This guide is for people 1–5 years into their career, on their second or third role. If you're a recent graduate with little or no full-time experience, read Graduate CV instead. If you're 5–10 years in, read Mid-career CV.
TL;DR
Your CV is a sales document for a specific role, not a record of every job you've held. By now you have real experience and real numbers behind you. Lead with them, show how you've grown, and cut anything that doesn't sell you for the role you're applying for next.
Free template
Early-career CV template (Google Doc)
Single column, four sections, ready to fill in.
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1. Your CV is a sales document, not a record of every job
By 1–5 years in, you have real experience to draw on. The risk now isn't padding with student material; it's listing every project, every responsibility, every minor task. That's a record. A CV is something else.
Framework
The Sales Document Test
Does this line sell you for this specific role? If not, cut it. The CV is a sales document, not a biography.
Every line earns its place by selling you for the role. With more experience comes more to choose from, which means more discipline about what makes the cut.
Bad:
Account Manager. Responsible for managing accounts, building relationships, and supporting customer renewals.
Good:
Account Manager. Owned $400K renewal book across 40 mid-market accounts; delivered 96% gross retention in FY24.
The first describes the job description. The second describes what you did with it.
2. What goes on an early-career CV
Four sections:
- Name and contact details
- Personal statement (3–4 lines)
- Experience
- Education and certifications
No standalone "skills" section. No "references available on request." An "interests and other experience" section is rarely worth it at this stage. If you have something substantial that genuinely differentiates you (sustained leadership in a real organisation, professional-level achievement in a sport or art), add it as a bullet in your top achievements in your summary.
Format basics:
- Plain text.
- No photos.
- Single column (no split view or side panel).
- No graphics.
- Simple font, e.g. Arial or Inter, 11–12pt, black.
- One to two pages. Two if earned, never three.
- Save as a PDF with a clear filename, e.g. Customer_Success_Manager_James_Smith_CV.pdf.
Contact block:
- Personal email (no quirky handles).
- Mobile with country code.
- Location at city and country level.
- LinkedIn URL (use the personalised version without the long string).
- Portfolio URL where applicable, e.g. GitHub, Dribbble, or personal site.
One useful addition if it applies to you: a brief right-to-work indicator like "US Citizen" or "EU National." It can head off awkwardness if your name or background isn't common in the country you're applying to.
3. The personal statement
Three or four lines at the top of your CV. The first thing a recruiter reads, and a chance to land your two or three sharpest credentials before they read anything else.
Bad:
A motivated and results-driven professional with a passion for customer success and strong stakeholder management skills. Looking to take the next step in my career.
Generic, adjective-heavy, says nothing.
Good:
Customer Success Manager with 3 years' experience at a Series B SaaS company. Owned $400K renewal book at 96% gross retention; introduced an upsell playbook that grew expansion revenue 35% year-on-year.
Three things in three or four lines: who you are (job title and years of experience), what you've done that's relevant, and what you're looking for. Lead with the job title. It signals you've read the spec.
Languages: if a working language is genuinely required for the role, mention it here briefly, e.g. "professional Spanish, working German." Otherwise it belongs in the cover letter or off the CV.
4. Writing experience bullets
By now you should have real numbers behind most of what you've done. Use them.
Framework
Impact-First bullets
Lead with the quantified outcome, then explain the action. Recruiters read left to right, so the impact has to land first.
The default formula: a strong verb, what you did, the quantified outcome.
Bad:
Worked with the sales team to support pipeline conversion through customer success initiatives.
Good:
Increased pipeline conversion 22% by partnering with sales on a structured customer reference programme; closed $600K in expansion deals.
Aim for at least one quantified achievement per role. Your top bullet for each job should be your strongest.
When you don't have numbers. Some bullets, especially in earlier roles or unmeasured functions, won't have hard numbers. When that happens, fall back to:
- Scope. Managed onboarding for 12 enterprise accounts across EMEA, each $50K+ ARR.
- Ownership. Sole CS hire at BetaApp; built ticketing, escalation, and QBR processes from scratch.
- Recognition. Promoted to Senior CSM after 18 months; selected to mentor two junior hires.
- Complexity. Led cross-functional integration project with engineering and product on customer data warehouse.
You can also borrow company-level context where it adds scale: "Series B SaaS scaling 200% YoY on $20M Series B funding."
Two rules:
- Don't force the formula on context lines describing the company or role ("Series B SaaS, $15M ARR, 60 staff…"). That's setup, not an achievement.
- Don't invent numbers. A made-up percentage is worse than no percentage. Stick to numbers you can defend.
A little rounding is fine and expected. Inventing isn't.
5. Show progression
If you've been promoted, taken on more scope, or moved from junior to mid-level inside a company, the CV should make it obvious.
Format for promotions inside one employer:
Acme SaaS
Senior Customer Success Manager — Jan 2024 to Present
Customer Success Manager — Aug 2022 to Jan 2024
One company block, two job titles, separate date ranges. List bullets under the most recent role, or split between the two if the earlier role had distinct achievements worth calling out.
If you haven't been formally promoted but the scope has grown, a single bullet can do the work: "Took on team lead responsibilities for two junior CSMs after 18 months in role."
If you're at your second employer, progression also shows in the move itself: a smaller employer to a more senior role at a bigger one, or an associate-level role to a manager-level role. Make sure the job titles are easy to compare.
6. Education
By 1–5 years in, education is no longer your headline. It's a few lines at the end.
Format: University Name, Degree Title (Class), Graduation year. One line. No dissertation, no relevant modules, no extracurriculars. If you have a relevant professional certification (e.g. HubSpot CSM, AWS Solutions Architect, CIM Marketing Diploma), add it as a second short entry.
A-levels, GCSEs, school information: drop them.
7. Make it legible
Framework
The Join-the-Dots Rule
The recruiter is not in your industry, was not on your team, and doesn't know your company's acronyms. Use plain language and make the relevance obvious.
Bad:
Drove ARR uplift via PLG motions on the SMB tier through optimised TTV during PQL onboarding.
Six acronyms in one sentence. Even people in SaaS will pause.
Good:
Increased recurring revenue from small-business customers 18% by rebuilding the self-serve onboarding flow; new customers reached first value in 5 days, down from 12.
Same achievement, made legible. Spell out acronyms the first time you use them. Replace insider jargon with plain English where you can. Add brief context to employer names that aren't self-explanatory.
8. Tailoring and things to leave off
Tailoring. Don't write a fresh CV per application. Keep one master, then make 15-minute role-specific edits before each application. For very different categories of role, keep two or three master versions.
Things to leave off:
- Age or date of birth
- Gender, sexuality, marital status
- Ethnicity, religion
- Full street address
- Photo
- "References available on request"
- A-levels, GCSEs, primary school
- Hobbies that don't earn their place
- Languages that aren't relevant to the role
9. Don't lie
Rounding is fine and expected. Inventing a project, claiming a result you didn't deliver, or saying you led something you contributed to is not.
Sell yourself. Don't mis-sell.
More to come. If you're a recent graduate, read Graduate CV. If you're 5–10 years in, read Mid-career CV. If you're 10+ years in or already in leadership, read Senior CV. Career-changer guide coming soon.