Why Most CVs Get Ignored
Recruiters spend an average of six to seven seconds scanning a CV before deciding whether to read it properly. With hundreds of applications arriving for every decent role, your document needs to communicate value instantly — or it ends up in the reject pile before you've had a chance to make your case.
The good news: most CVs fail for entirely fixable reasons. Generic objectives, dense walls of text, inconsistent formatting, and a failure to match the language of the job description are the most common culprits. This guide walks you through every section so you can fix them.
Start With the Right Format
There are three main CV formats: chronological, functional, and combination. For most candidates, a reverse-chronological format is the best choice. Recruiters are trained to scan this format, and Applicant Tracking Systems (ATS) parse it most reliably.
- Reverse-chronological: Lists your most recent experience first. Ideal for candidates with a solid, unbroken work history in the same field.
- Functional: Leads with skills rather than job titles. Useful if you're changing careers, but many recruiters are suspicious of it.
- Combination: Blends a skills summary with chronological experience. Good for senior candidates or career changers with relevant transferable skills.
Keep your CV to one or two pages. One page for graduates and early-career candidates; two pages for those with more than five years of experience. Never go beyond two pages unless you're a senior academic or executive.
The Personal Statement: Make It Count
Your personal statement (also called a professional summary or profile) sits at the top of the CV and does a crucial job: it tells the recruiter who you are and why they should keep reading. It should be three to five sentences and answer three questions:
- Who are you professionally? (Your level, field, and specialism)
- What do you bring? (Your key strengths and achievements)
- What are you looking for? (The type of role or environment you want)
Avoid filler phrases like "hard-working team player" or "results-driven professional." These add noise without meaning. Instead, be specific: "Senior software engineer with eight years building distributed systems at scale, specialising in Go and Kubernetes. Led the re-architecture of a payments platform that reduced latency by 40%."
How to Write Work Experience That Sells
This is the heart of your CV. For each role, include: job title, company name, location, and dates (month and year). Then write three to five bullet points per role that describe what you achieved, not just what you were responsible for.
Use the CAR framework — Context, Action, Result — to structure each bullet:
- Weak: "Responsible for managing social media accounts."
- Strong: "Grew Instagram following from 4,000 to 28,000 in 12 months by launching a weekly video series, increasing average post engagement by 220%."
Quantify wherever possible. Numbers — percentages, revenue figures, team sizes, time saved — make achievements concrete and memorable. If you can't use exact figures, use approximations: "cut processing time by roughly half."
Education and Qualifications
List your highest qualification first. Include the institution, degree title, and graduation year. For recent graduates, you can also include relevant modules, dissertations, or GPA if it's strong. For candidates with more than three years of experience, education moves below the work history and becomes a shorter entry.
Professional certifications (AWS, Google, CFA, ACCA, etc.) should be listed either in the education section or a dedicated certifications section. These can be highly valuable to certain employers and deserve prominent placement.
Skills Section: Be Specific, Not Generic
A skills section works best when it's specific and grouped logically. Create subsections such as "Programming Languages," "Tools," or "Languages." List proficiency levels where useful (e.g. "Spanish — professional working proficiency").
Mirror the language of the job description. If the posting says "React" and you write "ReactJS," an ATS might not match them. Read the job description carefully and use exactly the same terminology where it applies to you honestly.
Formatting and Design Rules
- Use a clean, readable font: Calibri, Arial, or Georgia at 10–12pt.
- Keep consistent margins (1–1.5cm) and spacing.
- Use bold sparingly — for job titles and company names only.
- Avoid photos, graphics, tables, and text boxes — ATS software often cannot read them.
- Save as PDF unless the job posting specifies Word format.
Beating the ATS
Most large companies use Applicant Tracking Systems to filter CVs before a human sees them. To pass the ATS filter:
- Use standard section headings ("Work Experience," "Education," "Skills").
- Include keywords from the job description naturally in your bullet points.
- Avoid headers, footers, and columns — ATS parsers often miss content inside them.
- Spell out acronyms at least once: "Search Engine Optimisation (SEO)."
Final Checklist Before You Send
Before submitting any application, check that your CV:
- Has no spelling or grammar errors (run a spell checker and read it aloud).
- Is tailored to this specific job (not a generic copy sent everywhere).
- Contains no unexplained date gaps.
- Has an up-to-date contact email and LinkedIn URL.
- Has been saved with a professional filename: "FirstName-LastName-CV.pdf".
Your CV is a living document. Update it after every significant achievement, not just when you start job hunting. Keep a master version with everything, and create tailored copies for each application.