How to Make a CV in Word (And Fix Your LinkedIn Resume)

To make a CV in Word, start from a blank document instead of a fancy template, type your details in a single column, keep the fonts simple, and save a copy as a PDF before you apply. If you also searched for the LinkedIn resume builder, the same rules apply: a tool can pull your details into a layout, but the content and the clean formatting are still your job. This guide covers both, because they answer the same question.

Set up the page before you type anything

Open Word, choose a blank document, and set the margins to about one inch on all sides. Pick one font for the whole CV, something plain like Calibri, Arial or Times New Roman, at a readable size. Use bold for headings and job titles only, and keep the body text regular.

Skip tables, text boxes, columns, headers and footers. Many job portals and screening systems read a CV as plain text, and anything placed inside those structures can come out jumbled or missing. A single column of text, top to bottom, is the safest layout.

Save the file as a Word document so you can edit it later, then use Save As to create a PDF copy for sending. Attach the PDF when a company asks for a file, and paste plain text into the form when a portal gives you a box to fill.

The order of sections that works

Put your name at the top in a larger bold font, then one line with your phone number, email and city. Skip the full address and skip your photo for most private jobs. After that:

• A short summary of two or three lines saying what you do and what kind of role you want.
• Work experience, newest job first, each with your title, company, dates and a few bullet points.
• Education, with your degree or course, college and year.
• Skills, as a short list of the tools and abilities the job posting actually asks for.
• Certifications or languages, if you have any worth mentioning.

Freshers can put education above experience, and add a projects or internship section. Keep the whole CV to one page if you have under a few years of work, and two pages at most otherwise.

Write bullets that say what changed

Each bullet under a job should start with a verb and end with a result. "Handled social media" tells a reader nothing. "Ran the company's Instagram and grew enquiries from it" tells them what you did and why it mattered. Use numbers where you honestly have them: how many people, how many accounts, how much money, how much time saved.

Read the job posting once and note the words it repeats. If it asks for billing, reconciliation or customer support, use those same words in your CV where they're true. Don't stuff in terms you can't explain in an interview.

Then read the whole document aloud. Word's spell check catches typos, but it won't catch a wrong year or a company name spelled two ways. A second pair of eyes helps more than any tool.

What to do about the LinkedIn resume builder

LinkedIn lets you export your profile into a resume format. It's useful when your profile is already complete, because it saves retyping. The catch is that a profile and a CV aren't the same document. A profile is written for people browsing; a CV is written for one job.

So export it if you like, then edit hard. Cut the parts that don't fit the role, rewrite the summary for that company, and check that the export didn't leave odd spacing or broken sections. Paste the text into a blank Word document and rebuild the layout cleanly if the export looks messy.

Either way, fix your LinkedIn profile too, since recruiters will open it after reading your CV. A clear headline, the same job titles as your CV, and a filled-out experience section cost you an hour and save a lot of confusion. Destava's AI career manager can build and fix your resume, tidy your LinkedIn profile and apply to jobs for you, if you'd rather not do all of it by hand.

Name your files properly before you send them: something like YourName_CV.docx and YourName_CV.pdf, not final_final2. Then open the PDF on your phone once, because that's how many recruiters will first see it.