A modern CV is not a redesign of the one your parents used. It is shorter, it leads with what you can do rather than where you have been, and it is written so software can parse it before a person ever sees it. Build it in the order below and each section earns its place instead of padding the page.
Start with the header and a summary that says something
Your header needs your name, one line of contact detail, and a link to a portfolio or LinkedIn. Skip the full postal address and the date of birth. Under it, write a three-line summary that names your role, your years in it, and one concrete result. “Marketing coordinator with four years running email campaigns, last quarter lifted open rates 22%” beats any string of adjectives.
Order the sections by relevance, not tradition
The reader spends most of their time in the top third of page one, so put your strongest evidence there. For most people that is recent experience. For career changers it might be a projects or skills block.
- Experience: reverse-chronological, each role led by an outcome, not a duty.
- Skills: the tools and methods the job advert actually names, nothing filler.
- Education: brief once you have work history, fuller if you are early-career.
- Extras: certifications, languages, or volunteering only if they add signal.
Write for the scanner and the human
Keep one column, standard headings, and a clean sans-serif font. Avoid tables, text boxes, and photos, which confuse parsing software and eat space. Save and send as PDF unless a listing asks otherwise. Read every bullet aloud once: if it sounds like a task rather than a result, rewrite it around what changed.
When your draft is down on the page, run it through the resume checker for structure and the ATS checker for parse-safety. The full CV guide covers each section in depth, and the AI resume builder keeps the modern layout intact while you edit.