Your CV is often the first impression a potential employer has of you.
For engineering, manufacturing, technology and other specialist roles, a good CV needs to do more than list your previous jobs. It needs to quickly communicate your experience, technical skills, achievements and the value you could bring to a new employer.
At Jonathan Lee Recruitment, we review CVs from professionals across engineering, manufacturing, aerospace, automotive, defence, energy, technology and other specialist sectors every day.
We know that writing a CV can sometimes feel like a difficult balance. You need to include enough detail to demonstrate your experience without turning your CV into a lengthy career history.
So, whether you’re writing your first CV, updating one you’ve had for years or applying for a specific role, here are our 10 top CV writing tips.
What makes a good CV?
A good CV should make it easy for the person reading it to understand:
- What you do
- What experience you have
- What you’re particularly good at
- What you’ve achieved
- What type of role you’re looking for
- Why you could be a good fit for the opportunity
Recruiters and employers don’t necessarily read every CV from beginning to end on the first pass. Your CV needs to be clear, well structured and easy to scan.
This is particularly important for technical and engineering roles, where a candidate may have a wide range of qualifications, systems, technologies, projects and responsibilities to demonstrate.
1. Tailor your CV to the role
One of the biggest CV mistakes is sending exactly the same document for every job.
Your CV should reflect the role you’re applying for.
Start by reading the job description carefully. What experience, qualifications, technical skills and personal qualities is the employer looking for?
Then make sure your CV clearly demonstrates where you have those skills.
For example, if you’re applying for a Project Engineer position and the job description highlights project delivery, stakeholder management, budgets and engineering change, don’t bury those experiences halfway down your CV.
Bring the most relevant information forward.
This doesn’t mean rewriting your entire CV for every application. It means prioritising the experience that is most relevant to the particular opportunity.
A tailored CV shows that you’ve understood the role rather than simply sending the same document to every employer.
2. Start with a strong personal profile
The first section of your CV should give the reader a quick understanding of who you are professionally.
Think of it as your introduction.
A strong personal profile should briefly explain:
- Your profession or area of expertise
- Your level of experience
- Your key areas of expertise
- The sectors or environments you’ve worked in
- What you can offer a potential employer
Avoid vague statements such as:
“I am a hardworking, enthusiastic individual who is looking for a new challenge.”
Almost anyone could write that.
Instead, focus on evidence and professional strengths.
For example:
“Experienced Manufacturing Engineer with 10 years’ experience within high-volume automotive and advanced manufacturing environments, specialising in process improvement, lean manufacturing and production optimisation.”
The second version immediately tells the reader much more.
3. Focus on achievements, not just responsibilities
This is one of the biggest opportunities to improve a CV.
Many CVs simply describe what someone was responsible for.
For example:
Responsible for managing production projects and improving manufacturing processes.
That’s useful, but it doesn’t tell the employer what you actually achieved.
Where possible, turn responsibilities into achievements:
Led a manufacturing improvement programme that reduced production downtime by 18% and delivered annual cost savings of £250,000.
Now the reader knows what you did and the impact you had.
When reviewing your previous roles, ask yourself:
- What did I improve?
- What problems did I solve?
- What did I deliver?
- What did I save?
- What did I increase?
- What did I reduce?
- How many people did I manage?
- What was the size or value of the projects I worked on?
- What were the results?
Numbers and measurable outcomes can make a significant difference.
If you increased efficiency by 15%, managed a £2m project, reduced scrap by 12% or led a team of 20 people, say so.
Don’t just tell the employer what you were responsible for. Show them what you achieved.
4. Make your technical skills easy to find
This is particularly important for engineering, manufacturing and technology professionals.
If a vacancy requires specific technical skills, qualifications, software, systems or technologies, don’t make the recruiter hunt for them.
Consider having a dedicated Key Skills or Technical Skills section.
Depending on your profession, this could include things such as:
- CAD packages
- PLCs
- ERP/MRP systems
- Lean manufacturing
- Six Sigma
- Project management
- Quality systems
- SAP
- MATLAB
- Python
- CATIA
- SolidWorks
- AutoCAD
- Electrical systems
- Mechanical design
- Manufacturing processes
- Industry-specific standards
Only include skills you genuinely have.
Your CV should be an accurate representation of your experience rather than a list of every keyword you’ve seen in a job advert.
For technical candidates, also consider including relevant professional qualifications, certifications, security clearances or memberships where appropriate.
5. Keep your CV clear and easy to read
A CV doesn’t need to win a design award.
In fact, for many engineering, manufacturing and technical positions, clarity is much more important than elaborate design.
Use:
- Clear headings
- Consistent formatting
- Bullet points
- Short paragraphs
- Plenty of white space
- A straightforward, professional font
Avoid huge blocks of text.
A recruiter should be able to quickly find your current or most recent role, job titles, employers, key skills and relevant achievements.
Your CV is there to communicate information, not demonstrate your graphic design skills.
The National Careers Service similarly recommends clear formatting, headings, bullet points and concise content to make a CV easier to read.
6. Use the right keywords – but don’t stuff them
Think about the terminology used within your industry.
If you’re a Manufacturing Engineer, for example, there may be specific terminology that accurately describes your experience.
Use relevant job titles, technical skills, qualifications, software and industry terminology naturally throughout your CV.
This can also help your CV when it is being searched or filtered electronically.
However, don’t turn your CV into a list of keywords.
If a sentence sounds unnatural because you’ve tried to include six different phrases from a job description, rewrite it.
Write for the person reading the CV first.
The best CVs use relevant terminology naturally while still being easy to understand.
7. Explain career gaps honestly
Having a gap in your employment history doesn’t automatically make you a poor candidate.
People take career breaks for many reasons – redundancy, caring responsibilities, travel, further education, health, family circumstances or simply taking time between roles.
There’s no need to write a lengthy explanation, but don’t feel that you need to hide a significant gap either.
If appropriate, briefly explain it.
For example:
2024–2025 – Career break
Relocated to the UK and completed professional development in project management and manufacturing systems.
The important thing is to be honest.
If you undertook training, volunteering, freelance work, study or other relevant activities during the period, include them where appropriate.
A career gap is simply part of your career history. It doesn’t have to define your CV.
8. Keep your CV up to date
Don’t wait until you’re actively looking for a new job before updating your CV.
If you’ve recently completed a major project, gained a qualification, taken on additional responsibility or delivered a significant achievement, make a note of it.
It’s much easier to remember the detail while it’s fresh.
Ideally, keep a master version of your CV that contains your complete career history.
You can then tailor a copy of it for individual applications.
This also avoids the common situation where someone starts looking for a new role and realises their CV hasn’t been updated for five years.
Check regularly that your:
- Job titles are correct
- Employment dates are accurate
- Contact details are current
- Qualifications are up to date
- Technical skills reflect your current experience
- Recent achievements have been added
- Older, irrelevant information has been removed
9. Make sure your LinkedIn profile matches your CV
Your CV isn’t the only place a potential employer may look.
If you have a LinkedIn profile, make sure it broadly reflects the experience and expertise shown on your CV.
You don’t need to copy and paste your entire CV onto LinkedIn.
But your employment history, job titles, key skills and professional experience should make sense when someone looks at both.
Think of your CV and LinkedIn profile as two parts of your professional presence.
Your CV can be tailored specifically to an opportunity, while LinkedIn provides a broader picture of your career.
It’s also worth checking your LinkedIn headline and “About” section. These can help recruiters understand your area of expertise before they even reach your employment history.
10. Proofread your CV before you send it
It sounds obvious, but spelling and grammatical errors can undermine an otherwise strong CV.
Before sending it, read through the document carefully.
Better still, ask someone else to read it.
Check:
- Spelling
- Grammar
- Job titles
- Company names
- Dates
- Telephone number
- Email address
- Qualification names
- Formatting
- Page numbers
- Consistency of fonts and headings
Also check that you’ve removed any information left over from an older version.
You don’t want to accidentally refer to the wrong company in your personal profile or leave another employer’s name in a previous version of the document.
And finally, save the finished version with a professional filename.
Something as simple as:
FirstName-LastName-CV.pdf
is much better than:
CV-FINAL-FINAL-v7-new.docx
Common CV mistakes to avoid
Even a CV with good experience can be weakened by avoidable mistakes.
Here are some of the most common ones we see:
Too much information
Your CV doesn’t need to contain every task you’ve ever completed.
Focus on the information that demonstrates your suitability for the type of role you’re targeting.
Long paragraphs
Large blocks of text are difficult to scan.
Use concise paragraphs and bullet points.
Generic personal statements
Avoid filling your opening profile with phrases such as “hardworking”, “motivated” and “team player” without providing evidence.
Listing responsibilities without achievements
Tell the reader what you actually delivered.
Using an overly complicated design
Make your CV easy to read.
Including irrelevant information
If something doesn’t help demonstrate your suitability for the role, ask yourself whether it needs to be there.
Failing to tailor your CV
A generic CV can make it much harder for the reader to see why you’re right for the particular role.
Typos and inconsistent formatting
These are easy to avoid and can make an otherwise strong CV look rushed.
How long should a CV be?
There’s no universal rule that says your CV must be exactly two pages.
The right length depends on your experience and the role you’re applying for.
Someone early in their career may only need one or two pages, while an experienced engineer, technical specialist or senior manager with decades of relevant experience may need more space.
The important thing is relevance rather than an arbitrary page count.
If you’re adding a third or fourth page simply because you want to include every job responsibility you’ve ever had, it’s probably time to edit.
If you need an additional page to properly demonstrate significant and relevant experience, don’t remove important information just to make the CV fit an artificial limit.
Your final CV checklist
Before you send your CV, ask yourself:
Content
-
Does my CV clearly explain what I do?
-
Have I tailored it to the role?
-
Are my most relevant skills easy to find?
-
Have I highlighted achievements rather than just responsibilities?
-
Have I included measurable results where possible?
-
Is my employment history accurate?
-
Have I explained any significant career gaps?
Presentation
-
Is it easy to read?
-
Are the headings and formatting consistent?
-
Have I avoided large blocks of text?
-
Have I checked spelling and grammar?
-
Have I removed irrelevant or outdated information?
Before sending
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Are my contact details correct?
-
Does my LinkedIn profile broadly match my CV?
-
Have I saved the correct final version?
-
Does the filename look professional?
-
Have I sent the correct document?
Your CV is the start of the conversation
A CV doesn’t need to tell your entire career story.
Its job is to make the reader want to know more.
For specialist engineering, manufacturing, technical and commercial roles, that means making your relevant experience, technical expertise and achievements easy to find.
Take the time to tailor your CV, focus on what you’ve achieved and make the document easy for someone else to understand.
And remember, your CV doesn’t have to be perfect before you start looking for your next opportunity.
If you’re considering your next career move, the team at Jonathan Lee Recruitment can provide advice on the market, available opportunities and how best to position your experience.
Explore our latest vacancies or register your CV with us today.
Good luck with your job search.
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