How to write a Aviation CV

Called a resume in the US and a CV almost everywhere else — the same document, and these are the rules it gets judged by.

The conventions below are the ones this field actually uses. They are what the builder applies when you pick Aviation / Cabin Crew, and what the rating checks a finished CV against.

What it must contain

Leave any of these out and the CV reads as incomplete to someone who hires in this field:

Licences & Ratings — Licence type and number, ratings, medical class and expiry. All are verified.
Work experience — Hours by type for flight crew; fleet, sectors and routes for cabin crew.

The order to put them in

Order is not cosmetic. What sits at the top is what gets read before someone decides whether to keep reading.

Professional summary
Licences & Ratings
Work experience
Certifications
Education
Skills
Languages
Achievements

What to put numbers on

The single most common reason a CV in this field reads as weak is that nothing in it is measured. These are the figures that mean something here:

flight hours · sectors · aircraft type · passengers served

Verbs that carry weight

Openers like “responsible for” and “worked on” describe a job description rather than a person. In this field these do the work instead:

Operated · Handled · Briefed · Managed · Assisted · Completed

What gets one rejected

Aviation roles cannot proceed without licence and medical details.

Length

1 to 2 pages is normal for this field.

Build a Aviation CV See a worked example

Free, no account, and nothing is uploaded — the builder runs in your browser and the CV never leaves it.

Common questions

What should an aviation CV include?

An aviation CV has to carry licences & ratings and work experience. The order this field expects is professional summary, licences & ratings, work experience and certifications.

What goes first on an aviation CV?

The professional summary. That is where this field's convention puts it, and it is what the builder applies when you pick Aviation.

How long should an aviation CV be?

1 to 2 pages is normal for this field. Going longer does not add weight; it moves the thing being looked for further down.

Is an aviation CV the same as an aviation resume?

For applying to a job, yes - the same document under two names. Resume is the usual word in North America and CV almost everywhere else. The one real exception is the academic CV, which is long-form and lists publications.

Is there a free aviation CV template?

Yes. ihatejob builds one to this field’s convention for free, with no account and no upload: the section order, the section names and the rating all come from the aviation pack described on this page. It exports to PDF, Word and plain text.