A CV (curriculum vitae) is a short list of facts about you and your work history, skills and experience. A good CV is essential when looking for work and it is worth spending time getting it right so it sells you to an employer.


In a nutshell, your curriculum vitae, or, as it’s commonly known, “CV”, or resume is a summarised reflection of you. Meaning “course of life” in Latin, the CV represents your professional and, sometimes, personal achievements; consequently, when someone looks at your CV, he or she should be able to get a clear indication of your qualifications before ever meeting you.

CVs have a variety of legitimate functions, but they are mainly used to obtain employment. Hence, when a job posting is advertised, prospective employees submit their CVs for consideration. As you can imagine, the employer receiving this slew of informative documents needs to be able to read through them easily and efficiently.

Keep it Simple

For this reason, CVs are typically kept “short and sweet”. Extraneous language and flowery descriptions are generally frowned upon (though a certain amount of subtle “boasting” is expected), as they detract from the factual information contained in this document. Bullet points and succinct sentences or phrases are commonly used, as they are eye-catching and easy to scan. Though some CV writers do include professional objective sentences or paragraphs, those are typically very concise.

Your CV should:

  • be neat, typed if possible and to the best standard you can achieve in content and layout
  • be short, two sides of a sheet of A4 paper is normally enough
  • be positive, it should emphasise your achievements, strengths, successes and how you have contributed to your employers making a profit (add figures to support facts whenever you can and use positive action words, for example: ‘consulting’, ‘negotiating’, ‘managing’ and so on)
  • make a good impression, this means presenting the facts about yourself in a clear and positive way
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