When crafting a summary statement, keep a strong focus on representing your greatest professional strengths and qualifications in as few words as possible. Cut your summary down to no more than three sentences or bullet points that detail years of experience and exemplify areas where you excel.

When trying to decide what areas to emphasize, consider just what employers are looking for by reviewing multiple examples of jobs you’d target. Use these examples to match your most desirable skills, and describe them using the kind of powerful language we demonstrate in our civil engineer CV sample.

A one-page CV is your best chance for passing the 10-second test. If you’re not familiar with the 10-second test, it’s a rule of thumb that employers often only scan a CV for 10 seconds before making a decision and moving on.

Your CV should allow the reader to absorb all pertinent information in a single 10-second scan, with enough enticing details to draw them back for a deeper read. For more ideas on how to craft an excellent one-page CV, use our civil engineer CV sample and our quick, no-hassle resume builder tool.

Clean, modern, and minimalist are the hot trend right now, and for a reason. Minimalist CVs cut out the distractions to center your experience and outstanding accomplishments in the reader’s attention. You want to avoid anything that diverts or makes it difficult to focus.

Our civil engineer CV sample shows how to structure and organize a CV within a template, so that you take the most advantage of a template’s features. You want your CV to be a natural reading experience, with no speed bumps to send the reader veering away.

Use action-oriented writing to separate your CV from the crowd. Such writing creates a stronger impact by beginning each sentence with an engaging, dynamic action verb. These verbs create a more vivid portrait of your job duties, so that you appear actively in control of your working environment rather than passively completing routine duties.

Throughout your career you’ve likely facilitated or led a number of projects that required ingenuity and intelligence to resolve problems, cut costs, and improve efficiency. These projects make a great foundation to build your list of achievements by discussing how your results affected the bottom line.

Follow the example set out in our civil engineer CV sample to write bullet-pointed achievements using action verbs. Describe your outcomes succinctly, and include eye-grabbing metrics wherever you can. Achievements should make up the bulk of each of your job listings to create a lasting impact on employers.