What should a CV include?
Here we go through each section in the order they typically appear in a CV.
Contact details
At the top of the page: your name, city (not full address), phone number, and email address. Add LinkedIn if your profile is up to date. Add a website or portfolio if it is relevant to the role you are applying for.
Never include your national ID, date of birth, marital status, or nationality. Employers do not ask for this in a CV and should not have it. The same applies to a photo - see the next section.
Your email address should look professional. An address you created as a teenager may not give the right impression. It takes two minutes to create a new one if you need to.
Personal profile
The personal profile is 3-5 sentences written in the first person. It is the first thing a recruiter reads, so it needs to be specific.
Good example: "I am a project manager with eight years in the IT industry, specializing in agile methods and product development. I am now looking for a role with greater strategic responsibility in a product-focused organization."
Bad example: "I am a driven and communicative person with a strong results focus and good teamwork skills." Anyone can write that. It says nothing about you.
If you lack work experience, write about your education, interests related to the industry, and what you are looking for. Be honest and specific even then.
Work experience
List in reverse chronological order, meaning your current or most recent job first. For each role include: your job title, employer name, dates, and 2-4 bullet points about what you actually did.
Write bullet points as direct statements starting with action verbs. "Managed a team of six" not "I managed a team of six." "Reduced processing time by 30%" not "Was responsible for reducing processing time." Drop the "I" and lead with what you did.
Be concrete. Numbers help. If you do not have them, describe scope: team size, number of customers, the type of decisions you made.
You do not need to list every job you have ever had. If you have 15 years in the workforce, the last 8-10 years and any older roles that are directly relevant is enough.
Education
Reverse chronological order here too. Write the program or degree, institution name, and year of completion. You do not need to include grades unless the job listing asks for them.
If you are a recent graduate with little work experience, highlight relevant courses, your dissertation, and any exchange studies. That shows you have thought about what is relevant for the role.
If you have more than five years of experience, your education section does not need to take more than three or four lines. Experience carries more weight at that point.
Skills
Categorize them if you have many. Technical tools in one group, programming languages in another, soft skills separately - or skip soft skills entirely, since "communicative" and "team player" add nothing without concrete examples.
Be honest about levels. Writing "Excel: advanced" and then not being able to build a basic pivot table in an interview is worse than writing "Excel: basic".
Languages
List every language you can communicate in. Level: native, fluent, advanced, basic. Avoid vague phrases like "conversational level" without specifying what that means for you.
Optional sections
Depending on your background you can add internships, projects, certifications, volunteer work, driver's license, and voluntary positions. Include what is relevant to the role. Remove what adds nothing.
Guides for specific situations
Should you include a photo?
In many markets, including Sweden, a photo on a CV is not standard and is generally not recommended. Many large employers actively request CVs without photos to reduce unconscious bias in the recruitment process.
You risk nothing by leaving out a photo. A poor-quality photo, on the other hand, can actually hurt your impression. If the job listing does not specifically ask for one, do not include it.
How long should a CV be?
One page for most people. Two pages if you have a lot of relevant experience to show. Three pages or more is never appropriate.
A common mistake is padding a CV with text just to fill a page. A half-full, clean, and well-structured CV is better than a full CV with filler and generic phrases.
If you are struggling to fit five years of work history onto one page: cut down on older roles and focus on the most recent and most relevant. If you are new to the job market and cannot fill a page: that is fine. Do not force content that does not exist.
Format and PDF
Always save as PDF. A Word file looks different on different computers and can break the entire layout. PDF looks the same regardless of device or operating system.
If you create your CV with Beom CV, layout, fonts, and PDF export are handled automatically. You do not need to think about margins, font sizes, or column layout. Fill in your details and download.
ATS tip: Many employers use systems that scan CVs automatically before a human ever reads them (ATS - Applicant Tracking System). They filter by keywords, so use the same terminology the job listing uses. If they write "project management," use that phrase, not a synonym. They also reject CVs with tables, text boxes, and complex column layouts. Beom CV's template is built to work in these systems.
Common mistakes to avoid
- Date of birth or national ID in the CV. Remove it. It does not belong there.
- Generic personal profile. "Driven and communicative" says nothing. Be specific about what you do and what you are looking for.
- Listing duties without results. Tell them what you achieved, not just what you were responsible for.
- Meaningless skills. "Team player" and "stress-resistant" without concrete examples add nothing.
- Sending as a Word file. PDF always. If you use Beom CV the file downloads directly as a PDF.
- Spelling mistakes. One typo can cost you the interview. Read through once more and ask someone else to check it too.
- Same CV for every application. Tailor the personal profile and highlight the skills most relevant to each specific role. It takes ten minutes and makes a real difference.
How do you write a CV with no experience?
It is entirely possible to write a strong CV without work experience. Focus on your education, internships, school projects, volunteer work, and hobbies that demonstrate relevant qualities.
If you have done a summer job, worked part-time, or helped someone's business, include it. Recruiters looking for young candidates know not to expect a full CV.
What matters most is that you show you are serious, have thought about what you are applying for, and have put together a CV that looks clean and considered. That signals more than a long list of experience that is not relevant anyway.
Read our guide for more detailed tips: CV with no work experience.
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