What do include in a cv

List your most recent jobs or work and volunteer experience first. Your work history needs to include:. Use action verbs to describe your work history and skills. These are words like demonstrated, managed, lead, developed, organised.

Include an achievements section in your CV if you have important achievements that aren't covered in the skills or work history sections. You need at least two referees. One referee should be your current manager, team leader or work experience supervisor. We are closed on all public holidays, including Wellington Anniversary. Call Email us with your career question.

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The main styles are:. There are some things that you need to put in your CV. You can change the order of these to suit your situation and the type of CV layout you want to use. Leave out details like your age, date of birth, marital status and nationality. These are not required. If you have a profile on a professional social media site like LinkedIn , you can add a link to it on your CV. This is a few short lines that sum up who you are and what you hope to do. Think about the job you want and what the employer is looking for.

So, you're looking for a job and want to know how to write a CV? The first thing to include in your curriculum vitae CV is your name.

Then put your professional job title with your name. These details act as the title of your CV. Your contact information sits comfortably beside your name and professional title.

At the very least, you should detail your phone number and email address. Once upon a time, it was customary to include your full address too. However, as snail mail is largely a communication method of the past, there's little need to add this information.

You can limit your location to your town and county of residence. The next section of your CV is your profile. Whilst this section goes by many names in the recruitment industry, such as personal profile, professional profile and personal statement, it has one main purpose.

Your personal profile needs to give the prospective employer a snappy overview of what you're all about, covering your profession, what you can bring to the role and your current career goals. It's a short section — only about five lines — but it needs to showcase your relevance to the job and make an impact to convince employers that the rest of your CV is worth reading. If you have a selection of skills and qualifications that make you a great fit for the role, you should introduce a Core Competencies section to make them stand out.

Typically, Core Competencies or Key Skills sections sit underneath your personal profile. Bullet point between six and 10 of your best attributes which immediately signal to the hiring manager that you are a match for the vacancy. These skills can be hard or soft , they could be certifications or awards, they could be a list of tools or software — whatever best shows you are qualified for the role.

Not only will the prospective employer get an overview of your abilities immediately, but also, your CV will be optimised for applicant tracking systems ATS. Another key component to include in your CV is your employment history. For each job, include your dates of employment, your job title, the company, a line about the role, and bullet points detailing your duties, skills, and achievements. The work experience you had in these roles are key components of your CV since they let the hiring manager get an understanding of your skills and experiences based on your work history.

In theory, your most recent role should take up the most room because it's the peak of your career so far and therefore showcases your best abilities. The older the job, the less detail it requires. If you have a role that's older than 10 years, you may decide to remove it from your CV completely. Volunteer work can be extremely valuable on your CV, especially if it's related to the role you are applying for. Adding this type of experience is also a great way to fill an employment gap in your CV , supplement work history if you are changing careers or support your CV as a new graduate.

When adding volunteer work on your CV, it's best to include it as a standalone role in your Employment History section, the same as any other work experience. Add your job title, the organisation's name and the dates you held the position, followed by a brief summary of your role there and bullet points detailing your main duties and achievements. As always, tailor your volunteering experience to the job you are applying for and optimise your write-up with keywords from the job description to make its relevance clear.

Learn more about including volunteering on your CV. Like your work experience section, your education must be listed in reverse-chronological order. As a minimum, you need to include the name of your degree or qualification, the institution of study or awarding body, the grade you obtained, and the dates you studied or achieved the qualification. If you're just starting your career, and your education is still a huge selling point on your CV, you can add bullet points explaining relevant modules, assignments, placements and skills under each institution.

Read here for more detail about adding your education information to your CV. In most cases, you should list your work history in reverse chronological order — starting with you most recent role and moving down the page as far back as necessary. Format your roles like the example below to create a pleasant reading experience for recruiters, and allow them to find the information they need easily.

Never delve into the details of your roles without setting the scene first — or you risk confusing readers. Write a quick intro to show recruiters who you work for, where you sit within the business, and what the overall goal of your role is.

Bullet point your responsibilities to detail exactly what you do within your role, who you liaise with, and the skills and knowledge you apply. Where possible, try to quantify these achievements with numbers so that readers can really understand the difference you make. Whilst you should mention your most important qualifications at the top of your CV in your profile and core skills — the detailed listing of your education should be saved for the bottom of your CV.

If you are a junior candidate with little or no experience, then you will need to include plenty of detail in your education section. Listing all of your qualifications from high school to University — and even detailing modules and projects undertaken where they are relevant to the jobs you are applying to. This will compensate for your lack of work experience, and give you a chance to demonstrate more of the skills you possess.

Simply list your highest education such as your degree along with industry specific qualifications that you may have picked up during your career. If you have no work experience at all , you might want to include some of your hobbies to demonstrate workplace skills.

For example, you might captain a sports team which shows leadership , people skills and motivation.