“Organised,” “reliable” and “good communicator” describe qualities an employer may want, but they do not explain what you can do. A useful CV connects a requirement with evidence. The National Careers Service's CV guidance recommends tailoring your CV to the opportunity and including relevant skills, achievements and experience.
Start with the role requirements
Read the vacancy and identify the essential tasks or skills. Make a two-column working sheet: requirement on the left, your evidence on the right. If the advert asks for managing schedules, write a real example of a schedule you maintained. If it asks for handling enquiries, recall the kind of questions you answered and what you did when an answer was unclear.
This sheet is a thinking tool, not text to paste wholesale into the CV. It reveals strong examples and gaps. A gap is useful information: you may need to describe transferable experience, build a skill or ask whether a qualification is essential. Do not cover it with a confident adjective.
Describe action and purpose
Consider this invented example: “Responsible for administration.” It tells the reader little. A more informative version is: “Maintained the weekly booking calendar, checked clashes before confirming appointments and sent clients the agreed arrival details.” The second version shows the task, action and purpose without inventing a percentage improvement or impressive job title.
Use figures only when you can support them and share them appropriately. If records show the number of weekly bookings, that may be relevant. If you merely feel the process became faster, explain the change rather than manufacturing a measurement. Confidential customer, employer or colleague information does not belong in an application.
Make your contribution clear
Team achievements can be valuable evidence, but identify your part. “Our group delivered the event” leaves the employer guessing. “I prepared the sign-in sheet and coordinated the arrival desk for our group event” shows a specific contribution. Do not claim to have led a project if you assisted with one component.
Evidence can come from paid work, study, volunteering or another relevant activity. An applicant with little employment history might demonstrate organisation through a genuine project. Explain the setting plainly so the reader understands its scale. Calling a class project a commercial launch would undermine the accuracy of the evidence.
- Does each example connect to a requirement?
- Can you explain the work in a follow-up conversation?
- Have you distinguished your actions from the team's?
- Are dates and titles accurate?
- Can any figures be checked?
- Have you removed confidential information?
Edit for the reader's decision
Prioritise evidence relevant to the particular role. A CV is not an exhaustive archive of every task you have performed. Use clear headings, consistent formatting and straightforward language. Check whether the employer specifies a format or application method, and follow those instructions rather than assuming a visually elaborate document is preferable.
Read each bullet aloud. If you cannot tell what action it describes, revise it. Ask another person to identify the strongest relevant experience after a quick read. If they notice only generic claims, make the examples more visible. Feedback about clarity is more useful than simply asking whether the CV looks good.
Before sending, check contact details, filenames and the version intended for that vacancy. Remove tracked edits or comments if your document contains them. Keep a copy of the advert and submitted CV so you can prepare accurately if invited to interview.
Strong evidence does not guarantee an interview, and different employers assess applications differently. What it does provide is a more truthful and informative account of your fit. You should be able to stand behind every sentence and explain how the experience relates to the work you hope to do.
Sources and further reading
This original guide was prepared with AI assistance. Examples are illustrative. The edition date is an assigned date in this 2026 catalogue. See our editorial policy and report a correction.