A good work CV is short, honest and built around the job you want next. That sounds obvious. Yet most CVs that get set aside fail on the same three points: a vague profile, duties instead of results, and a layout that hides the one line the manager was looking for.
This guide gives you a work CV example for each of three common paths: an office role, a retail role and a skilled trade. You will see a sample profile, sample bullet points and the layout choices that suit each one. You will also see how the same person can rewrite one CV three ways, which helps if you are moving between these fields.
Everything here works in Word or Google Docs. If you would rather not build the page from a blank document, the templates below give you the layout so you can spend your time on the words.
Quick picks: CV templates that suit everyday work
| Product | Best for | Price | Link |
|---|---|---|---|
| Alder Resume Template with Photo | Trades and hands-on roles, plus a job tracker | $4.79 | View |
| Marlowe Resume Template | Office and admin applications | $4.79 | View |
| Sloane Resume Template | Retail and customer-facing jobs | $4.49 | View |
| Hollis Resume Template | A softer look, with a monogram option | $8.99 | View |
The parts every work CV needs
Before the examples, here is the skeleton. Office, shop floor or building site, a hiring manager looks for the same five things, in roughly this order.
- Name and contact line. Phone, email, town or area. A full street address is not needed. If you hold a driver’s license and the job involves travel between sites, put it here too.
- Profile. Three sentences. Who you are, what you are good at, what you want next.
- Experience. Most recent job first. Job title, employer, dates, then three to five bullet points that show results.
- Skills, tickets and qualifications. For trades this section can matter more than experience. For office work it is where software goes.
- Education. Short. The highest level first. If you left school some years ago, one line is plenty.
That’s the whole frame. Hobbies, a long list of personal details and a photo are all optional, and in many places a photo is left off. If you are unsure, our guide on when a photo helps and when it hurts walks through it country by country.
One rule ties it all together. Every bullet point should answer the question, “So what?” Saying you answered phones tells the reader very little. Saying you handled around 60 calls a day and booked appointments for four managers tells them you can cope with a busy front desk.
Office CV example: admin and reception roles
Office managers read CVs looking for three signs: you are organized, you are accurate, and people like dealing with you. Your CV should show all three in the first half page.
Sample profile
Office administrator with six years in busy medical and legal practices. Known for tidy records, calm phone manner and getting invoices out on time. Looking for a senior admin or office coordinator role with more responsibility for systems and scheduling.
Notice what it does. It names the setting (medical and legal), gives a length of time, names three real strengths and ends with a clear goal. No “hard-working team player” in sight.
Sample bullet points
- Ran the diary for three partners, booking around 40 client meetings a week with no double bookings over two years.
- Moved paper client files into a shared drive, cutting the time to find a file from about ten minutes to under one.
- Sent monthly invoices for 220 accounts and chased overdue ones by phone and email.
- Trained two new receptionists on the phone system, filing rules and the visitor log.
Skills to list
Name the software. Word, Excel, Outlook, Google Workspace, the booking or accounts system you used. “Computer literate” means nothing in an office CV. “Excel: lookups, filters and simple pivot tables” means a lot.
An office CV benefits from a calm, classic design. Wide margins, a clear name at the top, one accent color used lightly. The manager reading it probably spends their day in spreadsheets and email, and a quiet page feels familiar.
Marlowe Resume Template
Price: $4.79 | Best for: office, admin and reception applicants
Marlowe gives you 1, 2 and 3 page resumes, each with and without a photo, plus an ATS version in one clean column, a matching cover letter, references page and thank-you letter. Everything comes in Sand, Sage and Slate, in US Letter and A4, as editable Word files that also open in Google Docs. Start with the 1-page version without a photo, paste in your profile, then read the bonus Resume Playbook for its bullet point examples before you write your experience.
Retail CV example: sales floor to supervisor
Retail hiring moves fast. A store manager with a stack of 30 applications and a rota to fill by Friday wants to know four things: can you serve customers, can you handle cash, will you turn up, and can you cope on a Saturday in December.
Sample profile
Retail sales associate with three years in a busy fashion store and one peak season as acting team lead. Comfortable on the till, the stockroom and the shop floor. Looking for a supervisor role where I can train new starters and help hit weekly targets.
Sample bullet points
- Served up to 150 customers on a Saturday shift, with till counts balanced to the cent on every close I ran.
- Led a team of five during the holiday season, covering breaks and opening and closing the store.
- Set up a new display for the denim range that the store manager kept as the standard layout for the next season.
- Handled returns and complaints at the service desk, often calming an upset customer and keeping the sale.
Numbers matter in retail because the job runs on numbers. Footfall, basket size, targets, shrinkage. If you hit a sales target, say so. If you do not know exact figures, a fair estimate (“around 150 customers”) is fine. Just never make one up.
What to add for retail
Availability. It sounds dull, but it is one of the first things a store manager checks. A single line such as “Available weekends, evenings and the holiday period” can move you up the pile. Put it under your profile or at the end of your skills section.
Large retail chains often run online applications through screening software. If you are applying through a portal rather than handing a CV in at the store, send a plain single-column version. Our ATS resume template guide explains what that software can and cannot read.
Sloane Resume Template
Price: $4.49 | Best for: retail and customer-facing job seekers
Sloane is a modern set with a 1-page resume (with or without a photo), a 2-page resume, a 3-page CV, an ATS-friendly single-column resume, a cover letter and a references page. Each comes in Stone, Sage and Navy, in US Letter and A4, built on real Word styles so the layout stays put as you edit. Use the ATS version for chain store portals and the 1-page photo-free version for walk-in applications.
Trades CV example: electrician, plumber, carpenter
A trades CV is different. The person reading it is often a site manager or a business owner who works with their hands, and they want proof that you are qualified, safe and reliable. Fancy wording works against you here.
Sample profile
Qualified electrician with eight years in domestic and light commercial work, including rewires, consumer unit changes and new-build first and second fix. Full driver’s license and own hand tools. Looking for a permanent role with a firm that takes on larger commercial jobs.
Put tickets and licenses near the top
This is the biggest change from an office CV. Your qualifications, safety cards and licenses go straight after your profile, before your work history. A site manager scanning for the right card should find it in five seconds, not on page two.
- Trade qualification and level, with the year
- Safety or site access cards, with expiry dates
- Specialist tickets: working at height, confined spaces, scaffold inspection, forklift
- Driver’s license class, and whether you have your own van
Sample bullet points
- Completed full rewires on around 30 occupied homes, working around families and leaving rooms clean each day.
- Ran first and second fix on a block of 12 new-build flats, signed off at first inspection.
- Supervised two apprentices, checking their work and logging hours for their college portfolios.
- Priced small jobs on site and wrote up quotes for the office to send.
That last point is worth a moment. If you have quoted, ordered materials or dealt with customers directly, say so. Many trade businesses are small, and someone who can talk to a homeowner and price a job is worth more to them than someone who can only do the work.
Alder Resume Template with Photo
Price: $4.79 | Best for: trades, technicians and hands-on roles
Alder is a clean two-column design with a shaded header, in 1, 2 and 3 page versions, plus a photo-free version and an ATS resume. You also get a matching cover letter, references page and thank-you letter in Mocha, Sage and Slate, in US Letter and A4. The kit adds a Job Application Tracker for Excel and a Round Photo Maker. Use the 1-page version, move your tickets and licenses into the top of the left column, and log every firm you contact in the tracker.
One person, three CVs: what changes and what stays
Plenty of people move between these worlds. Say Dani worked four years in a hardware store, then two years as a plumber’s mate, and is now applying for a stores and purchasing job in an office. Same person. Three different first pages.
| Part of the CV | Retail version | Trades version | Office version |
|---|---|---|---|
| Profile focus | Customer service, product knowledge | Hands-on plumbing support, site safety | Stock control, ordering, supplier contact |
| First section after profile | Experience | Tickets and cards | Experience |
| Best bullet | Advised trade customers on fittings | Fitted bathrooms alongside a lead plumber | Ran weekly stock counts and reorders |
| Skills to name | Till, stock system, merchandising | Tools, materials, safety cards | Excel, ordering system, email |
What stays the same? The dates, the job titles and the honesty. You never change what happened. You only change which parts of it you put first.
The quickest way to do this is to keep one master CV with every bullet you have ever written, then copy it and cut it down for each application. It takes 15 minutes once the master exists. Writing from scratch takes an evening.
Mistakes that get a work CV set aside
None of these are fatal on their own. Put two or three together and the CV goes on the “maybe later” pile, which usually means never.
- A list of duties. “Responsible for stocking shelves” describes the job, not you. Say what you did well, or how much.
- The same CV for every job. A retail manager can tell when a CV was written for an office. Change the profile and the order of sections at least.
- Gaps with no word of explanation. A short line such as “Career break to care for a family member, 2023 to 2024” is enough. Silence makes people guess.
- Hidden tickets. For trades, a safety card buried under hobbies may never be seen.
- An email address you made at 15. Set up a plain one with your name. It takes three minutes.
- Spelling errors in the job title you are applying for. It happens more than you would think. Read the top third out loud before you send.
Length, layout and sending
For most office, retail and trade jobs, one page is right. Two pages is fine if you have ten or more years of relevant work, or a long list of trade tickets. Three pages is rarely needed outside senior roles. Our guide on how long a resume should be compares the three lengths with examples.
Layout tips that help a busy reader
- Font size 10 to 11 for the body, larger for your name.
- Bold job titles, normal weight for employers, dates on the right.
- Margins of at least half an inch so the page does not feel crammed.
- One accent color, used for headings or a sidebar. Not five.
Sending it
Save as a PDF unless the advert asks for Word. Name the file with your name and the role: Dani-Moyo-Stores-Assistant-CV.pdf. Hiring managers download dozens of files called “CV.pdf” and yours should not be the one they lose.
For walk-in retail and trade applications, print two copies on decent paper and carry them in a folder so they do not crease. Ask for the manager by name if you can. A clean printed page handed over with a smile still gets people hired, especially for weekend and seasonal work.
A simple weekly routine while you are applying
Job hunting is tiring, and it is easy to lose track. A small routine keeps it moving without taking over your week.
- Monday: look through new adverts and pick three to five that fit.
- Tuesday and Wednesday: tailor your CV and cover letter for each one. Change the profile and the top bullets.
- Thursday: send applications, or walk them into shops and yards in the morning when managers are less busy.
- Friday: follow up anything sent more than a week ago with a short, polite message.
Write every application down. Date, employer, role, how you applied, and any reply. When a manager rings back two weeks later, you will know exactly which version of your CV they have in front of them. That small bit of order feels good, too, on weeks when replies are slow.
Frequently asked questions
What should a CV for a retail job include?
A short profile, your recent retail or customer service jobs with results, till and stock skills, and your availability. Weekend and holiday availability is worth stating clearly because store managers plan rotas around it.
How do I write a CV for a trade job with no experience?
Lead with your training, college course or apprenticeship, any safety cards, and practical work you have done such as helping on family jobs or a work placement. Show you are reliable: a part-time job held for two years says a lot.
Is a CV for an office job different from a resume?
Mostly in name. In the US and Canada people say resume for most jobs, while the UK, Ireland, South Africa and many other countries say CV. The layout and content for an office job are close to identical.
Should I put my hobbies on a work CV?
Only if they add something. Coaching a youth football team shows leadership. Five-a-side and reading do not tell the manager much. If space is tight, cut hobbies first.
Can I use the same CV template for office and trade jobs?
Yes. A clean template works for both. What changes is the order of sections and the words, not the design. Keep one master file and save a copy for each type of job.
Your next step
Pick the job type you are applying for this week and write your three-sentence profile for it tonight, using the sample above as a guide. Then drop it into a ready layout such as the Alder Resume Template and fill in your top three bullet points before bed. Half a CV done in one evening is a good evening.