How to Write a CV

One of the goals of the Aleksander Foundation is to help University students develop their CV writing and presentation skills. Having a well written CV will significantly enhance your chances when applying for various competitions, but more importantly - for job positions. Therefore we want to share with you our thoughts of how a good CV should be organised and what it should contain. Attached is just an example; however it is a highly successful one.

A couple of important points:
The Aleksander Foundation  CV should be no more than 1 page
The Aleksander Foundation  CV should be clear to read
The Aleksander Foundation  CV should not be a description of the whole life, but just most relevant things
The Aleksander Foundation  CV should not include elementary school and secondary school
The Aleksander Foundation  CV should be personal – do not use standardized forms, your final judgment is what matters most
The Aleksander Foundation  CV should NOT contain photograph
The Aleksander Foundation  CV should use “Action verbs” – prepared, presented, organized, analysed, managed. There are numerous web sites providing action verbs classified into categories

A good CV once written is just the platform that you should start building on. As you are progressing through your education, and starting your career you should be focused in engaging in CV enhancing activities. Examples include: taking specialised quantitative courses, completing projects that have connection to the real economy and industry, learning foreign languages, using statistical and various other specialised computer packages, applying for internships in your summer and winter breaks, pursing own projects and investment ideas parallel to studying.

The CV is the single, most important 1 page piece of marketing you have - use it wisely.

Good luck!


Download a sample CV.