What works
Two pages, no more.
A CV is a sales document, not an autobiography. Two pages forces the discipline that makes hiring managers want to read on. The only reasonable exception is 25+ years of senior experience, and even then three pages is the ceiling.
Tailor it to the role you actually want.
Hiring managers read hundreds of CVs and can spot a generic one in seconds. Pick the three or four skills and experiences that map directly to the job description, and give them the space to land. Everything else is noise.
Use a chronological structure.
Reverse chronological (most recent role first) is the format hiring managers expect, and the one that lets them follow your career at a glance. Stick to it unless you have a specific reason not to.
Follow a clean structure:
- Personal details: name, location, contact details. That’s enough.
- Personal statement: three or four lines that explain who you are professionally and what you’re looking for next.
- Work history: roles in reverse chronological order with dates, titles, and a focused summary of what you delivered.
- Education: qualifications relevant to the role, including grade where it strengthens the application.
- Professional qualifications and systems: accreditations, memberships, and the tools you actually use (Excel, SAP, Workday, Sage, whatever the role expects).
- Achievements: specific, measurable, recent.
- Personal interests: optional, and only if they say something useful about you.
Pick a font that gets out of the way.
Calibri, Cambria or Arial at 11pt. Times New Roman has had its day. Your CV needs to be easy to scan in thirty seconds, not admired for its typography.
Use white space.
A cramped CV signals a cramped thinker. Margins, line spacing and clear section breaks make the document easier to read and easier to take seriously.
Back every claim with a number.
“Helped reduce corporate spend” tells a hiring manager nothing. “Reduced corporate spend from £20,000 to £14,000 within twelve months” tells them everything. Numbers carry credibility that adjectives never will.
Lead with active verbs.
Delivered, built, led, launched, reduced, won. Verbs that show ownership of an outcome will always read better than verbs that describe activity for its own sake.
Include the qualifications that matter.
Relevant accreditations, courses and certifications strengthen the application. A long list of short courses with no bearing on the role weakens it.
What to leave out
Anything that isn’t true.
Background checks have never been more thorough. A small embellishment uncovered six months into a new role is a reputational problem far bigger than the gap it was hiding. Tell the truth, and frame it well.
Information that adds nothing.
Age, nationality, marital status, photographs. None are required, and none should be expected by a credible employer. Include them only if you choose to, and only if they add something to your application.
References.
There’s no need to list them, and no need to write “available on request”. Hiring managers assume both. Use the space for something that strengthens the application instead.
Filler.
If a sentence doesn’t help you get the interview, leave it out. The same applies to long lists of every school you attended, generic hobbies, and qualifications with no relevance to the role.
Negative framing.
No reasons for leaving previous roles, no commentary on former employers, no volunteered weaknesses. Your CV gets you to the interview. The interview is where context belongs.
Jargon and acronyms the reader can’t decode.
The first person to read a CV is often not the technical specialist. If a term needs explaining, explain it or leave it out.
Salary expectations.
That conversation belongs in the interview, and only when the employer raises it.
The final test
Read your CV as if you’re a hiring manager seeing it for the first time, with thirty seconds to decide whether to read on. If the most important thing about you isn’t visible on the first half of the first page, the CV needs another pass.
Need a second opinion? The Creideas team reviews CVs every day and is happy to give honest, direct feedback before you press send.