In this module, we will teach you how to write a great CV! #
A CV, or “Curriculum Vitae,” is a comprehensive document that presents an overview of a person’s professional and educational history. It typically includes details such as:
- Personal information (e.g., name, contact details).
- Education and qualifications.
- Work experience.
- Skills and competencies.
- Publications, presentations, and other relevant accomplishments (especially for academic or research-focused positions).
- First Impressions Matter: Employers often receive dozens, if not hundreds, of applications for a single job opening. An excellent CV can make you stand out from the crowd, giving you a competitive edge.
- Reflects Your Professionalism: An organized, well-structured CV free of errors shows that you are thorough and attentive to detail. Such qualities are highly valued in many professions.
- Showcases Your Accomplishments: An excellent CV will not just list your job roles but will also highlight your achievements within those roles. This gives employers a clear picture of what you bring to the table.
In summary, your CV is often the first (and sometimes the only) chance you get to make an impression on a potential employer. An excellent CV showcases your skills, experience, and value, making it easier for employers to see why you’d be a great fit for their team.
Personal details and education #
** If you need a CV template before you begin, click here!
The first section of to your CV are the Personal Details and Education section. For your personal details, please include your phone, email, and LinkedIn profile.
The first section of to your CV are the Personal Details and Education section. For your personal details, please include your phone, email, and LinkedIn profile.
Here is an amazing example of the education section of a CV.
Ensure you put your university, degree and graduation date. Graduation date is particurlary important as employers use this information for recruiting and certain roles are only available for specific graduation dates.
Key modules are useful to include, especially if you’re doing a module directrly applicalbe to the role you’re applying. For example, if you’re applying for a networking enginerring role, a module in “Operating systems and Computer Networks” would stand out to employers.
Including any Awards you’ve won shows that you’re a great candiate, so make sure to include thsese.
Note: You do not need to include your A Level grades if they put you at a disadvantage. Similar with GCSE grades, you can use this format: “Achieved 10 A* – C equivalent with Mathematics and English Language”. Be strategic – use your grades if they put you at an advantage, otherwise omit them.
Skills #
The next section should be your skills section. We know that recruiters only look at CVs for 6-8 seconds, so if you’re applying for a Java developer role, then as soon as they look at your CV, you want them to know that you have the relevant programming skills. People often put their technical skills at the bottom of the CV, but that means that the recruiter might miss that you have relevant skills within those 6-8 seconds, so make your skills section stands out by putting it at the top of your CV!
Feel free to be flexible with the section. “Scientific Libraries” and “Database” are just example sections. Depending on the role you’re applying for, adjust it accordingly
Work Experience #
** If you don’t have much experience and don’t know what to do, click here!
The next section is Work Experience. We recommend you stick to 3 bullet points, and trying to follow the CAR framework where you can ( Context, Action, Reflection ). This framework is particularly effective as it ensures you effectively communicate how you impacted the company you worked at. Companies are hiring to receive a return on investment, so they want to know that you will be impactful while you’re there. This is why your CV must be results orientated.
Here is an example how the CAR format can elevate your CV.
From these two examples, we can clearly see that the example using the CAR technique improved their descriptions because:
It includes the programming languages, tools & technologies used to develop the tool.
We can specifically see the specific actions the person took: they implemented an algorithm to do the data scraping, cleaning and strcuture data, which shows the employer that they understand their project in detail and did impactful work.
Impact metrics ( “ 12% more accurate” ) show that the intern made tangible results, which shows that they were a valuable asset to the company and drove impact.
Work experience does not need to necessarily be a formal internship or work experience program. It could be a hackathon, a competition, an insight day, a mentoring program, retail job etc. As long as you gained tangible experience and drove impact, you can include it on your CV. However, we do recommend if you’re applying for a technical role and have no technical experience, put your Technical Projects section before your Work Experience section.
Projects and extra-curriculars #
The next section is the technical projects section. ( You can learn how to create a technical project here )
This is particularly useful if you don’t have much professional work experience. It can be a project you did in your own spare time, an extracurricular project or a university project. Any project you’ve done works. Again, we follow the same CAR format.
Here is an example.
Similar to the work experience example above, the student has stated the context of their project and the tools & technologies they used. They have discussed key actions they took that were important to developing the project and stated how their project had real world application, illustrated with an impact metric.
If you have space on your CV, you can include an extra-curriculars section, following the same CAR format, otherwise you can have a small one lined section called Hobbies and Interests, just to have extra stuff to talk bout in interview.
Now that you’ve completed your CV, it’s time to ACE your interviews!
Click here to learn more about the interview process.