Essential Sections Every CV Must Include

Regardless of your industry or experience level, certain sections are mandatory on every professional CV:

Contact Information: Full name, phone number, email address, and location (city and country, not full street address). LinkedIn profile URL is highly recommended. Make sure your email address is professional, ideally firstname.lastname@domain.com.

Professional Summary or Profile: A 3-5 sentence paragraph at the top highlighting your experience, key skills, and career focus. This section has replaced outdated objective statements.

Work Experience: Your employment history with company names, job titles, dates, and bullet points describing responsibilities and achievements. List in reverse chronological order starting with your most recent role.

Education: Degrees, institutions, graduation dates, and relevant academic achievements. Include certifications and professional qualifications here or in a separate section.

Skills: A dedicated section listing relevant technical skills, languages, tools, and competencies. Organize these logically and prioritize the most relevant ones for each application.

Optional Sections That Can Strengthen Your CV

Beyond the essentials, these sections can add value when they contain genuinely relevant information:

Certifications and Licenses: Professional certifications (PMP, CPA, AWS, etc.) deserve their own section if you have multiple. For licensed professions like healthcare or law, these are often more important than education.

Projects: Particularly valuable for technical roles, career changers, or recent graduates. Include significant projects that demonstrate relevant skills, especially if work experience is limited.

Publications and Presentations: Relevant for academic, research, or senior professional roles. Only include if they add credibility in your field.

Volunteer Work: Include when it demonstrates relevant skills, fills employment gaps, or shows commitment to causes aligned with the company's values. Treat it like work experience with specific achievements.

Languages: List languages with proficiency levels (fluent, conversational, basic) if relevant to the role. Being bilingual or multilingual is a competitive advantage in many positions.

Awards and Honors: Professional recognition, academic honors, or industry awards demonstrate excellence. Skip high school awards unless you are a very recent graduate.

What to Absolutely Exclude From Your CV

These elements once appeared on CVs but are now considered outdated, unprofessional, or even harmful to your chances:

Objective statements: "Seeking a challenging position where I can grow and develop" tells employers nothing about your value. Replace with a professional summary highlighting what you offer.

"References available upon request": This phrase wastes valuable space. Employers assume you will provide references if asked. Remove it entirely.

Irrelevant work experience from decades ago: That retail job from 1998 does not belong on your senior management CV. Focus on the last 10-15 years unless older experience is directly relevant.

Full street address: Privacy concerns and modern hiring practices make detailed addresses unnecessary. City and country are sufficient.

Age, date of birth, or marital status: These details invite age discrimination and are illegal to request in many countries. Never include them unless specifically required in your region.

Photo (in most countries): In the UK, US, Canada, and Australia, including a photo invites bias and looks unprofessional. Some European and Asian countries expect photos, so research local norms.

Salary information: Current or expected salary does not belong on your CV. Discuss compensation during interviews or when specifically requested.

Reasons for leaving previous jobs: Explanations like "company downsizing" or "seeking better opportunities" belong in interviews, not your CV.

The Hobbies Question: When They Help and When They Hurt

Hobbies and interests are controversial. Here is when to include them and when to skip them:

Include hobbies when they are directly relevant: If you are applying to a sports marketing company and you compete in marathons, that is relevant. If you are applying to an unrelated field, it is not.

Include when they demonstrate desirable skills: Team sports show collaboration. Blogging demonstrates writing ability. Leading a volunteer organization shows leadership. Generic hobbies like "reading" or "traveling" add nothing.

Include when you are an entry-level candidate with limited experience: Recent graduates can use relevant hobbies to demonstrate skills and personality when work experience is minimal.

Exclude when space is limited: If you are struggling to fit your CV on one or two pages, hobbies are the first thing to cut. Your professional experience matters infinitely more.

Exclude controversial or polarizing interests: Political affiliations, religious activities, or potentially divisive hobbies can introduce unconscious bias. Keep it professional unless applying to mission-aligned organizations.

How Much Work Experience Should You Include?

Not every job you have ever held belongs on your CV. Here is how to decide what to include:

Focus on the last 10-15 years: For most professionals, experience older than this is either outdated or too distant to remain relevant. Exceptions apply for highly specialized roles.

Include all relevant roles within that timeframe: Even if you held a position for only six months, include it if it is relevant. Unexplained gaps look worse than short tenures with clear progression.

Summarize or omit very old experience: If you have 20+ years of experience, you can create an "Earlier Career" section with just job titles, companies, and dates without detailed bullet points.

Always include jobs that show career progression: If an older role demonstrates an important promotion or skill development that led to your current expertise, keep it.

Exclude completely unrelated jobs unless filling a gap: If you worked in retail for two years but have spent the last decade in software engineering, you can omit the retail experience unless it creates a problematic unexplained gap.

Education: What to Include and What to Skip

Your education section should be concise but complete. Here is what matters:

Always include university degrees: List degree type, major, institution, and graduation year. GPA is optional but include it if it is strong (3.5+ or equivalent) and you are early in your career.

Include relevant coursework only if you are a recent graduate: Once you have a few years of work experience, specific courses become less important than your professional accomplishments.

Skip secondary school education if you have a degree: High school diplomas are assumed if you have university education. The exception is if you attended a highly prestigious or relevant secondary school.

Include professional certifications prominently: Credentials like CPA, PMP, AWS Certified, or industry-specific licenses often matter as much or more than formal degrees. Give them appropriate visibility.

Include online courses only if highly relevant and recognized: Completed a Google Data Analytics Certificate or AWS Training? Worth including. Random Udemy courses? Generally not necessary unless directly applicable and the role requires proof of specific skills.

Skills Section: What Makes the Cut?

Your skills section should be strategic, not a dumping ground for every tool you have ever touched:

Include skills you can confidently discuss in an interview: If you used Excel once five years ago, do not list "Advanced Excel." Stick to skills you can genuinely demonstrate.

Prioritize hard skills over soft skills: Technical abilities, tools, languages, and platforms are more valuable here. Soft skills like "communication" or "teamwork" should be demonstrated through your experience, not listed generically.

Use specific terminology: "Python" is better than "programming languages." "Google Analytics, SEMrush, Ahrefs" is better than "digital marketing tools."

Match skills to job requirements: Tailor this section for each application, emphasizing the most relevant skills and removing or de-prioritizing less relevant ones.

Organize skills logically: Group related skills together under subheadings like "Programming Languages," "Marketing Tools," "Design Software," etc., to make scanning easier.

Common CV Sections That Are Usually a Waste of Space

These sections appear frequently but rarely add value:

"Career Highlights" or "Key Achievements" sections: Your achievements should be integrated into your work experience bullet points, not listed separately. Repeating them wastes space.

Lengthy personal statements: A 10-sentence biography at the top of your CV is excessive. Keep your professional summary to 3-5 sentences maximum.

"Core Competencies" that duplicate your skills section: If you already have a skills section, do not create a redundant "core competencies" area. Choose one or the other.

Detailed course descriptions: Employers care about outcomes, not syllabi. Skip detailed explanations of what you studied unless it directly demonstrates rare, relevant expertise.

Regional Differences: What Varies by Location

CV conventions differ significantly by country. Here are key regional variations:

United Kingdom, United States, Canada, Australia: No photo, no age, no marital status. CVs typically 1-2 pages. Skills and achievements emphasized heavily.

Germany, France, parts of Europe: Photos often expected. More formal structure. May include date of birth. CVs can be slightly longer with more detailed academic history.

Asia (China, Japan, South Korea): Photos commonly included. Personal details like age and marital status sometimes expected. Research specific country norms carefully.

Middle East: Similar to European standards in some regions but more conservative. Research specific country and industry expectations.

How CV On The Go Helps You Build the Perfect CV

Knowing what to include and exclude is one thing, but implementing it properly is another. CV On The Go ensures you get it right every time:

Pre-built sections designed for 2026 standards: Our templates include all the essential sections and make it easy to add optional ones only when relevant.

Smart prompts that prevent common mistakes: The app guides you away from outdated elements like objective statements and "references available upon request."

AI assistance for writing strong content: Get suggestions for how to describe your experience, skills, and achievements effectively without padding or fluff.

Easy section management: Add, remove, or reorder sections effortlessly. Include certifications for one role, remove them for another, all without reformatting headaches.

Professional formatting automatically maintained: Focus on content while the app ensures your CV looks polished and properly structured, regardless of what you include.