A first pass through a pile of CVs is quick - often less than a minute per application. The CVs that survive it are not the longest or the prettiest; they are the ones where the reader can see, immediately, who you are and what you do.
Start with clean contact details and a short professional profile of three to five lines: your discipline, your experience, the type of role you want and the value you bring. This is the first thing a hiring manager reads, so it needs to summarise the rest of the CV rather than repeat a job title.
List your roles in reverse chronological order with the most recent at the top, and use bullet points that focus on what you were responsible for and what changed because you were there. Numbers help - output, budget, headcount, lead times, audit results.
Mirror the language of the job description in your skills section. If the advert asks for a specific system, standard or certification and you hold it, make sure it appears in plain text on the page.
Finally, cut anything that does not earn its space. Two well-edited pages beat four pages of history every time.
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