CV GUIDE
LAND A JOB IN THE NEXT 90 DAYS!
A CV is a concise, informative summary of your
abilities, education, and experience. It should
highlight your strongest assets and skills, and
differentiate you from other candidates seeking
similar positions. Although it alone won’t get you
a job or internship, a good resume is an important
factor in obtaining an interview. Tailor your
resume to the type of position you’re seeking.
This doesn’t mean that all of your experiences RESUME TIPS
must relate directly, but your resume should
reflect the types of skills the employer would
value.
ACTION VERBS YOU SHOULD BE
USING
SAMPLE
You need to cover
these points under
every section
[Student]
Los Angeles, CA | LinkedIn | 562-111-1111 | hello@[Link]
EXAMPLE CV
EDUCATION
San Jose State University San Jose, CA
BS in Business Administration, Marketing (GPA: 3.9) Graduation Date: June 2020
• Organizations/Awards: Honors Program, Second Harvest, Dean’s Honors List, Chancellor’s Honors List
WORK EXPERIENCE
Company Los Angeles, CA
Marketing Strategist September 2020
– Present
• Generate reports on Sprout Social and Excel to conduct trend analysis for social media content,
identifying niche to optimize organic reach from 13% to 27% in a span of 3 months.
• Collaborate with senior management including marketing lead to grow Instagram and LinkedIn accounts,
implementing posting schedules for popular content which increased followers to 100k+
• Provide recommendations to enter a niche market for career tips, conducting market research on
Qualtrics for 100+ infographics and video content on TikTok
• Utilize CRM platforms including Salesforce and Hubspot to service 50+ clients daily, working with sales
team to identify pain points and marketing opportunities for success stories
Company San Jose, CA
Sales Manager January 2019 -
January 2020
• Analyzed financial statements, business summary reports, and dashboard recaps to attain data based on
product comparable percentages and penetration rates for district managers which increased store
efficiency by 16%.
• Collaborated with senior management on multiple functions including customer success and finance,
increasing survey submissions from 60% previous month to 75% by identifying the pain points of
customer feedback.
• Evaluated 100+ employees in 6 departments through surveys and office hours assessing strengths and
overall skills which improved productivity for tasks by 23% daily.
Company San Francisco,
CA
Seasonal Sales Associate April 2018 –
September 2018
• Presented recommendations for seasonal sales items including clothing and electronics to senior
management, streamlining POS which accumulated to $1,500 in sales daily
• Reviewed P&L with sales lead and district manager to identify highest & lowest penetration rates on all
products, analyzing all products which increased efficiency of deliveries from store to customer by 17%
• Maintained and built relationships with 100+ customers daily, providing exceptional customer service
and efficient product deliveries daily which translated to a customer satisfaction rating score of 97%
LEADERSHIP EXPERIENCE
Association of Latino Professionals For America (ALPFA) Riverside, CA
Director of Professional Development April 2017 – No grammatical mistake by
Present
the student
• Partner with 100+ professionals and recruiters in various firms and organizations, bringing out 10+
companies including Deloitte, KPMG, Vanguard, and Kohl’s for our Professional Networking Dinner with The student follows a clear
150+ attendees. pattern for the CV and simple
• Spearhead events for weekly meetings regarding resumes, cover letters, and LinkedIn workshops, formatting
SAMPLE COVER LETTER
Dear Morgan Smith:
I am a senior at Harvard College studying History and Literature. I am writing to apply for the
Marketing and Communications position at Jumpstart posted in Harvard’s Crimson Careers
database. I'm very excited about the field of education, and would welcome the opportunity to
bring my strong communication skills, creativity, and marketing experience to your growing
team.
Jumpstart's commitment to early education for every child is of particular interest to me because
of my passion for youth development. This past summer, I worked as a senior counselor in the
Summer Urban Program, which is dedicated to preventing summer learning loss for children in
the Boston and Cambridge area. I designed and taught fun, interactive classes to a group of 10
fifth graders, and planned and led local field trips and workshops daily with a junior counselor.
Throughout the summer, I consistently strived to create math, science, and reading lessons and
activities that were engaging and tailored to my students' needs.
Additionally, in my role as the Director of Marketing for the Social Innovation Collaborative, I
led our team in creating a social media strategy to drive our member recruitment efforts and
promote our programs and events on platforms including Facebook, Twitter, and Instagram.
With so many competing events on campus each day, I had to continually be creative in my
approach to developing and delivering content that would be compelling and effective. As a
result of my efforts, our group experienced a 20% increase in our membership base and a 15%
increase in our social media engagement. I’m excited at the prospect of bringing the skills I
developed through this experience to the Marketing and Communications role at Jumpstart.
Thank you for your consideration. I very much look forward to the opportunity to speak with you
in person about my interest in this position.
Sincerely,
Start with your contact information: Add optional sections as needed:
● Full name ● Volunteer experience
● Professional email address ● Language proficiency
● Phone number ● Interests and hobbies (if relevant to the job)
● City and country of residence
● LinkedIn profile URL (if applicable) Format your CV properly:
List your work experience in reverse chronological order: ● Use a clear, professional font (e.g., Arial, Calibri, or Times New Roman)
● Keep font sizes consistent (e.g., 11-12pt for body text, 14-16pt for
● Include the company name, your job title, and dates of headings)
employment ● Use bold or italic text sparingly to emphasize important information
● Use bullet points to outline your main responsibilities and ● Ensure consistent spacing and margins throughout the document
achievements ● Save your CV as a PDF to maintain formatting across devices
● Quantify your accomplishments with numbers, percentages, or
other metrics Proofread and edit:
● Use action verbs to describe your roles (e.g., "managed," ● Review your CV for spelling, grammar, and punctuation errors
"developed," "implemented") ● Ask a friend, family member, or professional to provide feedback
Detail your education: ● Ensure your CV is concise, typically no more than 2-3 pages (depending
on your experience level)
● List your degrees in reverse chronological order
● Include the name of the institution, degree earned, and Tailor your CV for each application:
graduation date ● Customize your summary, skills, and experiences to match the specific
● Mention relevant coursework, honors, or awards job requirements
Highlight your skills: ● Use keywords from the job description to optimize your CV for applicant
tracking systems (ATS)
● List hard skills (e.g., programming languages, software
proficiency)
● Tailor your skills section to the job requirements
Include relevant projects, publications, or certifications:
● Showcase any notable projects you've completed, either
professionally or academically
● List any publications, including research papers or articles
Use these as a checklist!
● Mention professional certifications or licenses you've earned
Tips of my Recruiter:
Step 2 — Experience: Step 3 — All Other Stuff:
Step 1 — Format:
Make sure you have no formatting errors and the format is You will get the most differing opinions on what to put in this Hobbies, references, and personal information, I don’t
consistent throughout the resume. Cmon, will I really not get section from articles, Resume Writers, etc. Typically, when recommend these items because this information will not
the job because of a formatting error? Yes, if you are a Hiring Managers or Recruiters look at someone’s experience, preclude you from getting a job, but it can block you. I
Engineer or a Project Manager that will be paid to get the they are looking for two specific items, what did you do and have not moved forward with a candidate and I know
small details right, these errors show carelessness. what did you accomplish. Job responsibilities are important Hiring Managers that have not moved forward with a
Consistency is important, so putting the company name over because your audience needs to know the day to day role and candidate because of questionable items written in these
position or vice-versa, where you put the dates, etc., does not accomplishments are important because your audience wants sections. Specifically, I questioned the candidate’s
matter as long as those items are in the same place for each to know you are great. The responsibilities should be decision making skills and erred on the side of caution by
position. concepts that can be condensed and grouped together. For moving forward with others. For candidates outside the
example if you are an Engineer you might group all the United States, including a photo and personal
Lastly, I strongly discourage creative resumes when applying technologies you work/worked on under one bullet. The information is not typical in the US.
for positions that are not in the creative space. Why, because accomplishments should be as specific as possible. For
they are harder to read. When you have seconds to attract and example, increased company earnings by 500K over a two The only disclaimer on this section is knowing your
excite your audience and they have to search for the year span by implementing Salesforce to track and retain audience. For instance if you are applying to a company
information because of a funky format, they will likely move on customers with an annual spend of over 100K. This type of that is a big supporter of the Big Brothers Big Sisters of
to the next applicant. I will go through all sections of the accomplishment demonstrates an ability to save the company America and you have been volunteering for this
resume, but typically your format should start with a header, money (a specific amount), in a certain period of time organization for the last twenty years, you may want to
followed by a summary, your work experience, education, and (months or years), by implementing technology (a specific include a volunteer section on your resume. But if your
a technical summary. tool). resume is a strong match for the organization, not listing
this item would not preclude you from getting an
And the last big question on format is how many pages? No The second critical piece is using the right verb tense. Each interview.
more than three, think of your audience, think seconds, two bullet (yes, all responsibilities and accomplishments should
pages is ideal, but if your experience goes onto a third page, have a bullet) should start with a present or past tense verb. Step 4 — Edit & Review:
no big deal. One page resumes made more sense when they A bullet/s in your current job can be past tense if the
were not reviewed digitally. accomplishment is complete. Go back through your resume Edit, edit, edit, reread, reread, reread, and then share it
and make sure that all the bullets for your past positions start with a friend, family member, or colleague to review.
with past tense verbs. Also, an easy way to replace bullets Why? The people that review your resume will catch
starting with Responsible for, is to use Handle/Handled, simple mistakes you cannot see because you have
Perform/Performed, Compile/Compiled, etc. reviewed it too many times. They will also be able to tell
you, hey, this doesn’t make any sense. If your resume
doesn’t make sense to someone in this group, it is not
going to make sense to the people you are trying to
impress.