Select the right experience
Begin with a complete private timeline so you can check dates, then choose what belongs in this application. Give the most space to recent roles that prove essential criteria. Older or less relevant jobs can be reduced to title, organisation and dates when they establish continuity without adding new evidence.
Do not hide a real job title behind a more impressive invention. You can add a plain-English qualifier if an internal title is unclear, but accuracy matters. Include location only if it helps distinguish organisations. Use the same month-and-year date style throughout.
- Paid jobs and temporary work.
- Internships, placements and shadowing with genuine tasks.
- Volunteering and committee responsibility.
- Freelance, personal or course projects relevant to the role.
Write evidence, not a duty list
A useful bullet often contains an action, context and result. Start with a precise verb such as coordinated, analysed, resolved or created. Add scale where it is meaningful: weekly frequency, team size, number of records, budget or audience. Finish with the benefit, decision or standard met.
Numbers should clarify rather than decorate. Use only figures you can explain and do not imply causation you did not establish. If a result was shared, name your contribution: ‘analysed survey responses for a team report’ is more credible than claiming the whole project.
Duties included customer service and helping with events.
AfterAnswered visitor queries and coordinated registration for six community events of up to 80 attendees, keeping arrival lists accurate during busy periods.
Work with limited or indirect experience
For a first CV, small examples can demonstrate real behaviour. A school event may show cash handling; caring may show planning and responsibility; a group project may show research and deadlines. State the setting honestly and focus on what you did. See finding evidence without a formal job for more prompts.
Career changers should retain recognisable titles and translate the content. A restaurant manager applying for project support might foreground schedules, suppliers, budgets, action logs and risks while keeping enough hospitality context to show scale.
- Describe the task or problem.
- Name your action and level of responsibility.
- Show a result, feedback or completed output.
- Connect the example to the vacancy through ordering and word choice.
Handle gaps and checks
A gap does not require a defensive essay. If it helps the timeline, use a brief neutral label such as ‘career break for caring responsibilities’ and add relevant activity only when truthful. Never expose someone else’s medical or personal information. The employment-gap guide shows where to place an explanation and gives three honest before-and-after timeline examples. Application forms may ask for a full history even when a CV is selective, so follow their instructions.
Check every employer name, title, date and verb tense. Current work uses present tense for ongoing duties and past tense for completed achievements; previous roles use past tense. Remove internal acronyms. Finally, compare the first two bullets of your latest role with the top requirements: your strongest match should not be buried.