6 Must-Have's to Boost your CV (+examples)

Over the past few years, I've seen countless CVs — the good, the bad, and the ugly. My CV has certainly evolved over the years, through working as a CV builder, getting coaching, and getting rejected lmao. It'd be a shame to hurt your chances with something so trivial, so I'd like to share some of the lessons I've learned.

1. Customize your CV

Yes, you should tailor your CV to different job openings. The degree to which you tailor is dependent on your career ambitions. If you’re applying to graphic design positions as well as finance positions, it absolutely makes sense to use 2 different layouts.

Consider the following options (in order of likeliness):

• Usage of industry jargon
• Relevant courses/electives
• Order of bullet points (most important goes first)
• Choice of bullet points (which responsibilities do I highlight?)
• Additional information (what do I include?)
• Tone (formal vs. informal)
• CV layout (formal vs. graphic)

2. Stick to a traditional layout

If you work in marketing, you can obviously include more design elements in your CV than if you work in finance. In fact, you probably should. Nonetheless, some things are constant for current students to make the life of a recruiter easier:

• Stick to 1 page (very rarely would you require 2 pages)
• Stick to the 1-colomn layout (it gives you more space as well)
• Start with education, followed by work experience, and lastly, additional info (some careers warrant a ‘projects’ section). Stick to tradi
• The CV must be reverse chronological (most recent first)
• For each position, include the company name, followed by job title (in a new line), and active period.

3. Show, don't tell

Nobody likes a bragger, nor any empty promises. Rather than saying you have certain skills (e.g. teamwork, leadership, etc.), show these skills through your experiences. Saying “Led a 6 person multi-disciplinary team in automating manual tasks through RPA, saving €1M annually” will show teamwork and leadership skills way better than the commonly used ‘skills’ section. This is why I think the skills section is largely meaningless and should be left out. The only exception to the rule being technical skills, e.g. Python, R, Tableau, etc.

4. Use your prime real estate

Another common pitfall I have seen is the misusage of your prime real estate (the top quarter of your CV). If people only take a few seconds to scan your CV, do you really want to use that to tell them about your generic profile statement? I have seen plenty of ‘professional statements’/’profile summaries’/etc. at the beginning of one’s CV. I guess this one is up to debate, but I’m not a fan. In the best case, the statement is a quick summary of your CV, e.g. “I am a MSc. Management student at London Business School, with a BSc. International Business Administration. Having worked at ABC and XYZ as an intern, and thoroughly enjoyed it, I now seek to pursue a career in financial consulting”. What’s the added benefit? If you had left it out, people would be able to get the same message if they scanned over your experiences. In most cases, however, the statement is a melting pot of business jargon and unsubstantiated claims, e.g. “I am an analytical and driven team player who thrives in dynamic environments. By leveraging my international experiences, I aim to provide your company with a fresh perspective (blabla)”. Personally, I think you can use the space in better ways.

5. Quality over quantity

Common among students is to fill up the CV with any activities that they can come up with, to appear as though they have a lot of experiences. I know, because I did it too. I vividly remember writing “cooking for my family” and “watching youtube videos” as interests in my undergrad application (I did not get in). So, think critically to yourself, does it add any value if I add my highschool? Those summer jobs at Albert Heijn? That 1-week volunteering project when I was 15?

Similarly, you can look at the overall balance of your CV; are you mentioning all the skills that are deemed important in your target field, e.g. creativity in graphic design, or analytical skills in consulting? If you’ve already shown your analytical skills over and over, perhaps it makes sense to replace one bullet point with something more teamwork-like. So, besides thinking critically about whether to include activities, also think about whether you need to include a certain bullet point.

6. Show your impact

Writing effective bullet points is key to showing what impact you’ve had in your previous companies. Of course, this shows how you can (potentially) add value in your future positions, and that is how people will interpret them as well. The way you write bullet points is almost the same as how you’d answer an interview question: in the CAR/STAR format, but with a bit more emphasis on the action. You start each bullet point with an action verb (in the past tense) and should try to quantify the results as much as possible. You can use vmock.com to help you out with this (the first 3 uploads are free, and then you can refer people for more uploads).