If you have ever wondered how to design your CV, you should know that there are some sections that are necessary and others that are not. You might read this and think: “Sure that seems pretty straight forward”, but simply having the headings is not enough. You need the content to match and THAT is how you impress employers.

How To Design Your CV

Personal Statement / Career Summary

This section is industry standard and MUST be included on your CV. While some employers might not require a career summary, it is always a good starting point to any CV. It is the first section of content, right after the personal details. This short summary should include industry buzzwords, eye-catching sentences and highlight your potential:

As you can see, this example is a short but simple summary relating to sales and marketing. For effectiveness, be sure to have only 2 -3 strong sentences to entice the employer to continue reading.

Core Competencies / Skills / Areas of Expertise

This section can either be on its own or merged with the personal statement above. When writing this section of your CV, keep it short and simple. There is no need for long winded sentences and definitely no need to list 20 skills. Choose the ones that appeal most to the job and place them here:

This is where you can include buzzwords or keywords for your industry. Remember to mix between hard and soft skills to show both the professional and personal abilities.

Work Experience / Professional Experience / Experience Highlights

This section usually comes after the skills section on your CV. If your experience is lacking, but you have completed integral projects relating to the job you want, or you have many skills and impressive education – you can place your work experience below these sections. Just remember to keep it simple, concise and to the point. Also, remember to keep the formatting consistent throughout the CV:

You can change how your work experience looks to the employer on the page by:

• Including months beside the dates
• Having a mix of bullets and paragraphs (bullets should be used to emphasise achievements)
• Include a ‘Key Achievements/Key Accomplishments’ section under each job description
• Formatting with different colour schemes or bullet types

Education and Training / Education and Certifications / Training and Development

Many people believe that they need to list all their education details on their CV. A rule of thumb is that if you attended third level education and graduated to receive a degree, any education that came before can be omitted.