Example of a good CV

Admin and business support staff are employed to carry out tasks that support organisations to function and can involve a range of skills from database management and reporting, to diary management and call handling. A successful admin/business support CV (curriculum vitae)  should show how the candidate supports senior figures in the organisation to deliver their services.

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The profile gives a clear high-level explanation of the candidate's experience including the industries she has worked in and the seniority of the people she supports - and includes an impactful headline to draw recruiters' attention in. It also summarises the most important tasks that she covers in her roles - such as internal communications and professional documentation.

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The core skills section highlight important business support duties that employers and recruiters will be looking for in a CV, such as typing at speed, diary management and call handling.  These bullet points jump out at the reader upon opening the CV - instantly showing the candidate's suitability.

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Role descriptions start with a brief outline that tells readers what the employer does, who the candidates supports within the business and they type of work being supported. Bullet pointed responsibilities go on to describe regular activities such as arranging internal events, recording client data and travel arrangement - and also show how these actions help managers and the business as a whole.

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Older roles are squeezed down to short summaries in order to keep the CV short whilst giving employers just enough information to see the candidate's background.

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Education is kept brief and highlights the qualifications that are important to hiring managers in the business support field, such as Secretarial Diploma and Advanced Legal Communications. A simple format and font is used throughout the CV to create a pleasant reading experience for recruiters and employers.

Customer service staff act as the "face" of their employer; ensuring that customers are looked after whilst also acting in the best interest of the business. Your customer service CV should show employers that you are professional yet friendly, with a sound knowledge of the industry you operate in. It should also be 2 pages long or less with a simplistic design.

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The profile gives a clear indication of the types of businesses that the candidate has worked in; shows how they interact with customers in their roles, solve problems, and the services they are familiar with providing. It is also heavily tailored towards the job description of the role being applied for, to ensure the candidate looks perfect for the job in question.

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The core skills highlight important customer services strengths that employers will be searching for such as complaint handling and transaction processing. This candidate also highlights their language skills because being multilingual could be very useful in a customer facing role.

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Role descriptions start with a brief description of the employers service and explain how the candidate interacts with customers to help provide these services Bullet pointed responsibilities explain day-to-day activities and how each one helps customers and supports the employers goals A good key achievement has been added which quantifies the candidate's value by showing the percentage of complaints that have been resolved within a targeted time.

CVs in UK format for educators such as teachers and lecturers need to project the candidate's expert subject knowledge whilst also demonstrating their abilities to educate their students successfully and work collaboratively with other staff members.

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The profile provides an overview of all the key information that an education institution needs to know such as;

• Age of students worked with
• Type of institution worked in School/University/College etc.
• Subjects and Curriculum taught
• Number of students worked with

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The core skills highlight important skills that a primary school would look for in this case, like behaviour management, classroom preparation and SEN support These bullet points jump out at the reader upon opening the CV - instantly showing the candidate's suitability for teaching assistant roles.

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Role descriptions start with a brief description of the education institution, the type of curriculum being taught and who the candidate reports to and supports. Bullet pointed responsibilities explain day-to-day activities and how each one helps to educate students as well as support the functioning of the school. Older and less relevant roles at the bottom of the CV are shortened to list format, in order to save space and ensure readers focus on earlier roles.

A strong modern accounting or finance CV should demonstrate the candidate's ability to manage an organisation's financial affairs by detailing their qualifications, knowledge of finance systems & processes and ability to create cost saving or improve processes.

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The profile confirms the candidate's qualified status, gives an outline of areas of expertise and the types & size of organisations worked for, fulfilling its purpose of catching the recruiter's eye.

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The core skills section highlights skills that are valued by finance teams such as finance systems & controls, asset management and internal auditing. These bullet points jump out at the reader upon opening the CV - instantly showing the candidate's suitability for accountant roles.

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Role descriptions start by outlining the role and organisation, who the candidate reports to and benchmark figures such as budget managed and number of people managed etc. Responsibilities show exactly which financial processes have been managed/implemented and how they have improved processes or saved money for the company. They also show colleagues, stakeholders and external parties that the candidate liaises with. Key achievements that show impressive amounts of money saved for the firm are a great way to show quantifiable value to employers and really make the CV stand out.

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Education and professional memberships are often important in financial roles as many positions require qualifications for companies to abide by laws and regulations - so they are made bold and clear.

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Accounting and finance IT system knowledge is highlighted as employers will have their own systems and need to know whether candidates can use them or not. Quick tip: To ensure your CV is opened every time you apply for a job, you will need a strong cover letter - learn how to write a cover letter here.

The main challenge that junior/teenager candidates coming straight from school, college or university face, is that they often lack relevant work experience. However, this can be addressed by placing more focus on non-work related experience such as education, personal projects, volunteering etc. and ensuring the content is tailored towards the jobs you are applying for. This candidate is a music graduate, applying for roles in the music-management space, but they have no paid employment experience in the profession.

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The profile or personal statement focuses on the candidate's academic achievements and extra-curricular activities as they are all music industry related. It doesn't mention any of the candidate's paid employment as none of it is relevant to music management.

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The core skills section again focuses on academic achievements such as the degree in music management and skills that have been learnt outside of work, such as instrument playing and music production software. An extra section called "Ongoing Musical Pursuits" has been added to show recruitment consultants that the candidate is actively involved in the music industry, even though their current full-time job may not be music oriented.

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Role descriptions are kept brief as music industry recruiters will not be interested in the candidate's part-time retail sales roles. Roles are still well structured and written to ensure the CV remains professional throughout.

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Education sections for junior candidates needs to be detailed in order to demonstrate skills and knowledge that will not yet have been gained through work experience. This candidate details relevant personal music projects, music production software and shows organisational skills that could be applied in the workplace.

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Interests are not often necessary for experienced workers, but junior candidates can use them to showcase hobbies and interests that are related to their chosen profession. Team sports such as football, can be a great way to showcase interpersonal skills like teamwork, communication, motivation and leadership. Here the candidate backs up their technical skills and passion for music by writing about relevant musical pursuits to finalise the perfect CV.

The key to an interview winning IT CV, is to blend your technical knowledge with straight-forward business language, so that your CV will impress both technical and non-technical people alike. An IT CV needs to contain all of the important technical key words that IT specialists will look for, but also be written in a way that can be understood by non-IT staff like recruiters and non-IT hiring managers.

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The profile (or objective/summary) for this IT support candidate gives a summary of their IT knowledge with the type and size of companies they have experience working for. It also explains how their work supports the running of their employer's business to demonstrate their value.

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The core skills section highlights important qualifications that recruiters will be scanning for such as CCNA and ITIL, whilst also including core tech skills that will be expected of IT support staff such as troubleshooting and SLAs. If you have lots of qualifications and technical skills then you can swap these round when applying for different roles to ensure that you are highlighting the most relevant knowledge to employers for each vacancy.

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Role descriptions  start with an outline that explains where the candidate sits within the business, the type of support they provide and amount of users they are responsible for. Responsibilities go into details around daily activities such as hardware installation and user support whilst being sure to include as many technologies as possible in your CV, to show employers the systems and hardware the candidate is capable of working with. Key Achievements are nicely quantified by including numbers of staff moved during relocation and percentage of issues dealt with inside SLA time frames.

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Education sections for IT candidates can tend to be a bit larger than other sectors due to the large amounts of qualifications required to work with certain systems. Be sure to include all of your relevant qualifications to ensure that your CV will be found in relevant recruiter searches. The most important qualifications should be repeated in your profile and/or core skills section. You can also add a Technical Skills section to reinforce some of your more generic skills that aren't limited to particular makes/models.

The overall goal of a management CV is to show recruiters that you are able to lead teams in an efficient way that is beneficial to the business. These benefits will differ depending on your industry, but usually include objectives like generating revenue, managing & improving operations, saving costs and serving client needs.

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The profile for this Estate Management candidate outlines the industry he operates in and includes lots of important management terms like budget management, operations and team leadership

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The core skills section includes important factors that employers will look for when recruiting somebody to manage a part of their business; including example figures of budgets managed and client relationships.

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Role descriptions start by outlining important facts such as, number of people managed and type of clients served, as well as the overall goal of the candidate's management role. Responsibilities detail day-to-day tasks, showing how they impact customers and the business as a whole. In management CVs, it's important to show how you can lead teams and organise individuals to achieve common goals and keep clients happy. Key Achievements show solid quantifiable facts that impact the business such as increase in revenues and a decrease in customer complaints. 

The function of marketing within any business is to drive leads to a website or physical shop, in order for them to be converted into customers. So your marketing CV should explain how your skills and actions are used within marketing campaigns, and how you've helped the business to win new customers. Marketing is hugely focused around results, so your CV should feature lots of facts and figures to prove the value that you've added.

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The profile for this candidate highlights her specialism in digital marketing and gives an overview of the types of campaigns she has run for previous employers and the results she has achieved. Essentially the profile explains how the candidate can help businesses to increase their customer base and demonstrates her value to potential employers.

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The core skills section highlights the marketing tactics she uses in her campaigns to give recruiters a quick snapshot of her marketing skill set. This includes important digital marketing terminology such as SEO  and Social Media Marketing.

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Role descriptions  start with an outline of where the candidate sits within the business and what the overall goal of the role is. Responsibilities delve into the detail of her campaigns, showing what tactics are engaged, who she interacts with and technologies and methods used to achieve marketing goals. The key achievement sections give an excellent summary of a recent marketing campaign with a good amount of figures to quantify her success such as number of new customers gained and revenue generated.

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This particular candidate has no formal marketing qualifications so she has kept her education section very brief. If you are a digital marketer, you can also check out our best CV templates and best CV formats.

Project managers are mostly employed to oversee one or more large transitions that drive some form of improvement within an organisation. Whether it's an office relocation, or installation of a new IT system, your project management CV needs to show that you are capable of taking an employer from A to B in an efficient and timely manner.

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The profile gives an overview of the type of projects that the candidate manages (IT infrastructure) and gives a rough idea of the types of firms he usually works for and the value of an average project he would lead. This information gives recruiters an instant indication of the companies and projects this candidate is suited for.

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The core skills section goes into a bit more detail around the candidate's technical skills, such as web conferencing and instant messaging, as well as recognised project management qualifications like Prince2. These are the type of attributes that project management recruiters will have been briefed to look for, so it pays to highlight them.

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Role descriptions start with a high level overview of the project to show readers the size and scale of the project as well as where the candidate sits in the hierarchy. Responsibilities delve into the detail of daily/weekly tasks such as planning, reporting and leading workshops. It's important to show interaction with colleagues and stakeholders as well as showing how actions continually driving the project forward. Key achievements round up some impressive figures from the project such as money and time saved on completion.

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Due to the nature of project management, candidates will sometimes have worked for a large number of different employers over their career,(especially contractors) so older roles can be organised into list format to save space.

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The education section only includes relevant project management and technical qualifications because that is all recruiters will want to see - the candidate can afford to leave out traditional education such as A levels, to save space if need be.

Sales staff are expected to generate income for businesses by consistently closing sales, therefore your sales CV needs to prove that you can do this. Sales is a results driven profession with a huge focus on results and figures, so employers will expect to see this reflected in your CV

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The profile gives an overview of the candidate's sales skills such as account management, sales growth and relationship management; as well as showcasing product and service knowledge which is very important in sales roles.

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The core skills section provides a good mix of sales skills and product knowledge in order to give a quick snapshot of relevant attributes to recruiters. This makes the CV much more likely to pass the initial scan.

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Role descriptions start with an outline that shows the candidate's position in the business and which area she is responsible for driving sales in. Responsibilities show the steps taken to achieve sales such as lead generation, networking and earning referrals. The candidate also showcases more in-depth product knowledge and details levels of customer and colleague interaction. Quantifiable key achievements are crucial to a sales CV, so this candidate has included revenue generated, number of new customers acquired and increase in portfolio size.

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Sales teams like to employ competitive individuals so this candidate has included some industry awards to showcase here abilities in that area.

CV profile

Get the attention of busy employers by heading your CV with an enticing profile - this is key to making a good CV. It should be a short few sentences which sum up your most important transferable skills and educational achievements. It needs to pack a punch, and should be tailored to the jobs you are applying for – so do your research beforehand.

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Education

As a school leaver, the majority of your CV should be based around your education, so add this section to the upper part of your CV. Provide the details of the school you attended, grades you achieved, and any clubs or extra responsibilities you took on.

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Experience

If you have any work experience, be sure to add it – even of it’s only part-time or voluntary work. Structure the roles to make them easy for recruiters to read by adding:

• An outline to show who you worked for and an overview of the job
• Bullet pointed responsibilities to show your input
• Highlighted achievements to show the impact you made

CV profile tips

Make a big first impression by heading your CV with an elevator-pitch style intro paragraph. This should be a short sharp paragraph which summarises your waiting skills and experience, and encourages recruiters to delve further into your CV

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Work experience

Show potential employers your true value by giving detailed but easy-to-read descriptions of your previous jobs. Start with an outline which describes the type of restaurant you worked at, and then bullet point your duties, being sure to draw out in-demand skills.

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Education

Add your education towards the bottom of your CV, ensuring that you highlight any customer service focused qualifications.

CV profile

The top of your CV should host an impressive CV profile which has the effect of drawing recruiters in and making them want to learn more about you. It should be a short but effective paragraph which gives readers a summary of your most important legal skills and experience.

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Work experience

Prove your value by including detailed work experience descriptions to showcase your ability to apply your skills in the workplace. Start with an outline to show who your employer is, and then bullet point responsibilities and notable achievements.

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Education

Add your education towards the bottom of your CV, ensuring that you highlight any legal qualifications.