How to write a CV? How to Make a CV? – Tips for 2024

A CV is the most important thing when are we looking for a job, a common question raised by many people is how to write a CV. how to make a CV. Difference between CV and Resume

You just need to know what things to mention, the importance of writing it & what is a good template or format for a CV.

Here we will provide you with complete guidance and solutions to all the questions in your mind. The most important thing to have a Good and impressive CV (Curriculum Vitae) whether you are a student or a professional.

What is the CV? How to write a CV

A CV, complete form curriculum vitae, is a document required when applying for a job. It should tell them to summarize your education, professional history, skills, and achievements enabling you to successfully sell your abilities to potential employers.

Other than your CV, employers may also need to include a cover letter and a completed application form.

The people of the USA and Canada named it as a resume. These documents need to be more concise and follow no particular formatting rules.

Difference between CV and Resume

CV

A CV is a long application document and has no length limit.

It covers in detail all information including academic background, research experience, awards, honors, teaching, publications, and other specific accomplishments

There only two types of curriculum vitae

• Chronological format
• Functional format

 Resume

A resume is a short application document and should not be more than one page.

A resume is a brief/short summary of your skills, qualification, abilities, work history, and educational background.

There are three resume formats types:

• chronological resume format
• functional resume format
• combination resume formats

How long should a CV be?

A standard CV should be no longer than two sides of A4 pages. To save space only need to include the main points of your education and experience. Stick to relevant information and don’t repeat what you have already mentioned in the cover letter.

For a recent graduate, your CV may only take up one. Some medical or academic CVs may be longer depending on your experience and expertise.

How to write a CV in 2023?

What should be included in a CV?

Name, Professional title, and Contact details:

The first part of your CV, positioned at the top of the page, should include your full name, home address, mobile number, and email address.

Once upon a time, it was necessary to mention your full address on your CV. Nowadays; you simply need to list your city and county.

But the one thing that needs to remember when applying for acting or modeling job doesn’t need to include your date of birth or for a photograph.

Personal profile:

A personal profile, also known as a professional profile, career objective, and personal statement, is one of the key aspects of your CV.

A CV profile is a concise statement that highlights your key attributes, it should be short and snappy, and length should not be more than 100 words.

It must place at the beginning of the CV picks out a few relevant skills and achievements, while expressing the aims of your career. A good CV profile focuses on the sector where you are applying for a job and specific to your cover letter.

Here is the following question you must mention in your personal profile

1. Who are you?
2. What are your career goals?
3. What can you offer the company?

Education and Qualifications

List with dates the name of the institutions, qualifications, and grades you achieved. If you have recently left education, you may write your degree or qualification.

But if you have a degree, you can include the most relevant modules, assignments, or projects you did.

 Experience and Employment history :

List your experience in reverse date order, your employment history section gives you a chance to outline your previous jobs, internships, and work experience.

This section should come before education if you have more than one work experience.

When listing each position of employment, state your job title, the employer, the dates you worked, and a line that summarizes the role.

Skills and achievements:

This is where you mention the foreign languages you speak and therefore the IT packages you will competently use.

The key skills that you simply list should be relevant to the work. If you’ve got many job-specific skills you should do a skills-based CV.

Hobbies and interests:

If you feel that your CV is not enough, you can boost your document by adding a hobbies and interests section.

However, relevant interests can provide a more complete picture of you. For example, you can start writing your own blog if you want to be a journalist.

References

Like adding an address on your CV, you can also add the reference. You don’t need to provide the names of referees if you don’t want them.

You also don’t need to say ‘references available upon request’ as most employers do.

Formatting and Spacing Guidelines:

Font: Avoid using fonts such as Comic Sans. Choose something professional like Arial or Times New Roman. Use a font size between 10 and 12 to make sure that potential employers can read your CV. Ensure all fonts and font sizes are consistent throughout.

Heading size: Section headings are a good way to break up your CV. Ensure they stand out by making them larger (font size 14 or 16) and bold.

Length: Standard CV size in the UK is two pages, almost the same as in the USA but so for some Experts and professionals, one or three pages may be more appropriate.

Proofreading and consistency: Your formatting must be consistent throughout your CV to keep it looking admirable. Proofreading is to capture the grammatical error and spelling mistakes you can use Grammarly for it.

Tailor your CV: Accordingly to reflect the requirements of each job. After all, it’s better to send one strong, targeted application, than 10 poor applications.

Saving the file: You can send your CV via e-mail or on the job board. Save your CV as a pdf file. A pdf will also maintain the formatting, so you can be sure that employers will see your CV as you intended.

What not to include

 There are many things you shouldn’t include on your CV, few of them are

A headshot: To include a photo of yourself is very common in many countries like India, Pakistan. But not common in the UK.

Age and date of birth: The only employment and your qualifications dates should be mentioned in the CV. Your age doesn’t affect your ability to do the job, but you shouldn’t mention your age in the CV.

Marital status: Like your age, your marital status and dependents don’t affect your ability to do your job.  So don’t include them on your CV.

Home address: If posting your CV online don’t include your home address, as you could be targeted by fraudsters.

Curriculum vitae: Don’t put at the top of the page.

We summarize the important guideline for your Cv, you should follow these guidelines

1. All text to be left-aligned
2. All dates to be aligned
3. Relevant coursework to be 2 lines max
4. Address, phone, email to be in one line
5. Work experience should come after education
6. Write 2-3 bullet points for each internship
7. No photo
8. Month names are written in full or just first three letters e.g Jun
9. Add LinkedIn profile link below the address
10. Do not add details like nic, father, mother, etc
11. Do not include summary or objective
12. If you have a masters then do not include A/O Level
13. Do not include o-level
14. Always send your CV or Resume in PDF
15. Use action verbs to start a bullet point like analyzed, evaluated, managed, etc
16. All bullets to start with an action verb
17. Each bullet point to be 1 line. Only in extraordinary cases should it be 2 lines