How to write a Defence 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 Defence / Ex-servicemen, 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:

Service Record — Give the civilian equivalent of each posting: people managed, budget, assets, logistics scope.
Education

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
Service Record
Awards & Commendations
Skills
Certifications
Education
Licences & registrations
Languages

Section by section

Professional summary — Translate rank and role into civilian terms. A hiring manager outside defence will not know what your appointment involved unless you say it plainly.
Skills — Security clearance level, if any, belongs here.

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:

personnel led · budget · assets managed · operations completed · years 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:

Commanded · Coordinated · Trained · Maintained · Planned · Led

Length

1 to 2 pages is normal for this field.

Build a Defence 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 a defence CV include?

A defence CV has to carry service record and education. The order this field expects is professional summary, service record, awards & commendations and skills.

What goes first on a defence CV?

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

How long should a defence 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 a defence CV the same as a defence 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 defence 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 defence pack described on this page. It exports to PDF, Word and plain text.

Related fields

Government · Law · Social Work