What to put on your CV, section by section

Knowing what to put on your CV is half the battle: the other half is knowing what to leave out. A CV isn't an archive of your life, it's a sales tool. Every section has to answer one question in the recruiter's mind: why should I call you in particular? Let's look at what to include and what to cut, section by section.

Contact details: the essentials, nothing more

This part needs to be short and correct. Include your name, your city or region, a phone number and a professional email address (no addresses like kitten97@). Add your LinkedIn link only if the profile is up to date.

Cut these without hesitation: a photo (unless it's specifically requested), your full date of birth, national insurance number, marital status, religion and your full home address. None of it helps your application, and it can expose you to unconscious bias.

Professional profile: three lines that set the tone

This is the first thing people read. Write two to four lines that say who you are, what you can do and what you're after. For example: Sales assistant with 5 years in retail, specialised in upselling and till management. Looking for a team leader role in high-traffic stores.

Avoid empty phrases: "dynamic, results-driven individual" says nothing. Replace them with numbers and concrete specialisms.

Experience: results, not job descriptions

This is the section that carries the most weight. For each role, list the job title, the company, the dates and then two to four bullet points of results rather than a copy-paste of your job description.

• What to include: actions with strong verbs and numbers (grew sales by 18% in a year, managed a team of 4).
• What to cut: obvious duties, dated or irrelevant roles, long and generic descriptions.

Use reverse-chronological order: most recent job first. If you're switching sectors, use one line to explain the thread running through your path.

Education and skills: relevant and verifiable

Under education, list the qualifications relevant to the role, with the institution and the year. If you have solid experience, your highest qualification is enough: there's no need to list secondary school if you have a degree.

Split your skills into technical (software, languages, certifications) and transferable. For languages, use the CEFR scale (B2, C1), not vague adjectives. For tools, list only what you can genuinely use: they will ask you about it in the interview.

What to always cut from your CV

Some things drag your CV down no matter what:

1. Spelling mistakes and inconsistent formatting.
2. Clichés and self-praise with no evidence.
3. Generic hobbies that just fill space.
4. The line "references available on request" (it's taken as a given).
5. More than two pages, unless you have a long, complex career.

To see how to fit all these sections into a clean layout that ATS systems can read, refer to the complete guide How to write the perfect CV.

Put it into practice

Deciding what to write is easier when you have a structure in front of you. With EuroCV's free CV builder you start from templates that already have all the right sections set up, you write only what matters, and you download a tidy CV in minutes. The Free plan is unlimited: try it and cut everything that doesn't help your application.