Seven Tips for Creating a Freelance CV


Creating a freelance CV or curriculum vitae is an important part of your business. It sets out your experience for potential clients and enables them to understand where your previous work could help them in their business. It can also help to establish you as someone who sees their writing as a job and not just a hobby.

There are plenty of websites that can help you write a CV, so do look around and read a number of author’s ideas on how a CV should look. There is no one perfect way to write one, although professional CVs should contain a number of things.

  1. Include your personal details including address, email and a phone number by which you can be reached. You want the person who is reading your curriculum vitae to be able to contact you if they have some work for which you are a good fit. Make sure that your email and phone number are up to date and include Facebook business pages, Twitter account and any other social media accounts that you use for work. You should have separate accounts for private and business use.
  1. Open with a statement that includes the kind of work that you have been doing and some of the strengths and skills you have. For example:

      “Sarah has been a freelance writer for 7 years. In that time, she has worked with many clients and companies to create strong content that delivers interest and information. In her current role, she also manages social media on Facebook and Twitter, curating relevant content and interacting with other users on behalf of the company.”

Not everyone is comfortable using the third person, but some argue that it can look more professional. In the end, it is a personal choice. I have seen some great CVs that also write in the first person. The important thing is that you think about the client that you are approaching and include some work experience in the area that you are hoping to work in. How long should it be? As long as it needs to be. Some application forms seem to expect you to write a 2,000 word essay in support of your application, but I feel that this can be a bit much to wade through and also could be repetitive to write. Write as much as you need in order to explain what you do and how you could fit this role.

2. List out the relevant jobs that you have undertaken, together with a brief explanation of how you fulfilled them. If you have done hundreds of jobs, then you may need to choose the most relevant. If you apply for a number of different jobs such as editing, proof-reading or content writing then you may need to create a different freelance CV for each situation. You could also include links to content you have written if you wish.

3. Take a look at your CV each time you are preparing to send it out and make sure that it matches the client or job that you want to send it to. Be prepared to alter it to ensure that the client understands what you are offering and that it is relevant to them.

4. Include the highest level of education that you undertook and the qualification. You can also include any relevant courses that you have since done. Even though my degree is not strictly relevant to my work now, it is good that employers can see that I am educated to degree level.

5. Including a skills section can enable voluntary work to be included if it has not been included in the main work experience section. Make sure that the skills you include are relevant to the application.

6. Testimonials – ask previous and current clients for testimonials so that you can offer snapshots of what others think of your work.

7. References – if you have clients who would be willing to be a reference for you then include their contact details on your freelance CV but do ask them first.

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