📄 Writing a CV: checklist

A CV gets skimmed, not read, so everything here is about surviving the first thirty seconds. Write it for the scan first and the interview second.

20 items

1. Job description printed or kept open next to youMatch its language deliberately — a CV that never uses the words in the advert isn't read as matching, whatever it actually says.
2. One consistent format decided before you startReverse chronological, unless there's a real reason not to. Anything cleverer works against you more often than for you.
3. Contact details: phone, email, and a town rather than a full address
4. A summary of two or three lines, written lastNobody can summarise a CV before it exists. Write it once everything else is down.
5. Job title, employer, dates and location for every role
6. Most recent role first
7. Dates given as month and year, not just year
8. Achievements written as outcomes, not duties"Managed a team of six" is a duty. "Cut onboarding time from six weeks to two" is an achievement. Recruiters skim for the second kind.
9. Numbers wherever you honestly have themMoney saved, time cut, people managed, percentage grown. A number stops a bullet point being just a claim.
10. Gaps in employment accounted for in one honest lineA gap explained briefly reads as ordinary life. A gap left silent reads as something to ask about, awkwardly, in the interview.
11. Education listed briefly once you have several years of workYour degree matters less every year you're employed. Move it down, then shrink it.
12. Skills section limited to what you'd actually be tested on
13. No skill listed that you wouldn't want to be asked about"Fluent in French" invites a question in French. Say it only if you can answer one.
14. Formatting checked in the file type it will actually be opened inA CV built in one word processor and read in another moves everything half an inch. Export it and check it again there.
15. No photo, unless the country or industry expects one
16. One typo-check read aloud, not just silentlyReading aloud catches the sentence that makes sense in your head and nowhere else.
17. A second person reads it who doesn't already know what you meant
18. File named sensibly: your name, not "CV_final_v3"
19. Saved as a PDF, so nobody's software rearranges it
20. References available on request, rather than listedListing them means updating the CV every time somebody changes job or phone number. Keep them separate and ready.