How to write a CV that gets interviews

A practical guide — no jargon, no padding

Most CVs don't get rejected because the person is unqualified. They get rejected because a recruiter spends six to eight seconds deciding whether to keep reading, and nothing on the page gave them a reason to. This guide is about closing that gap: what to put in, what to cut, and how to phrase what you've actually done so it reads as evidence rather than a job description.

The structure that actually works

There's no single correct CV format, but almost every CV that performs well follows the same skeleton, because it matches how a recruiter actually reads: top to bottom, fast, looking for reasons to say yes.

1. Contact details. Name, phone, email, location (city is enough — you don't need a full address), and a LinkedIn or portfolio link if relevant. Skip the photo unless it's standard practice in your country or industry.
2. A short summary (optional, but useful). Two to three sentences pitching who you are and what you're looking for, written for the specific role. Skip generic lines like "hard-working team player" — they say nothing a reader can act on.
3. Work experience, most recent first. This is almost always the section that decides the outcome, so it gets the most space and the most editing effort. More on how to write it below.
4. Education. Below experience once you have a couple of years of work history; above it if you're a student, recent graduate, or the qualification is directly required for the role (a licence, a specific degree).
5. Skills. Keep this to skills that are genuinely relevant and specific — "Python, SQL, Figma" tells a reader something; "Microsoft Office, communication, teamwork" mostly doesn't.
6. Anything else that's genuinely relevant. Certifications, languages, publications, volunteering — include a section only if it adds real signal for this particular role, not as padding to fill the page.

Everything on the page should be answering one implicit question the reader is asking: why should I interview this person over the other forty CVs in this pile? If a line doesn't help answer that, it's a candidate for cutting.

Write achievements, not duties

This is the single highest-leverage change most people can make to their CV. A duty describes what the job involved. An achievement describes what you did with it, and — wherever possible — what happened as a result. Recruiters have read a thousand duty-lists; they remember achievements.

The reliable way to do this is to lead each bullet with a strong verb, describe the specific action you took, and close with the outcome — ideally a number. You don't need precise, audited figures: "roughly," "around," and "an estimated" are all fine. An approximate number still beats no number.

If you genuinely can't find a number for something, describe scope or scale instead — team size you worked with, budget you handled, volume you processed — anything that gives the claim a shape. "Managed a caseload of 30+ clients" still reads far better than "managed clients."

Tailor it to the job, every time

A CV that's been sent to fifty jobs unchanged is competing against CVs written specifically for each one — and it shows. Tailoring doesn't mean rewriting from scratch each time; it means a focused 10–15 minute pass before you apply:

• Read the job description and note the three or four requirements it repeats or emphasises most.
• Check your summary and top bullets actually speak to those requirements — reorder or rephrase if they don't.
• Mirror the job's own terminology where it's accurate. If the ad says "stakeholder management" and that's what you did, use that phrase — it's what both a human skim-reader and an applicant tracking system are scanning for.
• Cut anything that's irrelevant to this particular role, even if it was relevant for a different one.

Formatting: for the human and the ATS

Many applications pass through an applicant tracking system (ATS) before a person sees them — software that parses your CV and lets a recruiter search or filter it. It matters less than most advice implies (a well-formatted CV rarely gets silently rejected by software alone), but a few habits keep both the software and the human reader happy:

• Stick to standard section headings ("Experience," "Education," "Skills") rather than creative alternatives — both parsers and skim-readers rely on them.
• Avoid burying key information inside text boxes, tables, or multi-column layouts that some parsers read out of order. A clean single-column flow is the safest choice if you're unsure where your CV is headed.
• Use a standard, readable font at 10–12pt for body text, with clear visual hierarchy (bold job titles, consistent date formatting).
• Save and send as a PDF unless the application explicitly asks for Word — it preserves your formatting exactly as designed.
• Keep file names sane: firstname-lastname-cv.pdf beats Document1_final_v3_FINAL.pdf.

How long should it be?

One page if you have under roughly 8–10 years of experience; two pages is entirely normal beyond that, and expected in academic, medical, and some senior or technical CVs where a full publication or project history is relevant. The real rule isn't a page count — it's that every line earns its place. A tight one-page CV beats a padded two-page one; a genuinely dense two-page CV beats a one-page CV with the font shrunk to 8pt and the margins cut to zero to force a fit.

Mistakes that get a CV binned

• Typos and inconsistent formatting. A CV is the one document you're guaranteed will be scrutinised closely — a stray typo or a date format that changes halfway down the page reads as carelessness, fairly or not.
• An unexplained employment gap left completely blank. A one-line note (further study, caring responsibilities, travel, a career break) usually reads better than silence, which readers tend to fill in with worse assumptions.
• A generic email address that undercuts a professional CV — an old nickname-based address stands out for the wrong reasons. A simple name-based address is a five-minute fix.
• Listing responsibilities in the passive voice ("was responsible for," "duties included") instead of an active one ("led," "built," "cut," "negotiated"). Active verbs read as ownership; passive ones read as description.
• No quantification anywhere on the page. Even one or two strong numbers per role lift the whole document's credibility.
• Objectively irrelevant content — hobbies with no bearing on the role, references ("available on request" is assumed and doesn't need stating), or a full home address when a city is enough.

The last 10%: proofing and polish

Once the content is right, a short polish pass makes a disproportionate difference:

• Read it out loud — awkward phrasing is much easier to hear than to see.
• Check tense consistency: past roles in past tense, your current role in present tense.
• Ask one other person to read it cold, with no context — if they can't tell what you actually did in a given role from the bullets alone, tighten them.
• Check alignment, spacing, and date formats are identical across every entry — small inconsistencies are the first thing a careful reader notices.

Frequently asked questions

Related: Free CV examples by job title · How to write a cover letter · ATS-friendly CV checklist · CV vs resume · Cover letter examples · Resignation letter · FreeShelf vs other CV builders · CV format guide · Common interview questions