CV Template - First Draft

Last night on the second TikTok Live, "S" asked if I could draw out a CV template from scratch on screen, describing the process as I went.

Whilst the template is not what I'd call complete, in any way, a lot of members requested that I post it.

I spent some time describing this format that I tend to prefer when aiming to give a good outline of your experience in a particular role:

Note that I prefer the company name to come first, with the dates (e.g. "Sept 2017 - Aug 2024") on the right. Then the job title, and if necessary, a brief description of the company to sent the context of the role if the reader is unlikely to recognise the brand.

Then, when it comes to the actual bullet point arrangement and style, I spent a lot of time describing why I favour the two-words-in-bold, colon, followed by the detail over a maximum of two lines, like this:

Those two or three bold words at the start are really helpful as scene-setters... that is, they're summarising the bullet point and acting as anchors for anyone who is scanning the CV. The concept being that you can swiftly scan down to find bold keywords that interest you – then read the rest of the sentence if you wish... and, at the same time, you can read it in the normal way too.

The text used is total gibberish, I was just trying to quickly write out some language that made some generic sense to illustrate the styling.

I've embedded the word document here:

Feel free to download and use.

Some additional notes:

• This kind of layout is my personal preference and I feel it enables me to put my best foot forward. Likewise, when I am sitting and helping others compile and write their CVs, this is the general style I prefer.
• I don't claim that this is a better way of displaying and arranging your CV than any other format – so I offer no guarantees!
• I strongly recommend using this page and the template as inspiration.
• I'm going to aim to update the template in due course.

If you've got any questions, please send me an email (ewan@highlander928.com), get me on TikTok or comment below if you're registered (registration is free).