For Candidates · Practical guide
What Makes a Good CV? A Practical Guide
Your CV is not a complete biography. It is a clear invitation to a conversation about what you can do and where you could contribute.
8 min read
You do not need a flawless career story or a page full of impressive numbers. Help someone understand your experience, the work you want to do and what you actually bring. Use this guide as a starting point, with room for your career, industry and circumstances.
CV essentials: make the basics easy to find
Start with the information someone needs to understand your experience. “Must-have” means useful basics, where they apply to your career. The extras are optional, not a test to pass.
Must-haves: the useful basics
- Your name
Use the name you want to be addressed by, so someone can connect your experience to you.
- Contact details
Include a working email address. City or region is usually enough; a full home address is rarely useful. Share only the personal details you choose to share.
- Official job titles in your work history
Keep the actual, official title for each current and previous role. Add an explanation when needed, but do not replace the title, inflate it or lower its seniority.
- Work history and dates
Employer, role, dates and a few useful details. Use a consistent month/year format and make overlaps clear. Projects, volunteering and placements count too.
- Clear activities and personal contribution
Describe concrete tasks and what you owned. Alex explains ATS responsibilities and a handover guide rather than relying on buzzwords. An understandable contribution does not need a percentage.
- Readable structure
Organise your CV into clearly labelled, thematic sections. If you have work experience, a useful order after an optional summary is work experience, skills, languages, education and continuing education. List the most recent entry first in each section; adjust emphasis to the role. Use readable typography, consistent spacing and sufficient page margins. On multiple pages, a simple footer with your name and page number helps readers stay oriented; an additional header is optional. There is no universal page count.
Nice-to-haves and role-dependent details
Choose what adds useful evidence. Some qualifications, languages or competencies may be essential for a particular role. The other extras are optional, and private information stays your choice.
- An optional profile line below your name
This can state a target role, a specialism or a short professional profile. For example: “Communication-focused recruiting partner – interview coordination & candidate experience”. Connect qualities to a specific area of work rather than listing generic buzzwords. The line is optional and does not replace the actual job titles in your work history.
- A short professional summary
One or two lines can connect your experience to the work you want, especially when changing direction. Skip it if it just repeats the page.
- A phone number for questions and short calls
An accessible phone number is recommended so recruiters can clarify questions or arrange a short call. It is not universally required. The all-zero subscriber number in this example is deliberately fictional.
- Relocation and work authorisation, if relevant
If location or country of work matters for the role, you can choose to state whether and, if relevant, when you could relocate. A brief note about your work authorisation in the destination country, relevant visa status or need for visa sponsorship can also help clarify arrangements. Include only accurate details relevant to the application; you can leave out personal reasons and document numbers.
- Relevant education and training
Include qualifications and training where they explain your fit for the role. Some roles require a particular qualification; others give more weight to experience. You do not need to list every course.
- Skills relevant to the role
Select relevant tools, languages and capabilities. Name software specifically, such as Personio rather than only ATS (applicant tracking system), and explain your proficiency through actual use. Labels such as basic or advanced need concrete tasks as context. Administration describes system responsibility, not automatically the highest proficiency in every feature. Some competencies may be essential for a particular role.
- Relevant languages
Include languages and understandable levels when they matter for the work. Language requirements depend on the role; there is no universal list every CV must include.
- Portfolio or professional profile
Add a working link when it shows relevant work. A portfolio is useful for some roles, not an obligation for everyone.
- Selected extra evidence
Relevant projects, volunteering, certifications or languages can add context. Include interests only if you want to and they add something useful.
Example: a classic CV
Select a page to read the CV and explore its learning hints.
- Must-have
- Nice-to-have · optional
Would you like to create your own CV?
Create and edit your CV with the EuliAI CV Builder, with classic and modern templates.
Show impact without KPI theatre
A number helps when it explains something real. Before adding a result, give the reader four pieces of context:
- Context: what problem were you working on, and at what scale?
- Baseline: what was the starting point? Do not invent one.
- Timeframe: over what period did the change happen?
- Your contribution: what did you own, and what was the team’s result?
These are illustrative examples, not results to copy into your own CV.
- Too vague or inflated
- Increased efficiency by 40%. Results-driven team player.
- Clearer and more useful
- In a six-person support team, I rewrote onboarding replies and introduced a shared triage checklist. Over three months, the team's median first-response time fell from 10 to 6 hours. I owned the templates and checklist; colleagues handled scheduling changes.
- Too vague or inflated
- Responsible for onboarding. Excellent communicator.
- Clearer and more useful
- Created a handover guide for new warehouse colleagues covering shift routines, safety checks and common exceptions. Supervisors used it during induction, and I updated it from questions raised in the first month.
If there is no reliable metric, describe the problem, your action and what changed or was used. You can explain scale or complexity without a percentage. Keep confidential figures out and use an honest approximation only when you can explain it.
Skills that mean something
Labels can be a useful starting point, but people interpret them differently. These descriptions offer a shared vocabulary, not a certification ladder. Your level can vary by task, even in the same tool.
Basic / Familiar
You understand the basics and can do simple tasks with guidance.
Example: “Excel: update existing spreadsheets and use basic formulas; still learning lookups.”
Working proficiency
You handle routine work independently and know when to ask for help.
Example: “Salesforce: manage opportunities, update records and build standard reports in my weekly sales workflow.”
Advanced
You solve complex problems and adapt the tool to less familiar tasks.
Example: “Excel: combine datasets with Power Query, build reusable models and troubleshoot formula errors.”
Power user
You know workflows deeply, improve how colleagues use the tool and help others.
Example: “Notion: design team workspaces, automate recurring workflows and coach colleagues on templates.”
Admin / System owner
You manage configuration, access, governance or ongoing system responsibility. This describes responsibility, not automatically a higher skill level in every task.
Example: “Salesforce: manage permissions, configure fields and flows, coordinate releases and own data-quality routines.”
Context recruiters cannot guess
A job title at a familiar brand and the same title at a small company can mean very different work. Add a brief line where it makes your experience easier to understand.
- Company: name and a working website link if available, plus the industry or what the business does. If it has closed, a short description is enough.
- Size and stage: a 20-person start-up, a growing regional business or an established group. Use approximate size if exact headcount is unnecessary or confidential.
- Markets: who you served and where, such as B2B customers in Germany and Austria or a local public service.
- Your scope: team size, budget responsibility, system ownership or operational reach. Distinguish leading a team from contributing to it and owning a budget from working within one.
Example: “Operations coordinator at a 50-person B2B logistics company serving Germany and Austria. Coordinated dispatch across two warehouses; maintained the scheduling system for 12 colleagues.”
Career gaps: your context, your choice
A gap is not a flaw by default, and you do not need to turn every period away from work into a productivity story. If a short explanation helps you, add one. If you prefer to keep it private, that is your choice.
- Sabbatical: “2024: planned sabbatical; returned to work in January 2025.”
- Care responsibilities: “2023–2024: career break for care responsibilities.”
- Family time: “2022–2023: time away from paid work for family.”
- Recovery or personal circumstances: “2024: career break for personal circumstances.” You can say “recovery” if you want to, without explaining further.
- Training: “2024: professional development in bookkeeping, including a part-time course.” Only mention training you actually undertook.
- Relocation: “March–August 2024: relocation and settling in Berlin.”
You never need to disclose medical or private details you do not want to discuss. A CV does not need diagnoses, treatment details or information about someone you cared for. Share only what feels useful and comfortable to you.
Common myths and avoidable traps
- A photo is optional
You can make a clear, useful CV without one. Expectations vary across markets; your ability to do the work does not depend on a photograph.
- You do not need to rewrite it for every application
Start with a solid version for the kind of work you want. Adjust emphasis when a role is meaningfully different or an important example is hard to find. Tailoring should help understanding, not become a full-time job or change the facts.
- Buzzword lists do not explain your strengths
Replace “proactive, resilient, strategic” with a short example of what you did. Use relevant terms naturally and only when they reflect your experience.
- Design should help someone read
Busy columns, tiny text and decorative skill charts can hide useful information. Prefer a clear reading order and selectable text. Check the exported file, not just the editor preview, and follow a requested file format when one is specified.
Your 10-minute final CV check
Set a timer and read it as someone meeting you for the first time. Fix the things that make understanding harder; perfection can wait.