Employers often spend only a few seconds on a first look at a CV. In that short time, they need to see your name, what you do and why you're a good fit for the role. An effective CV isn't long or flashy; it presents the right information in the right order, in a layout that's easy to read.
Short answer: An effective CV includes your contact details, a short summary, work experience, education and skills. List your experience from most recent to oldest, write short bullet points under each role describing what you did and what came of it, and use numbers wherever you can. Tailor your CV to each job ad, choose a clean, readable design, keep it to one page if you have little experience and two at most if you have more, and send it as a PDF.
What every CV needs
- Contact details: Name, phone number, a professional email address and your city. You don't need your full address; add your LinkedIn profile if you have one.
- Short summary: Two or three sentences on who you are and what you offer.
- Work experience: Company, job title, dates and bullet points describing what you did.
- Education: School or university, subject and graduation year.
- Skills: Technical skills, software you use and languages (with levels).
- Optional sections: Certificates, projects, volunteering, references.
1. Start with a summary
The summary is the most-read part of a CV. Use specifics rather than generic adjectives:
- Weak: "A dynamic, solution-oriented professional with strong communication skills."
- Strong: "Sales manager with five years' experience in retail. Grew regional sales by 18% in two years with a team of 12. Looking for new responsibilities in customer experience and team leadership."
2. Order and write your experience well
List your experience from most recent to oldest; employers want to see your current role first. Write three to five bullet points under each role and start each one with an action verb:
- Like a list of duties: "Responsible for customer complaints."
- Results-focused: "Cut response time to customer complaints from 48 to 24 hours by introducing a new tracking system."
Results-focused points start with strong verbs such as "developed", "reduced", "managed", "prepared" or "launched", and include a number where possible: a percentage, an amount, a number of people, a time frame.
3. Let the numbers talk
Numbers turn claims into evidence. Instead of "increased sales", write "increased sales by 12% in six months"; instead of "managed a team", write "managed a team of eight". The numbers don't need to be big; they just need to show the scale of your work. If you don't know the exact figure, use an honest approximation, but don't exaggerate; you may be asked about it in an interview.
4. List skills with their levels
Rather than a long list, pick the skills relevant to the job and state your level:
- Technical: "Excel (advanced: pivot tables, VLOOKUP)", "SQL (intermediate)".
- Languages: "Spanish (advanced, C1)", "German (beginner, A2)".
- Soft skills: Instead of listing "teamwork", show it with an example in your experience bullet points.
5. Tailor your CV to each job ad
Sending the same CV to every job is one of the most common mistakes. Before each application:
- Use the key skills and terms from the job ad among the skills you genuinely have.
- Adjust your summary by a sentence or two for the role.
- Bring your most relevant experience and bullet points to the top.
Many companies screen applications with automated systems first; for more on those, see How to write an ATS-friendly CV.
6. Length: how many pages?
- Graduates and up to five years' experience: One page.
- More experience: Two pages at most.
- Academic and some specialist fields: Can be longer because of publications and projects.
To fit the page, shorten older and less relevant experience rather than shrinking the font.
7. Design matters as much as content
- A readable font at 10–12 pt for body text.
- Enough white space: Margins and spacing between sections let your CV breathe.
- Consistency: Dates, headings and bullet points should look the same in every section.
- Simple colours: One accent colour is enough.
- Send it as a PDF: It keeps your layout the same on every device. If the ad specifically asks for a Word file, follow that.
- File name: "First_Last_CV.pdf" rather than "CV.pdf".
8. Photo and personal details
Norms vary by country: in the UK, the US, Canada and Ireland, CVs usually leave out a photo, date of birth and marital status, while in Germany, Turkey and some other countries a photo is common. If you include a photo, it should be recent and professional; see What makes a good CV photo? for details. Never include sensitive identifiers such as a national insurance or social security number.
Checklist before you send
- Are your contact details correct and current?
- Is your summary relevant to the role?
- Is your experience in order from most recent to oldest?
- Do your bullet points start with an action and include results?
- Any typos? (Read it aloud.)
- Is it within one or two pages?
- Is it saved as a PDF with a clear file name?
For the most common mistakes with examples, see Common CV mistakes to avoid.
Why keeping your CV ready matters
Writing your CV from scratch when an opportunity comes up wastes time and leads to rushed mistakes. BUDDA CV makes this easy: you pick one of 17 ready templates, enter your details step by step, and create a professional CV you can download as a PDF in minutes. Your CVs stay saved on your device, so when an opportunity appears, a few small updates are enough. And if you're wondering how strong your CV is, BUDDA CV's CV Analysis feature evaluates the missing sections and overall quality of your CV and suggests improvements.
Last updated: 8 October 2026
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