account for the dates plainly

   Use month and year for every role and leave no unexplained gaps. If there was a break for study, caring, illness or travel, give it a line of its own with the dates and a few words. Recruiters notice gaps whether or not you address them, and a stated reason ends the question, while an unexplained hole invites the least generous assumption available.

Common mistakes

• Opening with a generic objective statement spends the most valuable space on the page on a sentence every reader skips.
• Listing duties instead of achievements makes ten years of experience read exactly like the job description, so nothing distinguishes you from the other applicants.
• Using a two-column designer template can scramble the text when an applicant tracking system parses it, and the employer sees a garbled file rather than your history.
• Inflating a job title or stretching an end date fails at the background check stage, and offers are withdrawn for it long after you have resigned from the old job.
• Sending the same document to every employer means it matches no advert closely enough to reach the top of any pile.

Frequently asked questions

This page explains general practice and is not legal advice. Requirements differ between countries and, in some cases, between states — check what applies where the document will be used.

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