Contact Information

Lead in with your contact information – your name, a phone number and an email address. It’s important that this is at the top of your CV so that from the get-go it’s apparent who you are, and how someone can contact you if they would like to schedule an interview or similar. Make sure to include both phone and email address, so that there are multiple avenues by which a recruiter or hiring manager can contact you.

Personal Statements

Personal Statements are an obvious, but often difficult one to write. Talking about yourself in the third person can be an awkward exercise for many, but it’s essential to provide a brief summary about who you are. Consider what your current manager or colleagues might say about you and use that as a starting point. If paragraphs are a struggle:

• Use bullet points instead, to help your various statements stand out, and;
• Always keep things punchy – leave room to talk about yourself more in the interview or over the phone.

Key Skills

You should list your Key Skills out on your CV, in the order that they apply to the role you’re going for. Often when looking through CV’s, a recruiter will be looking for specific elements to jump out so that they can verify efficacy for a role before continuing with reviewing your CV. Take a look through the job description to identify the skills they’re searching for, and then if you have those aligning in your CV, bring them to the top of the list for easier access by the recruiter.

Job History

In equal weight with your education and qualifications, your job history will help a recruiter or hiring manager understand what roles you’ve held, and what abilities you may have develop in your time there. In certain positions, and levels of seniority, your Job History can outweigh your qualifications, so it’s important to be thorough.

“Put your most recent job at the top, and always include month and year. We need to see longevity for many roles, and if the newest role – usually your most applicable one for the job you’re applying for – is at the end, then it can be a negative having to traipse through work history from high school.” You can format it similar to this:

Job Title, March 2024 to Present (or end date, i.e. September 2024)

Company Name‍

• You’ll then want to include a few brief bullet points, that;
• Describe the role and the tasks you fulfilled, but;
• Keep it concise to avoid it taking up too much space.

Education & Qualifications

Starting with the most recent and going backwards, include your education and qualifications as they’re relevant to any given role. The more senior you get in an industry, the less important things such as your High School pass-rate become, and instead your tertiary qualifications, courses, certificates, apprenticeships and the like move to the priority.

Personal Achievements

This is a great opportunity to gloat, slightly. Achievements that you’re proud of, awards you may have won, publications you contributed to, or scenarios where you presented to an industry body/group are all worth including to show your commitment outside of work. Personal Achievements can provide great talking points in interviews, can show your additional expertise outside the scope of your regular role, and can help explain shifts in career trajectory, or a reposition in industry.

References

Can be by request. The old-school method is that they must be included on your CV to be up-front, as proof that they exist. However, given references aren’t needed until the offer stage, and businesses may require a differing number of valid references, it’s fine to not include them up front. You could also include here if there are some references who are specifically available to provide a written reference, however the preference will always be for a phone call, or a form to a business email address, to ensure the person is genuine.

‍