Employers in Pakistan often receive dozens or hundreds of applications for one role, and the first read of your CV can take less than a minute. A good CV does not need fancy design. It needs to make the reader's decision easy: this person has done similar work and can do it for us.
Keep it to one or two pages
One page is enough for fresh graduates. Two pages suit people with several years of experience. Anything longer is rarely read in full.
What to include, in this order
- Name and contact details. Your name, city, a phone number, a professional email address and a LinkedIn link if you have one.
- Short profile. Two or three lines: your role, years of experience, and the kind of work you want next.
- Experience. Newest first. For each job: title, company, dates, and three to five bullet points.
- Education. Degree, institution and year. Fresh graduates can place this above experience.
- Skills. Only skills you can discuss in an interview, grouped clearly (software, languages, technical skills).
- Certifications and training. Relevant ones only.
Write achievements, not duties
"Responsible for sales reports" tells the reader what the job was. "Prepared weekly sales reports for 40 distributors, cutting reporting time from two days to half a day" tells them what you did. Use real numbers where you have them, and never invent figures: they are easy to check in an interview.
| Weak | Stronger |
|---|---|
| Handled customer complaints | Resolved customer complaints within 48 hours and kept a written log of repeat issues |
| Worked on Excel | Built a monthly Excel tracker that replaced three manual reports |
| Team player | Coordinated a five-person team to deliver the quarterly stock count on time |
Match the CV to the job
Read the job advert and note the repeated keywords: tools, skills, responsibilities. If you genuinely have them, use the same words. Many companies use applicant tracking systems that filter CVs by keywords before a person sees them. You can test your CV against a job description with the free ATS Resume Checker.
Photo, age, religion and family details
Local practice varies by employer. A photo is optional for most private-sector roles unless the advert asks for it. Do not add details that the employer does not need to make a hiring decision. If a form specifically asks for them, provide them there.
Common mistakes
- Spelling and grammar errors. Read it aloud, and ask a friend to read it.
- An unprofessional email address.
- Employment gaps left unexplained. One short line is enough.
- Sending the same CV for every job.
- Saving the file with a vague name. Use "Name-Role-CV.pdf" and send a PDF so the layout does not change.
Before you send it
Check the dates, contact details and spelling one last time. Then build a clean version with the free Resume Builder, download it as a PDF and apply. For the next stage, practise with the interview practice section, which has 30 sample interviews.