
CV Guidance
It’s more important than ever to keep your CV up to date and invest time in creating a quality document. After all, it’s there to promote you and it’s a real skill to get right. With ever advancing AI technology and smart applicant tracking systems sifting CVs by skills, it’s really important to ensure it provides employers with a concise summary of your key skills, competencies and achievements, giving you the best shot at the top jobs. One point to remember from the outset is that a CV should not be a list of responsibilities and duties, it is effectively a sales brochure, and you are the product! It also needs to show how your strengths and achievements could be transferred to a new role, so an element of tailoring of your CV for each role applied to may sometimes be required.
Here are some hints and tips to make your CV stand out from the pile! There are also free LinkedIn Learning resources that you can access at the bottom of the page.
How to Write a Good CV
This guidance looks at what questions your CV needs to answer, what you need to remember when writing your CV and also what you need to know about applicant tracking systems (ATS).
Recruiters like to have an overall picture of your entire background, and a CV provides a clear snapshot of your skills and accomplishments, including professional, academic, research, and awards. A CV is typically between two and three pages long.
Tailoring your CV to a school or role type
When applying for a teaching role, take the time to research the school, its context and values, and tailor your CV to reflect this. Highlight experiences that show your commitment to education or particular areas of academia championed by the organisation and essential for the role in question. For example, if the job advert stresses the importance of teamwork, ensure you include examples of your collaboration skills.
By customising your CV to match the job description, you’re showing both the ATS and human recruiters that you’re not only qualified but also genuinely interested in the role and organisation.
What questions should your CV answer?
When you only have just a few seconds to make your CV stand out it has to make an impression. Recruiters will usually conduct a minimum of two screening exercises to sort applications. These are known as the long-list and the short-list. The long list is the first screening exercise and aims to filter out any unsuitable candidates by quickly searching for key words or essential criteria listed in the role profile and job advert.
With the introduction of AI, these initial screening exercises are now often completed by a computer algorithm and could be even quicker. When you have less than a few seconds to make an impression, you want to make sure you are answering the key questions in a recruiters' mind.
To capture a recruiters' attention, use a simple layout with clear sections and heading titles. Maximise white space on the page and avoid using columns. This will allow recruiters to get the information they need quickly.
Making it relevant
Below are some important questions that your CV or resume should answer:
Do you have the right skills, competencies and behaviours for the role?
Have you produced results in the past (give some impressive facts and statistics if you can)?
Have you demonstrated progression?
Have you invested in your own development and used that learning at work?
Things to remember when writing your resume or CV
Mistakes to avoid
Ensure you are following best practice when writing your CV. Here are some common mistakes to avoid:
Mistake 1 - Sloppiness (typos, spelling errors, grammatical mistakes and incorrect dates)
Mistake 2 - Summaries are too long and formal with unnecessary details.
Mistake 3 - Too many buzz words and abbreviations.
Mistake 4 – Over reliance on AI (some new tech can spot a CV that has been written by a machine!)
Design and structure
Sometimes, simplicity wins the day! Simple formats in black and white with clearly marked sections in the order below are all you really need:
CV Structure
Header: Contact Information (name / email address / city / LinkedIn profile URL / mobile number (optional))
Personal summary
Experience: For each role you may list a couple of key achievements followed by the main responsibilities, though keep this succinct and high level.
Education
Volunteer work (If you do it)
Skills - only list these if you feel they are directly relevant to the role. Languages may be an important one for work abroad.
Publications/Research
Certifications
Memberships & Affiliations
This is an effective structure because it is familiar and easy for the reader to digest.
If you use an unfamiliar format, the recruiter can have a hard time extracting the information they need. Our brains find it easier to recognise patterns or work with something familiar.
Photos: Should you include them?
CVs are meant to display what makes you a great candidate. A picture could distract from your relevant skills and experience. If recruiters need and/or want to see you, they’ll be able to view the pictures on your social media profiles or meet you face-to-face during an interview. There is also a stronger likelihood of discrimination on the basis of appearance.
How do Applicant Tracking Systems work?
Applicant tracking systems act as electronic gatekeepers for employers and hiring managers. The ATS parses a CV's content into categories and then scans it for specific keywords to determine if the job application should be passed along to the recruiter. Its job is to weed out unqualified applicants. Unfortunately, that means if a CV template is not written and formatted with the ATS in mind, a qualified candidate can be easily passed over.
Making sure your CV is ATS compliant
If you follow these five, then you’ll succeed in showing the bot that you are worthy of human attention:
Use common job titles and spell out any abbreviations.
Don't waffle!
Use a simple and clear format as outlined above
Clearly list your skills and qualifications, ensuring these align with the role profile
Don't forget the humans!
Avoid graphics, logos or images, as these elements are often unreadable by an ATS. Choose a readable font such as Arial, Calibri, or Times New Roman, and maintain consistent formatting throughout.
Remember; write primarily for the human audience and you will be fine. The technology has been designed to mimic human screening.
Applicant tracking systems can recognise that a key skill or experience is present. But interpreting the strength and value of that experience is still for people to do.
It’s obvious to a recruiter when you’ve just worked in a keyword because it was in the posting, so focus on your accomplishments and how they showcase the skills required for the role.
File Format
Select the right file format:
The format plays a significant role in whether you have an ATS friendly CV that will pass through screening. The best formats for an ATS are PDFs and Word documents, as ATS software can easily parse these, and many ATS systems struggle with more creative file types and non-standard formats. Before submitting, check the job description to see if there’s a preferred format.
Ensure that your document uses consistent formatting throughout—such as uniform font styles, sizes, and spacing. Avoid special characters, unusual symbols, or overly complex tables, which can disrupt how an ATS parses your CV. By sticking to commonly accepted formats, you reduce the risk of your CV being misinterpreted or disregarded entirely.
Final review checklist
Final checks
It is essential to do a final review of your CV and include a grammar review. You may also want to have another person read over your work before submitting it. Sometimes your eyes simply can’t see things when you have reviewed text a hundred times!
Bullet points
Avoiding jargon and using succinct, results-oriented bullet points is important. So, what does a good bullet point look like?
You want a good balance of industry terms (this would be key words you pick up from the job advertisement), common words, action verbs and measurable results. The image below from Resume Worded illustrates this balance:
Image source: www.resumeworded.com

If you have a LinkedIn profile then connect it to your CV. Remember that while you are doing a review of your CV, make sure you review your LinkedIn page as well. Is it up to date and does it highlight the right information? It will only be effective if you have followed the same guidelines for both your resume and LinkedIn.
LinkedIn Resources: