Last spring, a Cambridge graduate sat across from me with a first-class degree, an eight-month dissertation behind her and a CV that said almost nothing.
“I don’t think I’ve actually done anything,” she told me.
She had run a college society budget, taught herself statistical software and survived weekly supervisions that would rattle most adults. None of it was on the page.
I’ve spent ten years helping UK graduates with their applications, and I still see this almost every week. It is fixable, and you don’t have to invent a thing.
Why this feels so hard
University and work reward different things. An essay is judged on argument, reading and how well you weigh competing views.
An employer is asking something plainer. Can you make sense of information, explain a decision, juggle deadlines and get on with people?
Your experience hasn’t lost any value. It just needs translating for someone who has never sat through a supervision.
I also hear this a lot: “I haven’t done an internship, so I’ve got nothing.” Honestly, it makes me a bit cross, because it simply isn’t true.
Evidence hides in coursework, lab projects, volunteering, societies, caring duties and part-time jobs. The hard part is spotting what each one proves.
A CV is an argument, not an archive
A graduate CV is not a shortened academic biography. It is a case for why you suit one particular role.
Listing your degree, dissertation title and society memberships tells a reader what you did. Showing the skills and results behind them tells them what you could do for their team.
Picture two economics graduates with similar grades going for the same analyst job. One lists modules and prizes. The other explains how they untangled a messy dataset, tested competing explanations and defended a conclusion.
The second one gets the interview. It links learning to action.
That doesn’t mean everything must sound like business. For research posts or further study, keep academic detail academic. Just make sure every line earns its place.
The three-question audit
Plenty of people get to this point and start searching for the best resume writing service in Cambridge. I understand the instinct, and good help does exist. But even the best adviser can only work with what you give them, so do this exercise first.
I developed it after a few years of watching clients freeze, and I now use it with everyone. Take any experience you’re thinking of including and ask:
- What did I actually do? Use a verb, not a job title.
- How did I do it? Name the method, tool or approach.
- What changed because of it? Look for a number, a decision or a reaction.
Here it is on a dissertation line.
Before: “Completed an independent dissertation on housing policy.”
After: “Analysed 14 years of regional housing data in R, tested three explanations for price gaps, and presented findings to a panel of four academics.”
Same project. But the second version shows planning, technical skill and communication in one sentence.
Stuck on question three? Don’t panic. One client of mine wrote, “my supervisor changed her view on one point.” Another wrote that attendance at her society’s events doubled. Small outcomes count, provided they’re true.
Translating Cambridge life into workplace language
Some things are so normal to you that you’ve stopped noticing them. I notice them straight away.
Weekly supervisions mean you’ve been questioned by experts and had to defend your thinking again and again. That is taking feedback and acting on it.
A heavy exam term shows you can prioritise a huge workload against fixed deadlines.
Running a society shows budgeting, persuading volunteers and fixing problems at 10pm on event night.
Bar shifts, tutoring and shop work show reliability and handling the public. Please don’t apologise for them. A recruiter once told me she’d take a decent barista over a vague “team leader” any day, and she wasn’t joking.
Five mistakes I keep seeing
I’ve read thousands of graduate CVs. These five turn up constantly, and I’ll admit some still make me wince.
Opening with adjectives. “Passionate” and “hard-working” prove nothing. Lead with evidence.
Academic jargon everywhere. “Interrogated historiographical frameworks” may delight your supervisor. A recruiter in another sector will just feel lost.
One CV for every employer. If it’s right for ten jobs, it’s probably perfect for none. Adjust it each time.
Burying the good bits. Readers decide fast. Put your strongest evidence in the top third of page one.
Typos. Fair or not, people expect Cambridge graduates to be careful. One slip costs you more than it would others. Read it aloud, then get someone else to check it.
A trick most graduates miss: mirror the advert
Print the job description and highlight every skill and verb in it. Then check whether your CV uses the same words, wherever it honestly can.
Many employers run applications through tracking software before a person ever looks. If the advert says “stakeholders” and you wrote “people I worked with”, change it. You aren’t exaggerating, just speaking their language.
Keep formatting plain too. Avoid text boxes, columns and graphics that confuse the software. Two pages is fine for most graduates. In the UK, leave out your photo, age and marital status.
The stranger test
Before you send anything, hand your CV to someone outside your subject. A flatmate on a different course is ideal.
Ask them two things. What do you think I’m good at? Which line stuck with you?
If their answers match what you hoped to say, you’re close. If not, you now know exactly what to rewrite. I’ve watched this ten-minute check save people weeks of rejections.
If you’re short on material
Sometimes the audit leaves gaps. That’s normal, and it’s useful information rather than failure.
Use your final term to fill them. Volunteer for a short project, organise one event, or book a session with the University Careers Service. Many colleges also offer CV advice and alumni mentoring, often free, and both are badly underused.
A small, real piece of evidence beats a big, vague claim every time.
One last thing
Your degree opened the door. Your CV decides who walks through it.
So pick one experience tonight. Run the three questions. Rewrite one line. Do another tomorrow. Within a week you’ll have a CV that sounds like someone who gets things done, because that is exactly who you are.
If I could tell that graduate from last spring one thing again, it would be this: you’ve done far more than you think. Your job now is simply to show it.
