How to Write a CV That Actually Gets Interviews

There are two things a CV needs to do before it gets you an interview: pass automated screening, and survive a 10-second recruiter skim. Most CVs fail at one or both.

Here's how to write one that does both.

Start with the structure

Use a single-column layout. Two-column CVs look professional but most ATS systems parse them incorrectly — text gets read out of order or skipped entirely. A clean, single-column CV in a standard font (Arial, Calibri, Helvetica) will outperform a designed template every time.

Stick to standard section headings: Summary, Experience, Education, Skills. Unusual headings like "My Story" or "What I Bring" confuse ATS parsers. If it's not a word the system recognises as a section header, your content may not be categorised correctly.

Keep it to two pages maximum. One page if you have under five years of experience.

Write a summary that does real work

Your summary is the first thing a recruiter reads and the most important 3-4 lines on your CV. Most summaries waste this space with vague generalities: "results-driven professional with a passion for excellence."

A strong summary does three things:

Names your function and level ("Senior marketing manager with eight years in consumer goods")
Identifies your core value ("specialising in building reporting infrastructure that reduces manual processing time")
Signals fit for the specific role type you're applying to

Rewrite your summary for each application category. A summary targeting marketing roles should read differently to one targeting operations roles, even if the underlying experience is the same.

Write bullets that show impact, not tasks

The most common CV mistake is writing bullets that describe responsibilities rather than achievements. "Responsible for managing client accounts" tells a recruiter nothing they couldn't infer from the job title. It wastes space and adds no signal.

Every bullet should answer: so what? What changed because you did this? What was the outcome?

Weak: Managed a portfolio of airline customers
Strong: Managed a portfolio of 40 enterprise clients across 12 product lines, maintaining 98% retention over two years

Where you can quantify — do. Numbers (percentages, revenue figures, team sizes, time savings) make bullets concrete and memorable. Where you can't quantify, describe the outcome qualitatively: "reduced manual reporting workload", "improved decision-making speed", "enabled market entry."

Match your language to the job description

ATS systems score your CV on keyword overlap with the job description. If the job says "P&L management" and your CV says "profit and loss oversight", you may score zero for that requirement — they're synonyms to a human but not to the system.

Read each job description carefully and mirror its exact language where it accurately reflects your experience. This is not gaming the system — it's communicating clearly in the terms the employer uses.

Skills section: be specific

List specific tools, languages, and domain areas — not vague soft skills. "Microsoft Office" adds nothing. "Python, SQL, Salesforce, Tableau" tells a recruiter exactly what you can do.

Group skills logically: Programming, Tools & Platforms, Domain Knowledge. This makes the section scannable and easy for ATS to parse.

What to leave out

Photos — irrelevant in the UK and most of Europe, and can trigger bias
Date of birth — not required and can invite age discrimination
References available on request — assumed; wastes space
Interests — only include if genuinely relevant or distinctive (competitive sport, published work)
Everything from before your degree if you have more than five years of experience

Check your CV before every application

Before you submit, check your keyword coverage against the specific job description. CV Magic does this in 30 seconds — upload your CV, paste the job spec, and get your ATS match rate and a list of missing keywords. Free, no account needed.