You're staring at a blinking cursor on a white screen. It’s frustrating. You know you’re good at your job, but figuring out how to do a great cv feels like trying to crack a code that changes every time you hit "send." Honestly, most advice out there is recycled garbage from 1998. If someone tells you to put your "Objective Statement" at the top one more time, you should probably stop listening to them.
Modern hiring is a mess. It's a mix of overworked recruiters glancing at a screen for six seconds and robotic Applicant Tracking Systems (ATS) looking for specific keywords. If you don't nail both, your resume ends up in the digital void. You’ve probably felt that sting—applying to twenty jobs and hearing nothing but crickets. It’s not necessarily your experience that’s the problem. It’s the translation.
The Myth of the "Perfect" Template
People obsess over those fancy Canva templates with the sidebars and the little skill bubbles. Stop. Just stop. Those progress bars that say you’re 80% good at "Communication" mean absolutely nothing. What does 80% communication even look like? Do you stop talking on Thursdays? Recruiters at firms like Google or Goldman Sachs often use software that can't even read those multi-column layouts. They see a jumbled mess of characters.
Keep it simple. Use a single-column format. Use a font that doesn't make people squint—something like Calibri, Georgia, or Arial. Size 10 or 11. It’s boring, yeah, but boring gets read.
The High-Stakes Header and the Profile that Actually Sells
Your contact info needs to be right. Obviously. But you’d be surprised how many people forget to update their phone number or use an email address like skaterboy2005@yahoo.com. Use a professional email. Link your LinkedIn profile, but only if it’s actually updated. If your LinkedIn is a ghost town, leave it off.
Then comes the "Professional Summary." This isn't an "Objective." Nobody cares what you want; they care what you can do for them. Think of this as your elevator pitch. Three sentences, tops. "Digital Marketer with 7 years of experience scaling e-commerce brands" sounds way better than "Seeking a challenging role in a dynamic environment." Be specific. Use numbers. If you managed a budget, say how much. If you led a team, say how many people.
Mastering the Experience Section Without Boring Everyone to Death
This is the meat of the thing. This is where you actually show how to do a great cv by focusing on impact rather than just tasks. Most people write their job descriptions like a grocery list of chores.
- "Responsible for managing inventory."
- "Answered phones and scheduled meetings."
That’s a nap in written form. You want to use the Google "XYZ formula" or the STAR method (Situation, Task, Action, Result). Laszlo Bock, the former Senior VP of People Operations at Google, popularized this idea: Accomplished [X] as measured by [Y], by doing [Z].
Instead of saying you "improved sales," say you "Increased quarterly revenue by 22% ($150k) by implementing a new CRM automated follow-up sequence." See the difference? It's tangible. It's proof.
Don't go back further than ten or fifteen years. Unless you were the person who literally invented the internet, your internship from 2004 isn't relevant anymore. Space is a premium. You're building a marketing document, not a biography. If you have gaps in your work history, don't panic. Long-term unemployment or career breaks are way more common now, especially post-pandemic. Just be honest. If you took two years off to care for a family member or travel, a simple one-line note is better than leaving a suspicious hole that looks like you were in prison.
Dealing with the Robot Overlords (ATS)
Let’s talk about keywords. It feels gross, like you’re gaming a system, but you kind of have to. Look at the job description. What words do they use repeatedly? If they keep saying "Stakeholder Management" and you wrote "Client Relations," change your wording to match theirs. The software is looking for matches.
But don't "white-hat" it by pasting keywords in white text at the bottom. Recruiters aren't stupid. When they highlight the text, those hidden words show up, and your application goes straight to the trash. Just weave the language into your bullet points naturally.
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Education and Skills: The Footer of Your Life
Put your education at the bottom unless you’re a recent grad. If you’ve been working for five years, your degree is a checkbox, not the headline. List your degree, the school, and the year. You don't need your GPA unless it was a perfect 4.0 and you graduated last week.
For skills, split them up. "Hard Skills" are things like Python, Adobe Photoshop, or Financial Auditing. "Soft Skills" are things like Leadership or Adaptability. Honestly? Show, don't tell with soft skills. Instead of listing "Leadership" as a bullet point in a skills list, show it in your experience section by mentioning the team you managed. Anyone can write "Hard Worker." Not everyone can prove they survived a 60% workload increase during a merger.
Why Your Hobbies Sorta Matter (But Usually Don't)
There's a lot of debate about the "Interests" section. If your hobby is "Reading and Traveling," leave it off. Everyone likes those. But if you're a marathon runner, a licensed pilot, or you run a non-profit on the weekends, keep it. It makes you a human being. It gives the interviewer something to talk about in the first three minutes when everyone is awkward.
I once saw a resume for a junior developer who listed "National Level Chess Player." The hiring manager loved it because it signaled strategic thinking. Use your judgment. If it adds flavor, keep it. If it’s just filler, kill it.
The Final Polish
Proofread. Then proofread again. Then have a friend read it. Typos are the silent killers of great careers. A "manger" is a very different thing than a "manager." If you can't be bothered to check your spelling on the document that gets you paid, why should a company trust you with their clients?
Save the file as a PDF. Always. Word docs can get messy depending on what version the recruiter is using. A PDF preserves your formatting exactly as you intended. And name the file something smart. "CV_Final_v2_updated.pdf" is bad. "FirstName_LastName_Resume.pdf" is good. Make it easy for them to find you in their downloads folder.
Actionable Steps to Improve Your CV Right Now
Building a career takes time, but fixing your CV shouldn't take forever. Focus on these specific tweaks today to see a difference in your callback rate.
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- Audit your verbs: Go through every bullet point. Delete "assisted," "helped," and "worked on." Replace them with "spearheaded," "negotiated," "orchestrated," or "developed." Strong verbs imply ownership.
- The "So What?" Test: Read every line of your experience. Ask yourself, "So what?" If a bullet point doesn't explain how your action helped the company make money, save money, or save time, rewrite it until it does.
- Kill the fluff: Remove your physical mailing address. No one is sending you a letter. It’s a privacy risk and a waste of space. City and State are enough.
- Customize for the Top 3: Don't send the same CV to 100 jobs. Pick the top three you actually want and spend an hour tailoring the keywords and the professional summary for those specific roles. Quality beats quantity every single time.
- Check your formatting on mobile: Open your PDF on your phone. Many recruiters check applications while they're on the train or between meetings. If your text is too small or your margins are weird, they’ll just move on.
Understanding how to do a great cv isn't about being the most qualified person on paper; it's about being the most relevant. You are solving a problem for a hiring manager. If your CV clearly states what problem you solve and provides proof that you've solved it before, you're already ahead of 90% of the competition. Stop worrying about making it "perfect" and start making it impactful.