University and Polytechnic Student CV Templates
Write a stand-out CV to land you a part-time job, internship, grad role or scholarship with our proven steps and free-to-download templates
Updated 26 May 2021
As a tertiary student, one of the best things you can do for yourself is to put together a great CV. You’ll need a CV if you plan on applying for a part-time job, landing an internship or a graduate role, or sending in a scholarship application. As a document that could score you hundreds of dollars in scholarship money, or net you a high-paying job, it’s worth spending a solid few hours to nail your CV.
While you may already have a CV from high school, the CV you used in year 12 to apply for Burger King isn’t going to cut it if you’re applying for an internship or grad role. In this guide, we’ll help you translate your tertiary experience into a succinct document to catch the eye of employers, recruiters and academic panels alike!
Using this guide
Our guide covers:
While you may already have a CV from high school, the CV you used in year 12 to apply for Burger King isn’t going to cut it if you’re applying for an internship or grad role. In this guide, we’ll help you translate your tertiary experience into a succinct document to catch the eye of employers, recruiters and academic panels alike!
Using this guide
- You may have come across our guides to general CVs and Student CVs. If you haven’t, use these resources to understand the basics of what makes a stand-out CV. Once you’ve got the basics down, this tertiary CV guide will help you tailor your CV to highlight your tertiary experience.
- This page is for tertiary students attending a university or polytech. If you are a high school student, check out our CV template for high school students.
- This tertiary CV guide will help you build a CV that works for most opportunities you’ll come across as a university or polytech student. Rather than focus on creative layouts and beautiful graphics, this guide focuses on nailing the core components of tertiary CV writing that you can later convert into a more visual format if you wish.
Our guide covers:
Our Two Trusted Tertiary CV Templates - Free to Download and Adapt
- We've put together two proven CV templates that go hand-in-hand with this guide.
- You can download them via the buttons below and use either as a template for your CV.
- If you have any questions or need help, we suggest contacting your University or Polytechnic's career advisory service once you have added the contents to the best of your ability.
7 Tips for Writing a Great Tertiary CV
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Tailor your experiencesYou want each CV to be tailored to each opportunity you apply for. Think about what type of opportunity you’re applying for (e.g. a law scholarship versus a computer science internship) and what kind of skills or characteristics are required for the opportunity.
Example A:
Example B:
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PrioritiseThere will probably be quite a few experiences, awards and skills you may want to talk about in your CV. Resist the urge to write about ALL of them. Select the most relevant items.
Know This:
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Focus on your impactThe strongest CVs highlight how you made a difference at your previous workplaces and in co-curricular groups. Rather than just providing a general description of your role, write about what you did and why that action was noteworthy. Not sure what kind of impact you could link your actions to? Here are some questions to get you thinking:
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Quantify your impactUse numbers wherever you can to provide additional context and to measure the impact you made in your previous roles. Which is more impressive: “increased club sponsorship” or “signed on three new sponsors, doubling the club’s sponsorship money compared to 2019”? Or what about “managed the logistics and budget for our hackathon” or “hosted a hackathon for 80 students over three days, managing a budget of $5,000”?
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Weave in your skills and characteristicsWherever you can, describe the skills and characteristics you displayed in each of your work and co-curricular experiences. Having a separate “skills” section in your CV for soft skills like “communication”, “problem solving” and “leadership” adds little value. Instead, give examples of how you demonstrated these skills.
For example, under Tom’s experience as a class representative for one of his finance classes, he might write “advocated for a class of 300 students at faculty meetings” and “resolved two academic disputes between students and teaching staff” to capture all three of these skills. If the job description for the opportunity you’re applying for lists certain characteristics of a successful applicant, try and weave these traits into your CV too. |
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Formatting makes a huge differenceHow your CV is presented is almost as important as what you write. An employer sorting through hundreds of applications won’t give your CV the time of day if it’s messy or unprofessional. You want to use a clear, consistent layout with plenty of space between sections. For more tips on formatting and spacing, check out our resource here.
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Keep a master CV that contains all your experiencesWhile you should tailor your CV for each opportunity and remove less relevant experiences, you never know when a past experience will come in handy in the future. Perhaps you want to demonstrate you’ve worked in the same industry or for the same company, or you worked in a similar role to the one you’re currently applying for. Instead of deleting less relevant experiences, cut and paste them into a master CV that contains all of your experiences, awards etc. You can then pick and choose which experiences are relevant for each new opportunity you apply for.
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Our Two Trusted Tertiary CV Templates - Free to Download and Adapt
- We've put together two proven CV templates that go hand-in-hand with this guide.
- You can download them via the buttons below and use either as a template for your CV.
- If you have any questions or need help, we suggest contacting your University or Polytechnic's career advisory service once you have added the contents to the best of your ability.
Structuring a Tertiary CV
Writing a CV as a tertiary student is a bit different to writing a CV as someone who has had several years of work experience. We recommend you structure your CV with the following seven sections:
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Personal informationStart with your full name. Add your email and phone number. If you have a LinkedIn profile that you’ve kept up to date, you may want to include the link to it.
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EducationWe suggest including your education information early on as your academic background is likely the first thing that an employer will take note of for a tertiary student. List your tertiary institution, your degree, and your overall grade. Then, add the name of your high school and your NCEA (or equivalent) overall grade.
Include the dates when you attended these schools. You should spell out what your qualification is, rather than using acronyms, especially if your qualification is less common. Keep this section short. There’s usually no need to list which courses you’ve taken unless you’re applying for a technical role where a course is directly relevant to the opportunity. Examples: University of Auckland (2011-2015): Bachelor of Laws (GPA: 7.2/9) Rangitoto College (2006-2010): NCEA Level 3 endorsed with Excellence |
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ExperienceWrite about any paid work experiences here, starting with your most recent experiences. Weave in the skills you displayed, as well as the impact you made. For examples, check out our section on writing an employment history here.
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Co-curricular involvementTertiary students often have a short employment history, so writing about your co-curricular activities is a good alternative way to demonstrate important skills. You could include various kinds of activities in this section. You may want to describe your involvement in tertiary clubs and societies. You may also want to include activities not related to your tertiary institution, such as volunteering for a charity or a local community organisation or coaching a sport at a local primary school. As you write this section, focus on drawing out the skills you developed through each activity.
Coming up with an impact for a co-curricular activity can be tricky. We’ve got some ideas to get you thinking:
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AwardsThis section is an opportunity to highlight some of your proudest achievements. As with the rest of your CV, you should select the most relevant and recent achievements. Even for a first-year tertiary student, employers won’t be interested to hear that you were the Dux of your intermediate school.
Some ideas you could include (if they apply to you) are:
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Personal statement (optional, but suggested)If you decide to include a personal statement, the best place is below your personal details (outlined in 1. above). Write a short personal statement to capture the reader’s attention quickly. Your personal statement should cover who you are, what you can offer an employer, and what your career goals are. We break down how to write a strong personal statement in our dedicated guide here.
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Interests (optional)At the tertiary level, you may not have a long employment history, or you may not have been involved in many co-curricular activities. Including your interests and hobbies can be a good way to show your personality, as well as how you spend your time while not studying or working part-time. Interests may also be a great place to demonstrate your soft skills, like leadership and teamwork.
If your interests are relevant to the opportunity you’re applying for, put these first e.g. an interest in automotives if you’re applying for a mechanical engineering internship. |
Our Two Trusted Tertiary CV Templates - Free to Download and Adapt
- We've put together two proven CV templates that go hand-in-hand with this guide.
- You can download them via the buttons below and use either as a template for your CV.
- If you have any questions or need help, we suggest contacting your University or Polytechnic's career advisory service once you have added the contents to the best of your ability.
Four of the Most Common Mistakes with Tertiary CVs (and How to Avoid Them)
1. The CV is too long or has too much irrelevant information:
It can be tempting to list every work experience, co-curricular involvement or award you’ve received since you were fifteen. However, this can bulk up your CV too much. The person screening your CV will likely lose interest and not read beyond the second page of any CV.
What to do instead: A good rule of thumb for a tertiary student is whether you can fit everything you want on your CV on less than two pages. If you’re struggling to cut down, start by condensing or removing your oldest experiences. Unless you’re a first year student, your CV shouldn’t be dominated by experiences you had in high school; by the time you’re in third year, you should have very little information that relates to high school.
2. Not focusing on YOUR impact:
Some applicants write about their work and co-curricular experience as if they’re creating a job description for their previous roles. Whoever is screening CVs doesn’t want to read a generic description of the general duties someone in your role performed – this tells them very little about your personality, traits and skills.
New Zealanders can also suffer from bad cases of tall poppy syndrome: sometimes we’re reluctant to toot our own horn and emphasise our own achievements, preferring to give credit to other people we worked with. Your CV is not a place to be humble – are you applying to get yourself that internship, or to get your co-workers at Foot Locker the internship?
What to do instead: Provide concrete examples of what you did. For example, write “secured three new sponsors, raising club sponsorship value by $3,500” instead of “responsible for sponsor relations worth $6,000”. Use active verbs like “managed”, “established” or “developed” to help you stay focused on your actions. You can also use verbs like “assisted with …” when describing a task where you helped. You don’t need to list every task you completed or every initiative you were responsible for.
3. Submitting an overly graphical CV:
Some applicants like to get fancy with their templates, using complex graphics and a mix of colours and fonts. There’s a time and place for everything though, including innovative, fun CV layouts. A non-traditional layout may see your CV getting filtered out by ATS, or the employer being confused because the information they expect to see is being displayed too differently.
What’s ATS? If you’ve ever applied for an opportunity and received an email progressing you to the next stage or rejecting you within ten minutes of submitting your application, chances are Applicant Tracking Software (ATS) was involved. Recruiters often use Applicant Tracking Software to screen large volumes of applications and shortlist top candidates. ATS works by scanning CVs and cover letters for keywords related to the job description. ATS often struggles to screen charts and images and can fail to interpret some text accurately. Even if ATS isn’t used, employers are used to seeing certain information in certain places, like personal details at the top of a CV, followed by a personal statement. If you submit a CV with unclear structuring, you risk your CV being tossed out in the first ten seconds.
What to do instead: Unless you’re applying for a creative role, like graphic design or marketing, you’re usually better off using a standard CV template. To maximise your chances of getting through an ATS-assisted recruitment process, you should submit your CV as a simple text document. If you wish to submit a creative CV, you should consider submitting a text document that’s more ATS-friendly alongside your creative CV. Make sure your CV is easy to read and follow. If you think a creative CV would show off your skills well and you want inspiration, check out this example or this example.
4. Submitting a CV with an error in it:
With the volume of applications that a recruiter has to go through, the recruiter will typically have little patience for spelling mistakes or glaring formatting errors. As a document that’s meant to represent you, these errors are a bad look.
What to do instead: Proofread your CV at least three times. After each time, put your CV away and proofread again a day later so you’ll have fresh eyes to catch any mistakes. You could also ask someone else to help you read over it.
It can be tempting to list every work experience, co-curricular involvement or award you’ve received since you were fifteen. However, this can bulk up your CV too much. The person screening your CV will likely lose interest and not read beyond the second page of any CV.
What to do instead: A good rule of thumb for a tertiary student is whether you can fit everything you want on your CV on less than two pages. If you’re struggling to cut down, start by condensing or removing your oldest experiences. Unless you’re a first year student, your CV shouldn’t be dominated by experiences you had in high school; by the time you’re in third year, you should have very little information that relates to high school.
2. Not focusing on YOUR impact:
Some applicants write about their work and co-curricular experience as if they’re creating a job description for their previous roles. Whoever is screening CVs doesn’t want to read a generic description of the general duties someone in your role performed – this tells them very little about your personality, traits and skills.
New Zealanders can also suffer from bad cases of tall poppy syndrome: sometimes we’re reluctant to toot our own horn and emphasise our own achievements, preferring to give credit to other people we worked with. Your CV is not a place to be humble – are you applying to get yourself that internship, or to get your co-workers at Foot Locker the internship?
What to do instead: Provide concrete examples of what you did. For example, write “secured three new sponsors, raising club sponsorship value by $3,500” instead of “responsible for sponsor relations worth $6,000”. Use active verbs like “managed”, “established” or “developed” to help you stay focused on your actions. You can also use verbs like “assisted with …” when describing a task where you helped. You don’t need to list every task you completed or every initiative you were responsible for.
3. Submitting an overly graphical CV:
Some applicants like to get fancy with their templates, using complex graphics and a mix of colours and fonts. There’s a time and place for everything though, including innovative, fun CV layouts. A non-traditional layout may see your CV getting filtered out by ATS, or the employer being confused because the information they expect to see is being displayed too differently.
What’s ATS? If you’ve ever applied for an opportunity and received an email progressing you to the next stage or rejecting you within ten minutes of submitting your application, chances are Applicant Tracking Software (ATS) was involved. Recruiters often use Applicant Tracking Software to screen large volumes of applications and shortlist top candidates. ATS works by scanning CVs and cover letters for keywords related to the job description. ATS often struggles to screen charts and images and can fail to interpret some text accurately. Even if ATS isn’t used, employers are used to seeing certain information in certain places, like personal details at the top of a CV, followed by a personal statement. If you submit a CV with unclear structuring, you risk your CV being tossed out in the first ten seconds.
What to do instead: Unless you’re applying for a creative role, like graphic design or marketing, you’re usually better off using a standard CV template. To maximise your chances of getting through an ATS-assisted recruitment process, you should submit your CV as a simple text document. If you wish to submit a creative CV, you should consider submitting a text document that’s more ATS-friendly alongside your creative CV. Make sure your CV is easy to read and follow. If you think a creative CV would show off your skills well and you want inspiration, check out this example or this example.
4. Submitting a CV with an error in it:
With the volume of applications that a recruiter has to go through, the recruiter will typically have little patience for spelling mistakes or glaring formatting errors. As a document that’s meant to represent you, these errors are a bad look.
What to do instead: Proofread your CV at least three times. After each time, put your CV away and proofread again a day later so you’ll have fresh eyes to catch any mistakes. You could also ask someone else to help you read over it.
Our Two Trusted Tertiary CV Templates - Free to Download and Adapt
- We've put together two proven CV templates that go hand-in-hand with this guide.
- You can download them via the buttons below and use either as a template for your CV.
- If you have any questions or need help, we suggest contacting your University or Polytechnic's career advisory service once you have added the contents to the best of your ability.
Frequently Asked Questions
How often should I add to or revise my CV?
You should edit your CV before every application to make sure you’re submitting a tailored CV and to make sure you’ve captured any changes since your last edit
How many pages should my CV be?
1-2 pages, especially at the tertiary level. You save less relevant experiences in your master CV.
When writing out dates, should I list just the year or should I list both the month and the year?
Include the month and the year. If you didn’t include the month and simply wrote “2020-2021”, the reader may think you’re trying to hide that you only worked in a particular role from December 2020-January 2021.
How much detail should I go into with each work or co-curricular experience?
Enough to give the reader the highlights. You should aim for at least two bullet points, but not more than four. Each bullet point should contain at least one active verb to demonstrate what you did. At least two bullet points should mention some sort of impact. Provide some context where you can, but you don’t need to go into too much detail. For example:
Vice President of Events - Commerce Students’ Association (2019-2020)
Lead a team of three to host educational events for CSA members, with 2000+ attendees across three events
Established relationships with two new sponsors, increasing CSA’s events budget by 55%
Should I include references on my CV?
Adding in a referee’s details adds often unnecessary words to your CV, so only include this information if the application has specifically requested. The employer can ask you to provide referees if they are interested, so there’s also little point to writing “referees available on request”. If you’re providing a letter of reference to support your application, the letter will contain the referee’s details so you don’t need to repeat these on your CV.
What format should I submit my CV in?
Unless the application says otherwise, PDF is a good default. Compared to Word, PDF preserves your formatting and layout.
I don’t have much to include in my CV. What should I do?
You can either get out there and add more experiences to your CV, or tease out as much as you can from your existing experiences. Getting involved in a university club or volunteering for a charity are great ways for you to develop new skills, meet new people and add experiences to your CV.
Should I add links to my other websites?
Yes, absolutely. An employer may be interested in your LinkedIn, so update this if you’re going to put it on your CV. Depending on which industry you’re in, an employer may also be interested your portfolio. Add a link to your Github, Wordpress or wherever you have a portfolio of your work.
Should I include “Microsoft Office” as a skill?
No, employers will typically assume all tertiary students know how to use Word, and maybe Powerpoint and Excel. Even as a graduate, employers will typically take the time to provide you with training on how to use these products so prior knowledge is not necessary.
Related guides: For more FAQs on writing CVs in general, check out our guide for experienced applicants and high school leavers.
You should edit your CV before every application to make sure you’re submitting a tailored CV and to make sure you’ve captured any changes since your last edit
How many pages should my CV be?
1-2 pages, especially at the tertiary level. You save less relevant experiences in your master CV.
When writing out dates, should I list just the year or should I list both the month and the year?
Include the month and the year. If you didn’t include the month and simply wrote “2020-2021”, the reader may think you’re trying to hide that you only worked in a particular role from December 2020-January 2021.
How much detail should I go into with each work or co-curricular experience?
Enough to give the reader the highlights. You should aim for at least two bullet points, but not more than four. Each bullet point should contain at least one active verb to demonstrate what you did. At least two bullet points should mention some sort of impact. Provide some context where you can, but you don’t need to go into too much detail. For example:
Vice President of Events - Commerce Students’ Association (2019-2020)
Lead a team of three to host educational events for CSA members, with 2000+ attendees across three events
Established relationships with two new sponsors, increasing CSA’s events budget by 55%
Should I include references on my CV?
Adding in a referee’s details adds often unnecessary words to your CV, so only include this information if the application has specifically requested. The employer can ask you to provide referees if they are interested, so there’s also little point to writing “referees available on request”. If you’re providing a letter of reference to support your application, the letter will contain the referee’s details so you don’t need to repeat these on your CV.
What format should I submit my CV in?
Unless the application says otherwise, PDF is a good default. Compared to Word, PDF preserves your formatting and layout.
I don’t have much to include in my CV. What should I do?
You can either get out there and add more experiences to your CV, or tease out as much as you can from your existing experiences. Getting involved in a university club or volunteering for a charity are great ways for you to develop new skills, meet new people and add experiences to your CV.
Should I add links to my other websites?
Yes, absolutely. An employer may be interested in your LinkedIn, so update this if you’re going to put it on your CV. Depending on which industry you’re in, an employer may also be interested your portfolio. Add a link to your Github, Wordpress or wherever you have a portfolio of your work.
Should I include “Microsoft Office” as a skill?
No, employers will typically assume all tertiary students know how to use Word, and maybe Powerpoint and Excel. Even as a graduate, employers will typically take the time to provide you with training on how to use these products so prior knowledge is not necessary.
Related guides: For more FAQs on writing CVs in general, check out our guide for experienced applicants and high school leavers.
Next Steps
Your completed tertiary CV is now ready to send out to recruiters and hiring managers. Our related guides are likely next steps:
- Apply for internships to gain industry work experience, build your network, and develop valuable skills. Check out our Guide to New Zealand Internships.
- Apply for a part-time job to earn some money while you study. Not sure where to start? Our Student Jobs Guide has some great ideas.
Our Two Trusted Tertiary CV Templates - Free to Download and Adapt
- We've put together two proven CV templates that go hand-in-hand with this guide.
- You can download them via the buttons below and use either as a template for your CV.
- If you have any questions or need help, we suggest contacting your University or Polytechnic's career advisory service once you have added the contents to the best of your ability.
