Duty lines rewritten as evidence, by job
Each pair is the same job: first the duty line most people write, then the line from a complete CV on this site. Copy a line, or open that CV in the editor and write your own over it.
Helped residents with daily living.
Support up to eight residents a shift on a 30-bed dementia unit with personal care, continence care and meals.
Why it works: The setting, how many people you care for and the care itself are what a care manager looks for first.
Picking and packing orders.
Pick and pack around 160 orders an hour with handheld scanners, at 99.7% accuracy over the last year.
Why it works: Rate and accuracy are how a warehouse measures the job, so they are the evidence.
Dealt with customer complaints.
Resolved 78% of contacts at the first contact over the last year, against a team target of 70%.
Why it works: A result beside its target shows the standard you work to, not just the task.
Answering phones and booking appointments.
Book, move and confirm appointments for six clinicians on the practice system, and send reminder texts.
Why it works: Who you book for, and on what system, tells a practice manager you could start on their desk.
Worked on the sauce section.
Run the sauce section for up to 180 covers on a Saturday, with one commis chef.
Why it works: Covers and the team you run show the level you cook at.
Write evidence, not a duty list
A useful bullet says what you did, how much or how often, and what came of it. Start with a verb such as answered, checked, ran, trained or fixed. Add a number where it helps: how many customers, how often, how big the team or the budget. End with what happened because of it, or the standard you kept to, such as “with no missed deliveries”.
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.
Not every job has an improvement to report. If your work was doing the same thing well every day, give its scale and the standard you kept: “Picked and packed up to 200 orders a shift at 99% accuracy” or “Cleaned 14 offices each evening to the client's checklist”. Doing necessary work reliably is the result.
Not sure where to start? In the CV builder, open your work section and choose “Tasks from a job you have done”. Pick the job, tick only the tasks you did, and add the number, the people or the result to each. A task you leave without a detail goes in with a [prompt] to finish, and the checker reminds you until you do.
Fictional wording example
BeforeDuties 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.
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.
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, say what you did, and put the example closest to the advert first. 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.
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.