CV builder with expert suggestions

To build a CV online without stopping, have five things in front of you: your contact details, each job with its dates, your education and certificates, your skills and languages, and the job ad you're answering. Collect them in one note and keep it open beside the builder.

What contact details go on a CV?

Write down the name you use at work, your mobile number, an email address you check daily, and your city and country. If you're applying abroad and already have the right to work there, note that too, so you can say it in one line near the top.

How should you list each job?

Work from your newest job back to your oldest. For each one, write down:

• your exact job title, as the employer used it
• the employer's name and location
• the month and year you started and left
• two or three results you're proud of, with a number where you have one

Numbers make results believable: the size of the team you led, the customers you served each shift or the hours you saved each week. An honest estimate works when you lack exact figures, as long as you could explain it in an interview.

Give the last ten years the most detail and sum up older roles in a line each. If you have a gap, note what filled it, such as study, caring for family or freelance work, so you can mention it in a few words.

Which qualifications and certificates should you include?

Note each school, college or university, the qualification you earned and the year you finished. Add courses, apprenticeships and certificates the job asks for, such as a first aid certificate or a forklift license. If you are still studying, write down your expected finish date, because employers read it as the point when you're available full time.

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How do you show skills and languages on a CV?

Jot down the tools, software and methods you use at work, then mark the ones the job ad mentions. Give every language a level, either a plain word such as native or fluent, or the result of a recognized language test if you've taken one.

Keep the list to skills you could back up with an example from a job, a course or a project. Soft skills such as teamwork read better as proof inside your work history than as single words in a list.

Why keep the job ad open while you build?

A CV for a job works best when it answers that job's ad. Its wording shows which skills and results to put first, and it gives you the words for a short profile of two or three lines at the top of your CV. When the builder suggests lines for your job title, choose the ones that match what the ad asks for, then reword them so they describe your work.

What can wait until later?

References, hobbies and a full list of every course you've taken can wait. Employers usually ask for references after an interview, and most don't expect their names on a job CV. Add an interest or two only if it supports the application.

For more depth on each section, read how to write a CV. For finished wording from roles like yours, look through our CV examples, then try a few CV templates to see which layout suits your notes. With everything gathered, building is mostly choosing and polishing lines.