Think broadly about your experiences across work, volunteering, education, and even hobbies. Many valuable skills, like leadership, problem-solving, communication, and initiative, can be developed in various settings.
Reflect on times you organised something, solved a problem, supported others, or learned a new skill, tool or process.
Use a mind map or list to capture your experiences and the skills you used or developed.
For example:
"Volunteering at a local charity helped me develop event coordination and public speaking skills."
"Running a gaming blog improved my writing, content planning, and SEO knowledge."
Use strong, active verbs to clearly express your contributions and achievements. This helps demonstrate ownership and initiative,
Examples of strong action words:
Instead of: “Was responsible for managing a project...”
✅ Try: “Managed a cross-functional team to deliver a marketing campaign that increased engagement by 30%.”
Always include what you did, how you did it, and what the result was. This helps employers assess the value you added.
Every role is different, so your CV should be, too. Read the job description carefully and identify the key skills, experience, and values the employer is looking for, highlighting the key words.