How to write a CV that gets you shortlisted
What to put in, what to leave out, and how to make a recruiter read past the first page.
Keep it short and clear
Recruiters often spend less than a minute on each CV. Two pages is enough for most people; one page is fine early in your career.
Use a plain layout: your name at the top, then contact details, a short profile, work experience, education and skills. Avoid photos, tables and coloured boxes: many organisations read CVs with software that skips them.
Start with a short profile
Two or three sentences saying what you do, for how long, and what you’re good at. For example: “Community nurse with four years of outreach work in Juba and Bor, experienced in immunisation and nutrition screening.”
Show what you did, not just your job title
- List jobs with the most recent first: job title, organisation, place and dates.
- Under each, write three to five lines starting with an action verb: “Ran”, “Trained”, “Managed”, “Reduced”.
- Add numbers wherever you can: how many people you trained, how big the budget was, how many households you reached.
- Volunteer work, internships and community roles count. Include them.
Match each CV to the job
Read the advert and use its words where they’re true for you. If it asks for “monitoring and evaluation” and you’ve done it, say “monitoring and evaluation”, not just “reports”. Move the most relevant experience to the top.
Check before you send
- Your phone number and email are correct, and the email address looks professional.
- No spelling mistakes: ask someone to read it.
- Saved as PDF or Word, with your name in the file name (for example “Achol Deng CV.pdf”).
- References: two people who know your work and have agreed to be contacted, or “available on request”.
No CV yet?
Use the free JubaJobs CV builder: fill in a form, or describe your work in a few sentences, and download a clear CV in English or Arabic.