What is a cv

A curriculum vitae, or CV, is a document summarising your education, work experience and skills. When applying to jobs, it is used to highlight your best qualities and how they relate to the available role.

A CV will include:

• • Your name and contact information; your email and voicemail should be professional.
  • A personal summary – usually a sentence or two summing up who you are and what you hope to do.
  • Education – names of your qualifications, name of the school, college or university, and the dates you attended, starting at the most recent.
  • Work history – list of any work experience in reverse order, including the company name, job title, dates you worked there and what you did
  • Skills and qualifications – list any relevant skills that will aid the job application; these can be both hard and soft skills; if you have a lot of job-specific skills, you can do a skills-based CV.
  • Achievements, publications and presentations (optional) – list any achievements and citations of presentations, papers, studies or books you’ve participated in.
  • Hobbies and interests – if you think that your CV is a little small, you can add any unique or relevant interests and hobbies that can help your application stand out or show that you are a suitable candidate.
  • Most employers will contact you if they require references, so there’s no need to include them on your CV.

Avoid:

• • Poor formatting – don’t use any heavy graphics, blocks of colour or complex formatting; your CV should not look cluttered.
  • Spelling errors – check everything, including your contact details.
  • Lying – It’s good to be confident, but lying on your CV is a criminal offence, and recruiters can make enquiries and catch you out.
  • Lack of evidence – Not giving proof of your skills, experience and achievements. Backing up how you meet the job requirements will reassure the employer that you are a strong candidate.
  • Ignoring gaps in work history – Gaps in employment history are common and rarely a problem; let the employer know why you took time out of work and the dates. There is no shame in telling employers of a period away from work due to caring for a sick relative, an illness, a medical condition or redundancy.

For more information, you can visit Indeed – CVs and Prospects – CVs

Types of CVs

Chronological/traditional

• • Structured in reverse chronological order (most recent education/experience first), it allows you to give details of your qualifications, work experience and responsibilities to match the criteria in job descriptions.
  • Include start and end dates for work and education, explain any gaps, and add relevant skills and knowledge needed for the role.

Skills-based

• • Focuses on transferable skills and relevant aspects of previous work and qualifications. Skills-based CVs benefit those with little to no work experience in their desired field, recent graduates, and those making a career change.
  • Provide 5 or 6 skills and evidence for each skill; this can be a brief example of when you successfully used the skill and can come from anything: hobbies, education, work experience. As you are matching your skills to the role, you’ll likely need to tailor your CV to each job application.

Academic

• • Focuses on educational achievements, used to apply for lecturing or research-based roles. These CVs will include additional sections on publications, teaching experience, research activities, conferences and presentations.
  • Academic CVs will be longer than usual CVs but still need to be concise and target the role’s requirements.

School Leaver

• • Don’t be too stressed about not having much work experience once you’ve finished your GCSEs or A levels; employers rarely expect school leavers to have lots of work experience.
  • A school-leaver CV is similar to a skills-based CV but focuses more on your education and work experience to demonstrate your skills and list any relevant responsibilities underneath jobs. Include any volunteering experience, reinvented interests, hobbies and major achievements.

Teaching

• • Focuses on school and teaching experience, including relevant activities such as coaching, summer camps, tutoring and working with youth groups. Highlight any teacher training and courses and list useful skills like IT, language, leadership and presentation skills.

For examples of each CV, you can visit Prospects – Types of CVs, and  Oxford – CVs, and  Indeed – CV examples for more general examples.

Tips on writing a CV

• Include any experience you have – this can come from jobs, extracurricular activities, personal projects, volunteer work, internships and apprenticeships. Highlight the skills you’ve developed and any achievements, such as improvements you’ve made or goals you’ve reached.
• Tailor your CV to each industry – you may apply for roles in different sectors, from receptionist to catering assistant. Hence, reading the job description and noting any skills or requirements you fill is important.
• Use a skills-based CV – as you don’t have much experience, it’s good to focus on your skills and how they fit the role.
• Take advantage of your personal summary – Tell employers who you are, what you can offer and your career aims. Show your passion and enthusiasm for the industry.
• Get more experience – You can gain hands-on experience by volunteering and working on personal projects and more industry knowledge and skills by completing online courses and certificates.
• Beginner-friendly jobs – consider jobs that do not require any background in the field, like retail, hospitality, care assistant and hospitality assistant roles.
• Contact companies you are interested in – even if a place isn’t advertising a role, it doesn’t mean they don’t need more staff. Reach out to companies you’re interested in with your CV and a cover letter to see if they have a position that would fit your skills.

Visit Indeed – CVs with no experience and CV maker – CVs with no experience.

CV builders and analysers

Plenty of websites help you make your CV, like Barclays, and places like Google Docs, Microsoft Word, Adobe Express, and Canva provide templates. Remember to avoid templates that include images, heavy colours, and graphics, and rank the level of your skills.

There are also free CV analyser tools that you can use to gain feedback on your CV, such as Resume Worded and Future Learn CV Review.

Contact us