Your first real CV

If you're a student, one page is the right length. A longer CV doesn't make you look more accomplished — it makes the reader skim harder. Trust that what you've done so far is enough to fit on a page, because it is.

11pt font, half-inch margins, plain layout. No photos, no skill bars, no color blocks. This is a document about you, not a design portfolio.

1. Name, email, and one link (a GitHub, portfolio, or personal site if you have one). Skip your home address and any 'objective' statement.

2. Education — your school, expected graduation year, and one or two courses that connect to what you're applying for.

3. Projects & experience — the heart of the CV. Anything you built, ran, organized, or contributed to. See below.

4. Recognition — awards, scholarships, competitions, published work. Keep titles plain and dates clear.

5. Activities & leadership — clubs you led, things you started, volunteering that meant something.

6. Skills — concrete things: languages you speak, tools you use, techniques you've practiced. Specific only.

Every bullet follows the same shape: [verb] [what you did] [how you did it] [what came out of it].

Weak: 'Did a project on water quality.'

Stronger: 'Designed a six-week study testing water samples from twelve sites along a nearby river, identified two sites with elevated nitrate levels, and shared the findings with a local environmental group.'

If you don't have a project yet, run a small one this month. A careful experiment in your kitchen, a short data analysis on a public dataset, a piece of writing with sources — these all count. Selection committees know how old you are. They're looking for someone who notices things and follows through, not someone with a CEO title at sixteen.

Jobs unrelated to the application unless they show real responsibility. Anything from before secondary school. Generic software ('Microsoft Word'). A photo of yourself. References — they'll ask if they need them. Anything you can't talk about for two minutes if asked.