Whether you’re developing new products or improving existing ones, your creative brain is always finding new ways to exceed customer expectations.
But first, you need a CV that’s going to exceed the recruiter’s expectations and you can create just that using our step-by-step guide below.
We’ve also put together a product developer CV example to inspire your own.
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Product Developer CV example
This CV example illustrates the ideal structure and format for your Product Developer CV, making it easy for busy hiring managers to quickly identify your suitability for the jobs you’re applying for,
It also gives some guidance on the skills, experience and qualifications you should emphasise in your own CV.
Product Developer CV layout and format
Hiring managers and recruiters are frequently overloaded with applications, and if they can’t identify the relevant information in your CV within a few seconds, your application may be overlooked.
To avoid this, it’s essential to format and structure your CV in a manner that makes it simple to pick out the most important information, even if the reader is in a rush.
Tips for formatting your Product Developer CV
- Length: Your CV should always be limited to two sides of A4, regardless of whether you have a year or three decades of experience. With recruiters juggling multiple responsibilities, they don’t have time to sift through lengthy applications.
- Readability: Help out time-strapped recruiters by formatting your CV for easy reading. Using lots of bullet points and lists will help them to skim through your info, while clearly formatted headings will allow them to navigate towards the content which is most useful to them.
- Design: When it comes to CV design, it’s best to keep things simple and sleek. While elaborate designs certainly command attention, it’s not always for the right reasons! Readability is key, so whatever you choose to do, make sure you prioritise readability above everything.
- Photos: You can add a profile photo to your CV, if you want to add some personality to it, but they are not a requirement the UK, so you don’t have to.
Quick tip: Creating a professional CV style can be difficult and time-consuming when using Microsoft Word or Google Docs. To create a winning CV quickly, try our quick-and-easy CV Builder and use one of their eye-catching professional CV templates.
CV structure
When writing your CV, it’s important to structure the content into the following key sections to ensure easy digestion by busy recruiters and hiring managers:
- Contact details: List your contact details at the top of your CV to prevent them from being overlooked.
- Profile: Begin with an introductory paragraph that captures recruiters’ attention and summarises what you have to offer employers.
- Work experience/career history: List your relevant work experience in reverse chronological order, starting with your current position.
- Education: Provide a brief summary of your education and qualifications.
- Interests and hobbies: An optional section to showcase any hobbies that highlight transferable skills relevant to your target jobs.
Now you understand the basic layout of a CV, here’s what you should include in each section of yours.
Contact Details
Write your contact details in the top corner of your CV, so that they’re easy to find but don’t take up too much space.
You only need to list your basic details, such as:
- Mobile number
- Email address
- Location – Don’t list your full address. Your town or city, such as ‘Norwich’ or ‘Coventry’ is perfect.
- LinkedIn profile or portfolio URL – Remember to update these before listing them on an application.
Product Developer CV Profile
Make a strong first impression with recruiters by starting your CV with an impactful profile (or personal statement for junior applicants).
This short introduction paragraph should summarise your skills, experience, and knowledge, highlighting your suitability for the job.
It should be compelling enough to encourage recruiters to read through the rest of your CV.
CV profile writing tips:
- Make it short and sharp: When it comes to CV profile length, less is more, as recruiters are often time-strapped. Aim for around of 3-5 persuasive lines.
- Tailor it: No matter how much time you put into your CV profile, it won’t impress if it’s irrelevant to the role you’re applying for. Before you start writing, make a list of the skills, knowledge and experience your target employer is looking for. Then, make sure to mention them in your CV profile and throughout the rest of your application.
- Don’t add an objective: Career goals and objectives are best suited to your cover letter, so don’t waste space with them in your CV profile.
- Avoid generic phrases: Clichés like “blue-sky thinker with a go-getter attitude” might sound impressive to you, but they don’t actually tell the recruiter much about you. Concentrate on highlighting hard facts and skills, as recruiters are more likely to take these on board.
Example CV profile for a Product Developer
What to include in your Product Developer CV profile?
- Experience overview: Demonstrate your suitability for your target jobs by giving a high level summary of your previous work work experience, including the industries you have worked in, types of employer, and the type of roles you have previous experience of.
- Targeted skills: Employers need to know what skills you can bring to their organisation, and ideally they want to see skills that match their job vacancy. So, research your target roles thoroughly and add the most important Product Developer skills to your profile.
- Key qualifications: Be sure to outline your relevant Product Developer qualifications, so that anyone reading the CV can instantly see you are qualified for the jobs you are applying to.
Quick tip: If you are finding it difficult to write an attention-grabbing CV profile, choose from hundreds of pre-written profiles across all industries, and add one to your CV with one click in our quick-and-easy CV Builder. All profiles are written by recruitment experts and easily tailored to suit your unique skillset.
Core skills section
To ensure that your most relevant skills catch the eye of readers, create a core skills section below your profile.
This section should be presented in 2-3 columns of bullet points highlighting your applicable skills. Before crafting this section, carefully examine the job description and create a list of any required skills, specialisms, or knowledge.
Use this list to include the necessary information in your section and present yourself as the ideal match for the position.
Important skills for your Product Developer CV
Product design – Creating and designing new products from scratch that are visually appealing, functional, and meet the needs of the target audience.
Project management – Managing projects from start to finish, ensuring that they are completed on time, within budget, and to the required standard.
Prototyping – Creating physical or digital prototypes of new products to test their functionality and identify any areas for improvement.
Manufacturing knowledge – Utilising knowledge of the manufacturing process, including materials, production techniques, and quality control standards.
Market research – Conducting thorough market research to identify potential customer needs and preferences, and to gather insights into competitor products.
Trend analysis – Staying up to date with the latest trends in the industry and identifying opportunities for new products or product enhancements.
Technical writing – Creating clear and concise technical specifications and product documentation for use by manufacturing teams.
Cross-functional collaboration – Working effectively with cross-functional teams, including designers, engineers, marketing professionals, and other stakeholders.
Problem resolution – Identifying and solving problems that arise during the product development process, such as design flaws, technical challenges, or production issues.
Quick tip: Our quick-and-easy CV Builder has thousands of in-demand skills for all industries and professions, that can be added to your CV in seconds – This will save you time and ensure you get noticed by recruiters.
Work experience section
By now, you’ll have hooked the reader’s attention and need to show them how you apply your skills and knowledge in the workplace, to benefit your employers.
So, starting with your most recent role and working backwards to your older roles, create a thorough summary of your career history to date.
If you’ve held several roles and are struggling for space, cut down the descriptions for your oldest jobs.
Structuring each job
Recruiters will be keen to gain a better idea of where you’ve worked and how you apply your skill-set in the workplace.
However, if they’re faced with huge, hard-to-read paragraphs, they may just gloss over it and move onto the next application.
To avoid this, use the simple 3-step role structure, as shown below:
Outline
Provide a brief overview of the job as a whole, such as what the overriding purpose of your job was and what type of company you worked for.
Key responsibilities
Using easy-to-read bullet points, note down your day-to-day responsibilities in the role.
Make sure to showcase how you used your hard sector skills and knowledge.
Key achievements
To finish off each role and prove the impact you made, list 1-3 stand out achievements, results or accomplishments.
This could be anything which had a positive outcome for the company you worked for, or perhaps a client/customer.
Where applicable, quantify your examples with facts and figures.
Sample job description for a Product Developer CV
Outline
Supervise contractors/vendors who help build propriety products, while ensuring deadlines are met, for a consultancy that specialises in creating state-of-the-art power generators that help businesses increase efficiency, reduce costs, and improve customer interactions.
Key Responsibilities
- Monitor competitor activity and remain abreast of trends to inform product strategies.
- Generate digital/print drawings which translate requirements into practical and visually appealing features.
- Align business objectives with customer needs by reviewing product development specifications, determining feasibility, preparing budgets, and testing prototypes.
- Conduct extensive market research to identify potential problems and capture profitable opportunities within various industries.
Quick tip: Create impressive job descriptions easily in our quick-and-easy CV Builder by adding pre-written job phrases for every industry and career stage.
Education and qualifications
Although there should be mentions of your highest and most relevant qualifications earlier on in your CV, save your exhaustive list of qualifications for the bottom.
If you’re an experienced candidate, simply include the qualifications that are highly relevant to Product Developer roles.
However, less experienced candidates can provide a more thorough list of qualifications, including A-Levels and GCSEs.
You can also dedicate more space to your degree, discussing relevant exams, assignments and modules in more detail, if your target employers consider them to be important.
Hobbies and interests
Although this is an optional section, it can be useful if your hobbies and interests will add further depth to your CV.
Interests which are related to the sector you are applying to, or which show transferable skills like leadership or teamwork, can worth listing.
On the other hand, generic hobbies like “going out with friends” won’t add any value to your application, so are best left off your CV.
Once you’ve written your Product Developer CV, you should proofread it several times to ensure that there are no typos or grammatical errors.
With a tailored punchy profile that showcases your relevant experience and skills, paired with well-structured role descriptions, you’ll be able to impress employers and land interviews.
Good luck with your next job application!