Cur­riculum vitae: Template and tips

When putting together an ap­plic­a­tion, ap­plic­ants usually focus on the cover letter, tailor it to the ad­vert­ised position, and try to score points with cre­ativ­ity and au­then­ti­city. The cur­riculum vitae (CV), on the other hand, is often not given this kind of attention – a huge mistake. While the CV usually comes in second to the cover letter, HR personnel will often pick it up first. And there are good reasons for this.

The HR de­part­ments of bigger companies often go through hundreds or even thousands of ap­plic­a­tions for every job opening. The preselec­tion is made based on facts. Does the applicant hold a relevant degree, the required pro­fes­sion­al ex­per­i­ence, or the desired know-how? Answers to these questions are found in the CV. You should keep this in mind when sum­mar­ising your pro­fes­sion­al career. Contrary to the cover letter, in your CV, accuracy will score you more points than cre­ativ­ity. The most important thing is that the recipient of your ap­plic­a­tion can inform them­selves on your qual­i­fic­a­tions quickly and com­pletely.

We’ll show you how to create a pro­fes­sion­al CV and which in­form­a­tion you should not leave out. To increase your chances at success, we will also introduce a free CV template that you can use.

A paragraph-style CV is a rare sight these days. HR usually expect a tabular format. This format is easily skimmable, not more than two pages in length, and offers the recipient the pos­sib­il­ity to gain an overview of your career path in a fast way.

There are no formal re­quire­ments for a tabular CV. There are certain content re­quire­ments that should be taken into account when creating a business letter, including structure, content, and design.

Beyond this, these points should be taken into account:

• The length of your CV should not exceed two pages.
• Choose a typeface that can be easily read, that is not too eccentric. You don’t ne­ces­sar­ily have to choose Times New Roman or Arial; suitable font al­tern­at­ives include Calibri, Cambria, Garamond, Georgia, Verdana, or Helvetica.
• Use a maximum of two different fonts.
• Make sure the font size is big enough. Depending on the font, we recommend a font size between 10 and 12 points.
• Single-line spacing is re­com­men­ded.
• Adapt font and font size to the style used in your cover letter.
• Organize your CV into clear segments and use a heavier sub­head­ing, em­phas­ised through bold font, italic font, and/or font size. Apart from this, you should keep stylistic elements like bold type, cursive type, and un­der­lined type to a minimum.
• Use white space to structure your document – for example, through spaces, para­graphs, or indents.
• Align different levels with vanishing lines.

Nowadays, a CV is created in a word pro­cessing program. Microsoft Word or a similar Office program are ideal for writing a CV. Make sure to find out whether the company you’re applying to requires your ap­plic­a­tion in digital or paper format.

In many sectors, the online ap­plic­a­tion has become standard. Ap­plic­a­tion documents are either sent in via email or an online form on the employer’s website.

Make sure to not send digital documents in an editable format, but only in a write-protected format. Generally speaking, HR will expect ap­plic­a­tion materials in PDF format. You can find out how to create a PDF, in our Digital Guide.

The setup of your CV should follow an es­tab­lished, tabular format. Generally speaking, HR will expect you to cover the following points in your CV – in this order:

• Name and contact details
• Pro­fes­sion­al back­ground
• Schools and education
• Special knowledge and skills
• Personal interests and hobbies
• Date and signature

A tabular CV should be titled “CV.”

Personal details include in­form­a­tion on you as well as contact details, so that the recipient can get in touch with you for any questions.

Make sure that these personal details are easily legible and don’t take up too much space in your CV – for example in the header or in the upper-half of the document. If your CV features several columns, then these personal details can also be included in a color-high­lighted or otherwise segmented area.

Your CV must include this in­form­a­tion:

• First and last name
• Address
• Date and place of birth
• Telephone number
• Email address

Beyond this, you can choose to include other details in your CV that may not be requested by an employer, due to possible dis­crim­in­a­tion, as per the Equality Act 2010, such as:

• Sex
• Gender identity
• Dis­ab­il­ity
• Religion or belief

In the UK, it is not re­com­men­ded to include a photo of yourself on the CV. If you do choose to do so, then it should meet the re­quire­ments of a pro­fes­sion­al photo. Selfies or holiday pictures won’t score you points with HR.

In the best case, your pro­fes­sion­al back­ground will not have any gaps. Breaks that last more than three months between two jobs should be explained and will be picked up on, at the latest, by HR personnel during your interview.

Normally, the section on your education is separated from that of your pro­fes­sion­al career, and can include the following points:

• Studies (uni­ver­sity/school name, majors and minors, grades, thesis/dis­ser­ta­tion  topic (optional))
• Vo­ca­tion­al training
• Overseas ex­per­i­ence during your education
• Degrees (institute name, grade)

These points, too, should be listed in a reverse chro­no­lo­gic­al order – including the name of the in­sti­tu­tion, your final grade, and if relevant, the topic of your thesis or dis­ser­ta­tion (es­pe­cially if it matches the position you’re applying for).

Based on the scope of your pro­fes­sion­al ex­per­i­ence, you can go into more or less detail in these points. Entry level pro­fes­sion­als that have just completed their education and have had an in­tern­ship or two should list their education from primary school to gradu­ation or list their most important years of education without any gaps. Ap­plic­ants with a 20-year track record, on the other hand, can limit this section to their degrees and ap­pren­tice­ships.

Have you acquired ad­di­tion­al qual­i­fic­a­tions in­de­pend­ently of your education or from your career? Fantastic! Then you can present these under “special knowledge and skills.” Make sure that the mentioned points relate to the job you’re applying to though.

The HR de­part­ment at an insurance bureau won’t be in­ter­ested in your fishing licence, or that you’ve completed a chainsaw mas­ter­class at the con­struc­tion store, for that matter. Industry-specific training and cer­ti­fic­ates – for example in project man­age­ment – are more on cue.

In this section, you should con­cen­trate on the knowledge and skills that qualify you for the position you are applying to. This includes:

• Further education and workshops
• Language skills
• Computer literacy (for example relating to industry-specific software)
• Relevant cer­ti­fic­ates (for example driving license class or a forklift truck license)

Language skills usually include a self-as­sess­ment of your com­pet­en­cies. The following clas­si­fic­a­tions are common:  

• Ele­ment­ary pro­fi­ciency
• Limited working pro­fi­ciency
• Pro­fes­sion­al working pro­fi­ciency
• Full pro­fes­sion­al pro­fi­ciency
• Native or bilingual pro­fi­ciency

For your computer skills, too, you should include a similar level of com­pet­en­cies. 

Make sure that you’re able to vouch for your skills with the right qual­i­fic­a­tions – for example by including cer­ti­fic­ates, cre­den­tials, or reports. 

In the above sections of your CV you’ve proven your pro­fes­sion­al com­pet­en­cies with so-called “hard skills.” The section on “interests and hobbies” gives you the op­por­tun­ity to point HR to your

soft skills

Soft skills are un­der­stood as ex­tra­cur­ricular com­pet­en­cies with a personal, social, or meth­od­ic­al angle. For pro­fes­sion­al success, the following skills are relevant, among others:

Contrary to hard skills, these kind of skills are difficult to prove and should be im­pli­citly stated in the CV – for example through hobbies and interests. Here, too, you should limit yourself to what’s relevant. Daily activ­it­ies like reading, watching TV, or listening to music don’t count.

If you’re an active member of a sports club, then you can include this if the sports activity shows off your team skills, problem solving capacity, self-dis­cip­line, or re­si­li­ence. If travel is one of your main interests, then you might score points with your worldly mindset and in­de­pend­ent character. Hobby cooks can also make a creative or social im­pres­sion. But these in­ter­pret­a­tions are not guar­an­teed. That’s why it’s important that you remain authentic, and only state the hobbies and interests that you’re truly pas­sion­ate about, and be prepared for any questions.

Volunteer work can also give HR an idea of your ex­tra­cur­ricular com­pet­en­cies – es­pe­cially if it’s in the social field. However, you should only include these ref­er­ences if you’re currently vo­lun­teer­ing or have just completed work in this field. In the best case, your ex­tra­cur­ricular activ­it­ies will overlap with the ad­vert­ised re­quire­ments for the pro­spect­ive job.