CV Writing Tips II - Let’s now go over the basic CV outline

This week’s article includes advice on the CV sections: Personal Details, Profile Summary, Career Objective and Skills.

Personal Details - Only include the relevant details to the position. We, in Growinfinance.com advise that in this section you include: name and surname, full address, email, and telephone number (double-check that the number is correct) and work permit/s.

Any other information included would depend by large on the country itself. Keep in mind that in most countries companies do not have the right to ask for your personal marital status, your race and religion, your date of birth, appearance and other personal information. Some companies can ask you for these details for statistic reasons, but you have the right of not to answer.

This general background information is followed by the Profile Summary and the Career objectives. You can add this information all in one paragraph or leave them as two. The way you add this information is, at the end, a personal choice. What is most important is that you summarize well your profile and objectives and that you make this section “a selling point” to recruiters. This is the first information about you they will read and it can decide whether they want to continue reading.

If you make it all one paragraph, title it with a sentence that summarize best your profile.

Profile Summary – This is a very short and concise summary (4 lines at most) of your professional experience and knowledge. It should cover 3 main points: your job title, your previous experience and your most relevant skill set and qualifications. This is not a section to retell the rest of the content of your CV. Rather, it is a brief recap of the main points that would make you the best candidate for the job. This paragraph goes straight below your personal details.

Although the Profile Summary follows a unified standard, there are still ways to make it stand out from the rest of the candidates. If you are applying for a specific position, your Profile paragraph needs to be unique and adapted exclusively to the job requirements of the position. By doing so, you have a much higher possibility that your CV is going to be found and read by the responsible in the HR department or the recruiter. Use the words in the job description that match your skills and do not oversell yourself.

If you are just making your CV visible on a financial job board, choose words that match best your strengths and the kind of position that you are seeking.

Highlight your title so that it stands out on your CV.

Career Objective - This and the profile section can work as a brief cover letter for your CV, which tells the recruiters what type of position may interest you and your career goal.

If you are applying for an specific job: adapt it to the position you are applying for; an easy way to do so is by using the job title for which you are applying and some of the words included in the job’s requirements.

If you are just making your CV visible to companies on a job board: choose adjectives that describe your style, and inform potential employers what you can offer them.
The length of this section should be no more than 3 lines.

Skills – This is an optional section. In case that you are adding this section, the best would be to make the Profile Summary and the Career Objective all in one paragraph of 4-6 lines approximately, and add the skills below this paragraph.

Skills are often keywords in job applications, which include the essential criteria. If you have already added the main keywords that summarize your profile in the profile and objectives paragraph you may not need to add this section.

Any job for which you can apply will include a range of skills you can use. The evidence of the skills you include here should be included in the Work experience section below and not in this section. You may not have all of the desired qualifications and skills but you must include as many of them as possible. If possible, use a similar or the exact (to help automatic pre-screening) description of these skills as they had been used in the job ad.

The length of this section should not exceed 3 lines (you could include 2 columns).

To end with - Grammar and spelling are very important! There should be no errors in any part of your CV.


This advice is directed to finance and banking sector professionals and the tips match best the application process through job boards.

CV Writing Tips I - Why is it recommended to use a standard CV form?
CV Writing Tips II - Let’s now go over the basic CV outline
CV Writing Tips III – Work Experience
CV Writing Tips IV – Education
CV Writing Tips V - Additional information