College CV builder for placements

A CV written at college or university has a different job from one written ten years into a career. Employers hiring for placements, internships, graduate schemes or term-time shifts expect a short work history, so they look harder at your course, your results and what you did around them.

What goes on a student or graduate CV?

Use five sections. Your name, phone number, email and town go above them, and the builder has a place for each one:

• Personal statement: three or four lines naming your course, one proven strength and the job you're after, written in the summary step
• Education: course title, university or college, the year you graduate and your classification or predicted grade
• Work experience: placements, internships, part-time jobs and volunteering, newest first, each entered in your work history
• Positions of responsibility: society committee roles, team captaincy, course rep or student ambassador work, in the optional Affiliations section
• Skills and interests: software, lab techniques and languages with a level in the skills step, and an interest or two under Additional Information

Each design in the CV templates below handles margins and spacing, so a page full of modules, jobs and societies still looks neat.

How do I list my degree, modules and dissertation?

Give your degree its own education entry, with modules and your dissertation in its details. In the builder, choose "Enter a different degree" and type it the UK way with your classification, such as "BEng (Hons), 2:1", or a predicted grade. Add your subject as the field of study and the year you graduate or expect to. Under "Add details", list two or three relevant modules, then one line on your dissertation: "Modelled heat loss in a pilot-scale distillation column, awarded a first." Add A levels, Highers or the Leaving Certificate as a shorter entry below, with grades on one line.

At a further education college, write out your BTEC, T level or Access to HE course in full with your predicted grades, and keep GCSEs to one line. The builder starts education below your work history, so move it above on the preview while your course is your strongest point, and back once a placement says more. Our how to write a CV article explains the other sections one at a time.

How do I describe a placement, internship or part-time job?

Treat each one as a proper job: your title, the employer, the town and your start and end months. Give a year in industry the most room, with a few lines on your projects and their results. Part-time shifts count too. Closing the bar on a busy night or keeping a checkout queue moving shows teamwork, communication and a strong work ethic, three of the skills in our article on what employers want from graduates. Back each skill with something you did, and see how people in your field phrase theirs in the examples by industry.

What counts as a position of responsibility?

Anything at university where people relied on you outside your coursework: society treasurer, five-a-side captain, course rep or a student ambassador leading open-day tours. Write a line for each with its scale, such as "Organised a charity ball for 300 guests with a committee of six." In the builder, add these roles in the optional Affiliations section, offered after your summary, and put a result like the charity ball under Accomplishments. Employers get many applications for every hire, and graduate scheme forms often ask for an example of leadership or teamwork. Your answer will usually come from these roles.

What should international students add to a UK CV?

A line on your visa, the hours you can work in term time and your level of English. Make the visa line the last sentence of your personal statement, which the builder places at the top of your CV. The questions below cover what that line should say. For part-time jobs, say which days you can work during term, within what your visa allows. Add English to your skills with a level or test result, such as an IELTS score.

Build a graduate-ready CV with Rocket Resume

After your contact details, Rocket Resume's builder asks for your experience, then your education, skills and summary, and offers optional sections such as Affiliations. Enter a job title, say bartender or research assistant, and expert lines for that role come up; keep any that fit your real duties and reword them as you like. Your ATS-friendly design can change later without retyping. Have your dates and grades to hand, and you can finish a first version in under 10 minutes.

1. Say where your work history stands, then pick a design to start from.
2. Enter placements, internships and part-time jobs, latest first, keeping the suggested lines that fit. Then add your degree, with modules in its details.
3. Edit each line until it reads like you, add society roles under Affiliations, and drag education higher on the preview if your degree says more.
4. Read the preview carefully, then download your CV and send it.

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