How to write a resume (or CV), with a sample format

To write a resume, start with contact details and a two-line summary for the role, then list work experience from newest to oldest with three to five result-focused bullets per job. Add education, six to twelve skills you can prove, and certifications. Keep it to one page early in your career and two at most later.

A resume has one job: get a busy reader to want to talk to you. Most resumes fail at that because they list duties instead of results, or bury the one line that matters for this job under ten that don’t. This guide covers what goes in each section, how long a resume should be, what changes when you apply for remote or international roles, and a sample you can copy.

Resume or CV?

In the US, Canada, and India, people say “resume.” In the UK, Ireland, most of Europe, Nigeria, Ghana, Kenya, South Africa, and the Middle East, people say “CV.” For most jobs they mean the same document: a one- or two-page summary of your experience, education, and skills. Everything in this guide applies to both.

The exception is academia. An academic CV is a full record of your publications, teaching, and grants, and it can run to many pages. If you’re not applying for a lecturing or research post, you don’t need one.

If you apply across borders, use the word the employer uses in the job posting. The document itself barely changes.

How long should a resume be?

• Graduates and early career: one page.
• Two to ten years of experience: two pages at most.
• Senior roles: two pages, with older roles cut down to a title and dates.

Readers decide quickly whether to keep going. A short resume with strong lines beats a long one that buries them.

What to put on a resume, section by section

1. Contact details

Your full name, phone number with country code, a professional email address, your city and country, and your LinkedIn profile if it’s up to date.

Leave out your photo, date of birth, marital status, and religion unless the employer asks for them. Many countries don’t allow employers to use them, and international recruiters don’t expect them.

2. Professional summary

Two or three lines at the top: the role you’re applying for, your experience, and one result that matters for this job.

Finance operations specialist with three years in manufacturing finance. Cut month-end close from 10 days to 6 for a 200-person company. Looking for a remote finance operations role.

Rewrite this line for each job. It’s the first thing the reader sees.

3. Work experience

List your jobs from most recent to oldest: job title, organisation, location (or “Remote”), and dates as month and year. Under each, write three to five bullets about what changed because of your work, not a list of duties.

Before: Responsible for preparing financial reports.

After: Prepared monthly management accounts in Sage for the CEO, flagging $40,000 in overdue receivables that were collected within the quarter.

Internships, national service, freelance work, and volunteer roles all count as experience. List them like jobs, with bullets about what you did.

4. Education

Your degree, institution, and year of completion. Add your GPA, grade, or class of degree if it helps you, and one line on a relevant project or thesis if you’re a recent graduate. Once you have a few years of experience, education moves below work experience and shrinks to one line.

5. Skills

Six to twelve skills you can prove: software (Excel, Sage, Python, Figma), methods (financial reporting, user research, project planning), and languages you speak, with your level. Leave out “hard-working” and “team player” and show those in your bullets instead. See skills to put on a resume for how to choose them.

6. Certifications

ACCA, CIMA, CPA, PMP, AWS, Google certificates, or short courses that matter for the role. Include the year.

7. References

Most employers ask for references later, once you’re a finalist. You don’t need to list them on your resume, and you don’t need to write “References available on request” either. Some employers, especially in the UK, Africa, and the public sector, expect two or three referees on a CV. If the posting asks, include each referee’s name, title, organisation, phone, and email, and ask them first.

Writing a resume for remote and international jobs

Remote roles get applicants from many countries, so the reader has to work out quickly whether you can do the job from where you are. Make that easy:

• Say where you are and how you can work. “Lagos, Nigeria · Open to remote (UTC+1)” or “Toronto, Canada · Remote, overlaps US Eastern hours.” Time zone overlap is often one of the first things a remote employer checks.
• State your work authorisation if the job is tied to a country. “Authorised to work in the UK” or “Requires visa sponsorship.” If the role is fully remote and hires through contractors or an employer of record, you usually don’t need to.
• Show you’ve worked remotely before. Mark remote roles as “Remote,” and put evidence of remote habits in your bullets: written updates, async collaboration across time zones, tools like Slack, Notion, Jira, or GitHub.
• Make numbers readable anywhere. Convert money amounts into US dollars, euros, or the employer’s currency, or use percentages. “Cut supplier costs 18%” works in every country.
• Explain local names once. A reader abroad may not know your university, employer, or exam. A short note helps: “Akwaaba Foods (food manufacturer, 200 staff).”
• Spell the way the employer does. Use US spelling for US companies and UK spelling for UK and most international ones.

Sample resume format

Copy this structure into Word or Google Docs:

AMA OWUSU
Accra, Ghana (UTC+0) · Open to remote · +233 24 000 0000 · ama.owusu@email.com · linkedin.com/in/amaowusu

PROFESSIONAL SUMMARY
Finance operations specialist with three years in manufacturing finance. Cut month-end close from 10 days to 6 for a 200-person company. Looking for a remote finance operations role.

WORK EXPERIENCE
Accounts Officer, Akwaaba Foods (food manufacturer, 200 staff), Tema, Ghana · Jan 2024 – present

• Prepared monthly management accounts in Sage, flagging $40,000 in overdue receivables collected within the quarter
• Reconciled 300+ supplier accounts a month and found $6,000 in duplicate payments
• Built an Excel cash-flow forecast now used in the weekly finance meeting

Finance Assistant (contract, remote), Northwind Logistics, London, UK · Sep 2022 – Dec 2023

• Ran weekly supplier payment runs across UK and EU accounts, working async with a team four time zones apart
• Wrote the payment-run checklist the team still uses

EDUCATION
BSc Accounting, University of Ghana · 2022

SKILLS
Financial reporting · Reconciliations · Sage · QuickBooks · Excel (pivot tables, forecasting) · English (native), French (intermediate)

CERTIFICATIONS
ACCA (in progress)

The names, numbers, and contacts are examples.

Formatting rules

• Use one clean font (Calibri, Arial, or similar) at 10–12 points, with clear section headings.
• Send a PDF unless the employer asks for Word, so the layout doesn’t break. Name the file with your name and the role: “Ama-Owusu-Resume-Finance-Operations.pdf.”
• Skip tables, text boxes, columns, and graphics. Some screening software can’t read them, and they often break when the file is opened on a phone.
• Check every phone number and email twice. A resume with a wrong number is a resume nobody can call.

Tailor it for each job

The fastest way to improve your chances is to send fewer, better applications. Read the job posting, pick out what the role does every week, and move your matching experience to the top. Here’s how to tailor your resume to a job description step by step, and how to write the cover or application letter that goes with it.

Common questions

What is the difference between a resume and a CV?

For most jobs there is none: the US, Canada, and India say resume, while the UK, Europe, and much of Africa say CV. An academic CV is different; it lists publications, teaching, and grants and can run to many pages.

Should I put a photo on my resume?

Not unless the employer asks for one. Many countries don’t allow employers to use photos, age, or marital status in hiring, and international recruiters don’t expect them.

How do I write a resume for a remote job?

Put your location and time zone at the top, state work authorization if the job is tied to a country, mark remote roles as remote, and show remote habits such as written updates and async work across time zones.

How Appyl does this

Appyl matches you to jobs your experience fits, then tailors your resume for each one with you, using only facts from your own work.

Tailor my resume