The Student Room Group

using 'I' in CV?

Is this okay to do? Or is it not advised?
Reply 1
Its not okay, using first person (“I,” “we,” “us,” “our”) is too informal.
Original post by vls
Is this okay to do? Or is it not advised?


Never. The I is implicit, it's a CV.
Reply 3
Thanks! :smile:
Reply 4
Original post by Sigma44
Its not okay, using first person (“I,” “we,” “us,” “our”) is too informal.


Whats a good alternative?
I think it's fine. I have a CV that's based more on the skills I have than on just the chronological work experience, e. g. I'll have something like

June - July 2011
Receptionist at Hotel Such and Such
At this job I learned to manage time effectively as I had to attend to several tasks at the same time. I also learned how to deal with the questions and requests of clients in a friendly and efficient way.

This is just an example, but in some cases, a skill-focused CV (where you would use the word 'I') is actually better suited than a purely chronological one - for instance, if you have no work experience that's particularly relevant in itself to the job you're applying for, but you do feel you learned some things at your previous jobs that would be useful in this job.
It doesn't really matter, have always used that phrasing myself and had no issues, e.g. In this role I was asked to do this, came up against that, etc
I can't see why not, I bet the application people get pretty sick of reading massively overcomplicated sentences where the author has tried to avoid 'no-go' words
It's a waste of space. It's your CV and hence everything should be about you anyway.
Original post by Get_Lucky_606
It doesn't really matter, have always used that phrasing myself and had no issues, e.g. In this role I was asked to do this, came up against that, etc


I agree.
I have always worded things like this as well and have been fine.
Reply 10
Doesn't matter. Both parents are in high up director-position roles and tell me it doesn't matter; uncle recently retired early after being president of a company and told me it doesn't matter, his wife is a recruitment consultant and said it doesn't matter. I know the party-line here is that it's a big deal and you simply cannot do it, but as for me I will take the advice of people who earn over 100k a year and have been hiring people for over 25 years. If it does matter to that person hiring, you probably wouldn't want to work for them anyway - brb not hiring someone for saying "I did xyz".
Original post by Laomedeia
Whats a good alternative?


Original post by ForgettingWhatsername
I think it's fine. I have a CV that's based more on the skills I have than on just the chronological work experience, e. g. I'll have something like

June - July 2011
Receptionist at Hotel Such and Such
At this job I learned to manage time effectively as I had to attend to several tasks at the same time. I also learned how to deal with the questions and requests of clients in a friendly and efficient way.

This is just an example, but in some cases, a skill-focused CV (where you would use the word 'I') is actually better suited than a purely chronological one - for instance, if you have no work experience that's particularly relevant in itself to the job you're applying for, but you do feel you learned some things at your previous jobs that would be useful in this job.


Original post by Emma:-)
I agree.
I have always worded things like this as well and have been fine.


Original post by SPB
Doesn't matter. Both parents are in high up director-position roles and tell me it doesn't matter; uncle recently retired early after being president of a company and told me it doesn't matter, his wife is a recruitment consultant and said it doesn't matter. I know the party-line here is that it's a big deal and you simply cannot do it, but as for me I will take the advice of people who earn over 100k a year and have been hiring people for over 25 years. If it does matter to that person hiring, you probably wouldn't want to work for them anyway - brb not hiring someone for saying "I did xyz".



The 'I' is implicit in a CV which is always about the author, the person named at the top. Whilst some people might not be bothered by a page of 'I did this' and 'I did that', it doesn't set the standard business tone, which is more formal and less personal. At the CV stage the recruiter isn't looking at the person, the CV is the more anonymous skills filter, the interview is for working out what the character and personality of the individual is. So whereas some people won't mind 'I did this', some people will find it grating and 'chatty' and will mind, but no-one minds the more business like tone that begins with the verb, eg Organised... or Led.... So your best bet, particularly when you are applying for professional jobs as opposed to Saturday jobs, is not to use 'I'.

Beginning your bullet points (you shouldn't be using full sentences and blocks of text in a CV either) with a relevant verb also creates a pace and cadence to your CV which gives it much more impact. Remember that at this stage, the employer is simply dispassionately 'scoring' your CV against the list of skills they put in the advert. It used to be that few employers did this, but nowadays, when even simple entry level jobs get 100+ applicants, quick, brutal filtering is the name of the game for very many employers. Second to that, the increasingly litigious nature of the public and the equality and diversity laws mean that most large employers and all publicly funded employers operate a very objective, scored filtering system, where the most competitive applicants are those that pack in the strongest evidence in the fewest words - but the same words as the employer used in the advert.

Would that my employer paid me 100k plus, but I've just recruited to a very senior role in a significant public body, which got applicants from people in senior roles at PwC, Barclays, BoE etc and not one of them used 'I' in their CV.

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