How to write a Design CV

The conventions below are the ones this field actually uses. They are what the builder applies when you pick Design / UX / Creative, 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:

  • Work experience — Say what the design changed - task success, drop-off, support tickets.
  • Selected Work — Your portfolio does the persuading. The CV only needs to get it opened.

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.

  1. Professional summary
  2. Work experience
  3. Selected Work
  4. Skills
  5. Education
  6. Certifications
  7. Achievements
  8. Languages

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:

task success · drop-off · conversion · support tickets · time on task

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:

Designed · Prototyped · Researched · Tested · Simplified · Rebuilt · Facilitated

What gets one rejected

  • A portfolio link is mandatory. A design CV without one is usually discarded.

Length

1 to 2 pages is normal for this field.

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

Related fields

Content · Film · Journalism