How to improve your CV: the ten-point review

Most CVs that are not working do not need to be thrown away. They need an audit. Work through these ten checks on the document you already have, in this order — each one changes what you do with the next.

1. Does the top third tell a recruiter what you are?

A reader decides in about eight seconds whether to keep going. In that third of a page they should see your name, your role or target role, your level, and one piece of proof.

If your first line is "A highly motivated individual seeking a challenging role", you have spent the most valuable space on the page describing an attitude rather than a fact.

Fix: name the job you do or want, the number of years and the sector, then one specific proof — a scale, a result, a specialism.

2. Are your bullet points outcomes or duties?

"Responsible for managing the warehouse" tells a reader what the job was. "Cut picking errors by 40% by rewriting the dispatch checklist" tells them what you did.

Fix: rewrite every bullet so the first four words carry the result. Where you have no number, use scale or consequence: the size of the budget, the number of people, the thing that stopped going wrong.

3. Is anything unprovable?

Adjectives are free, which is why nobody believes them. "Excellent communicator" is a claim. "Wrote the weekly client report for twelve accounts" is evidence.

Fix: delete the adjectives and keep the evidence. If a line has neither, cut it.

4. Are the dates complete and consistent?

Month and year for every role, same format throughout, gaps labelled rather than hidden. A gap with a one-line explanation is invisible; a gap with nothing next to it is a question mark.

5. Does it match the job you are applying for?

A general CV sent everywhere is the most common reason a competent candidate hears nothing. The first five lines of the document should be about the job in front of you.

Fix: for each application, rewrite the summary, reorder your bullets so the relevant ones come first, and use the advert's own vocabulary for skills you genuinely have.

6. Is the length right?

One page under about ten years of experience, two pages beyond that, three only for academic or medical CVs. Long does not read as thorough; it reads as an inability to prioritise.

Fix: keep the last ten to fifteen years in detail, compress older roles to a line each, and delete the school results if you have a degree.

7. Does it read as one document?

Mixed tenses, two different names for the same job title, some bullets ending in full stops and some not, "2019-2021" in one place and "2019 – 21" in another. Readers may not notice each one, but together they suggest carelessness.

Fix: present tense for the current role, past for the rest, one date format, one spelling convention (British or American, then consistent).

8. Is anything in it that should not be?

Date of birth, marital status, a photograph unless the country expects one, "references available on request", your full street address, hobbies that raise questions, salary history, a list of twenty skills you cannot evidence.

Fix: name, city, phone, email, LinkedIn. Everything else has to earn its space.

9. Will the software read it?

Two columns, tables, text boxes, icons instead of headings, and any file that is an image rather than text. Copy your CV into a plain text editor and read what comes out; that is roughly what an applicant tracking system sees.

10. Have you read it aloud?

Not skimmed it. Aloud, from the top, in one sitting. Awkward sentences, repeated words and the paragraph that says nothing all surface within a minute. This step alone fixes more CVs than any template.

If you only do three things

1. Rewrite the summary and the first two bullets of your current role.
2. Add a number to every bullet where a number honestly exists.
3. Tailor the top half per application.

Those three, done properly, are most of the gain — and they are exactly the changes an automated rewrite makes in a couple of minutes. If you would rather not do it by hand, upload your CV here, read the refined version for free, and pay from £0.99 only if it is better than what you sent us.