Best Professional CV Templates to Download

Your Full Name

City, State, zip code
Home: (555) 555-5555 – Cell: (555) 555-5555 – email.address@email.com

Summary Statement

Note: Before getting started, make sure you research the standards of your industry/field.

Write 2-3 sentences that emphasize your skills, specific expertise and important work achievements. Make sure the information you feature is relevant to the job and matches the job description. For more on summary statements, see our Resume Summary article.

Core Qualifications

• A curriculum vitae can feature multiple skill sections, so reserve the core competencies for your top ones.
• Include a mixture of hard skills (measurable abilities learned through training), technical skills (knowledge needed to perform your task) and soft skills (personal attributes).
• Add any transferable skill that can fit with your industry.
• For more on skills, check our article with the most sought-after skills you can include in your CV.

Education

Degree: Field of Study School Name – City and state where the school is located

Certification or Additional Training: Field of Study

• In the U.S., a curriculum vitae may be required in specialized fields, like sciences and law, or to apply to postgraduate programs, hence why the education section will be higher up.
• List your educational experience in reverse-chronological order with no more than four items, including Doctorate degrees. Keep them within 5-10 years of relevancy.
• If you graduated more than 10 years ago, you don’t have to include your graduation date.
• Leave the grants, honors and awards for a different section.

Work Experience

05/2017 to Current
Position
Company – Company City, Company State

• Like the education section, list your roles in reverse-chronological order with the latest at the top.
• Include three to five bullet points per job title, detailing important tasks and work achievements.
• Use action verbs at the beginning of each statement to make them more impactful.
• Write your current role in the present tense (“Write an average of 10 articles…”) and the previous ones in past tense (“Wrote an average of 10 articles…”)

Position
Company – Company City, Company State

• Use metrics (like percentages) to better portray your achievements.
• Limit what you include in your professional history to the last 10 years, similar to the education section, and make sure it’s relevant.
• Get more tips in our dedicated article to capture your work experience the right way.

Research Experience *Optional section*

Because a curriculum vitae is a detailed view of your career, chances are you might need to include additional sections, such as research experience. Include the institution, department, dates, name of the research advisor or principal investigator, as applicable.

Teaching Experience *Optional section*

Use this section of your CV to highlight any teaching assistant, teaching associate, lecture or tutoring roles you have held in the past. List each of them with the institution, department, course(s) and your job title.

Publications * Optional section*

The publications you list should follow standard citation format, such as APA or MLA — remember to review the standards of your industry. If you published something alongside other authors, highlight your name by underlining or bolding it.

Note: Publications can be divided into subsections by the type of publication, including refereed journal articles, book chapters, reviews and abstracts.

Conference Presentations * Optional section*

List any conference presentations you wrote or presented in front of an audience. Include them in reverse-chronological order, with the name of the conference and the year in parentheses, followed by the title of the presentation.

Conference Attendance * Optional section*

Do you actively participate in conferences related to your career? You can include them in their own section as well. Similarly to the other sections, they should be listed in reverse-chronological order with the year in parentheses.

Honors and Awards * Optional section*

If you have received more than one award, create a separate section to highlight them. List them with the year in parentheses. If you have only received one award, we suggest including the title in your work experience section or as part of your introduction in the summary statement (e.g. “Annie Jump Cannon Award winning astrophysicists with more than 10 years of experience…).

Professional Affiliations and Memberships * Optional section*

Include industry-specific memberships, organizations or groups you belong to, whether you’re an active member or not.

Certifications and Licenses * Optional section*

List any certifications or licenses you have with their expiration date. If you’re in the process of completing a certification, write it as “In Progress” with the expected date of completion.

Training * Optional section*

Create a section for any workshops or specialized training you may have with the certification name, licensing status and issue date.

Languages * Optional section*

Make a bulleted list of the languages you know with your level of proficiency in parentheses. For example: English (Fluent), Spanish (Fluent), Russian (Intermediate).

Portfolio * Optional section*

Using bullet points, list the name of your portfolio with its year of creation.