A Guide to CV Structure: How to Organise Your CV
If you want to impress prospective employers, your CV needs to sell your skills and achievements, but also convey professionalism. This is why it’s important to pay attention to CV structure. A well-organised and structured CV will make it easier for recruiters to scan its contents, but structure it badly and your CV might not get a second glance. In this article, we discuss how to arrange your CV for the greatest impact with hiring managers.
Definitions of order/structure in a CV
The order and structure of your CV refers to two things. Firstly, it literally refers to the order in which you place the sections and information on your document. The order you choose to list your experience, skills and achievements will likely differ according to the stage of your career, and the type of job you’re applying for.
The second definition of order is the structure you decide to use for your document. Depending on whether you want the focus to be on your linear career history or your skills, there are two main types of CV. These are the chronological CV, prioritising your work experience, and the functional CV, which focuses on your skills. In recent times, the combination or hybrid CV has also become popular, as it allows you to showcase both work experience and skills with equal weighting.
Elements on a CV
There are several elements that employers will expect to see on your CV. The order you place these in, and the content you include in each section, is up to you. You might wish to draw attention to some sections, some achievements or some experiences over others. This can lead to decisions about your CV layout, and the way you write each section. However, every CV tends to include the following basic sections and information:
Personal information
Your personal information usually goes in your CV header and includes your name, contact details (email address, phone number) and address or location. You can also include links to personal websites, portfolios or LinkedIn profiles, but avoid adding sensitive demographic information such as your age, gender or nationality. In the UK, it’s not common practice to include a personal photo.
Summary or profile
This is a short paragraph of two or three sentences, introducing you to the reader and highlighting your key skills, experience, achievements and career ambition. It’s critical to tailor this for each application, so you can best capture the attention of the reader with a bespoke summary that explains why you’re suitable for the role.
Professional experience
Your professional experience section lists your relevant jobs and explains your key responsibilities and achievements in each. The standard way to present this is in reverse-chronological order, starting with your current or most recent role and working backwards. For each role, explain what you did, what skills you used and the impact you made, referring to the job description to demonstrate why you’re a good fit for the role.
Skills
One of the most important parts of your CV, the skills section is an opportunity to highlight specialist knowledge and skills not mentioned elsewhere in the document. This can include hard or technical skills, such as languages and IT, or soft skills, such as leadership, communication or adaptability. You can present your skills section as one list, or separate hard and soft skills into two lists. Always make sure your skills match the skills listed in the job description.
Education
In this section, add your highest or most recent qualifications. Include the title of your course, degree or study programme, the name of the academic institution and the dates of study (month and year). If you’re a recent graduate, you may want to place more focus on your education in your CV, and list some additional information. This could include the modules you’ve taken, your dissertation topic, an award you won or societies you were a member of.
Optional sections
In addition to the essential items listed above, you can enhance your CV by including some optional sections. These include training or certifications, internships, languages, hobbies and volunteer work. Only add these if they help you to prove you’re capable of doing the job, or if the job advert asks for any of this information.
Does the order of these elements matter?
The order in which you present these sections of your CV matters. The order usually depends on your experience levels and the seniority of the position you’re applying for.
If you’re an experienced candidate with several years of relevant jobs behind you, you’re likely to want to emphasise this in your CV. This means placing your work experience section more prominently in the document. However, if you’re less experienced, you’re a recent graduate or you’re changing careers, you might wish to place your education and skills above your work experience section.
Whatever order you present these details in, it’s a good idea to aim for an optimum CV length. In the UK, most CVs are between one and two pages of A4, so aim to include all the information above within a document of this size.
Expert Tip:
Your chosen CV structure may differ from application to application, depending on the job description and your suitability for the role. It can be useful to draft a basic CV containing all your career details as well as your key skills and educational achievements. You can then tailor this basic CV to match the job description for every role.
Chronological Structure
The most commonly used type of CV is the chronological CV structure. This places the greatest emphasis on your career timeline, referencing the key roles you’ve had and your experience in each. Applicants tend to favour this structure, especially for jobs that require plenty of experience. The layout allows the writer to provide detail on the key milestones in their career, their achievements and the skills they’ve learned. For employers, it’s often the skills and achievements gained in work that most clearly demonstrate your suitability for a role.
Chronological and Reverse Chronological Structures
You may see templates and CV examples of both ‘chronological’ and ‘reverse chronological’ structures. While this may appear confusing, both usually mean the same thing. Both structures tend to present your work experience in reverse order, starting with the most recent. Occasionally, though, you may see a chronological CV present the work experience section in chronological order, starting with the most historic role.
Both chronological and reverse chronological CVs provide the opportunity for candidates to create a clear career timeline and provide examples of how they meet the job description. These timeline-focused structures also allow you to explain any career gaps in your CV.
Functional
The functional CV provides a useful alternative to the chronological CV. It’s particularly useful when you don’t have much work experience, but you still feel you have the technical and transferable skills required for the role. This structure places your skills and education above your work experience in the order of the document, and uses predominantly these sections to prove your worth to employers.
The functional CV can also be useful in situations when you have a specialty in a particular field, discipline or skill, and you want to place greater emphasis on it over your work history. As such, the functional CV structure is ideal either for junior jobseekers applying for entry-level roles, or for highly specialised jobseekers with a few key technical skills that employers are looking for.
You might wish to draw attention to some sections, some achievements or some experiences over others. This can lead to decisions about your CV layout, and the way you write each section.
Key Takeaways for Structuring Your CV
The CV structure you pick will depend on the stage of your career and the level of your work experience. As each job is different, you’ll need to consider whether you place more focus on your work experience, education or skills.
It’s a good idea to create a basic general CV that you can then tailor for each application. Jobseeker’s online CV builder allows you to easily create, duplicate, edit and re-order your CVs according to the role, without affecting formatting. Choose from a selection of professional CV templates and review our library of CV articles for many more useful tips to help you with your applications. Jobseeker can even help you to make the most of your cover letter, with a range of cover letter templates and useful cover letter articles. Sign up today to get started.
