CV for a Part-Time Job: Examples & How to write

Getting a part-time job can be tricky. Finding an opening that meshes with your schedule is often no walk in the park. Sometimes all it takes is one shift that you can’t agree to and there goes that opportunity. ‘Sorry, we really need someone who can take Friday and Saturday afternoons.’ But you have the kids Saturday. Or training, or tutoring, or your other part-time job. 

The good news is that applying for a part-time job may not be the same as applying for a full-time job, but it’s not all that different, either. This article is here to help you get more interviews than ever before, even if you don’t have any prior work experience. Make your part-time job CV for a part time job as good as the one below.

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Need a different CV example? Check these samples:

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Example CV for a part-time job

How to write a CV for a part time job?

Writing a CV for a part-time job is similar to creating a CV for a full-time position. You still need to showcase your relevant experience, achievements, and skills. However, it's essential that you mention in your CV (especially the personal statement) that you're looking for a part-time vacancy.

Here’s how to write an effective CV for a part time job, step by step:

1. Start your part-time job CV with a personal statement

Start your CV with a personal statement that quickly establishes what kind of worker you are, points to what you have to offer the company, and describes how your goals line up with its goals and claimed values. You can also explain why you're looking for a part-time job. The right length for a personal statement is just 3–4 sentences and 50–150 words.

Your CV personal statement (or a CV profile) is also a great place to make it clear that you’re looking for part-time employment. You’ll be writing a new personal statement for every job application you send out, so anything you can do to streamline the process will save you a lot of time, including in the short term.

You can generate personal statements as effective as the example below almost on autopilot by running through these points every time you sit down to write one:

• What kind of worker are you? How much experience do you have and in what fields, industries or niches?
• What’s your most impressive on-the-job achievement? (More on how to write these in the next section.)
• Add another, this time unique, achievement if you have one. Keep it relevant, though.
• Describe what it is that you hope to achieve for your employer in this role. Make sure it’s something that falls in line with the company’s goals.

Keep it as brief as you can, even a 50-word chunk of text is a lot when you’re in a rush (like the recruiter no doubt will be), let alone 150 words. The odds are also that your application will be processed by an Applicant Tracking System (ATS) before a human recruiter even lays eyes on it.

To keep ATS algorithms happy and get through this front-line filter unscathed, be sure to mention both the company and position to which you’re applying by name. Try also to mirror keywords from the job advert in your personal statement, but only if you can slip them in without sounding strange.

Even though it comes first in your part-time job CV, it’s recommended that you write your personal statement towards the end of preparing your CV, if not last of all. You’ll be able to do a much better job of it once you’ve prepared your job descriptions and skills section (and that’s why it’s also called a CV summary). So come back to it later.

CV for part-time job: example personal statement

A strong CV summary will convince the recruiter you’re the perfect candidate. Save time and choose a ready-made personal statement written by career experts and adjust it to your needs in the LiveCareer CV builder.

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2. Describe your work history the right way for a part-time job CV

What should your CV look like? Assuming you have a fairly continuous work history with no long breaks and that you’re not changing careers with this job application, then a chronological CV format will be the one for you. This means that you’ll be arranging your CV job descriptions in reverse-chronological order, in spite of what the name might imply.

This is the format that’s expected by most employers and that ATSs are set up to process most readily. It’s the best format to use for the vast majority of part-time job hunters. You might, though, consider a skills-based CV format if you work freelance or in the gig economy. Changing careers? Try a hybrid CV format.

Use this model CV template for a part-time job to generate a subheading for each of your previous jobs:

[Job Title]

[Company Name, Location]

[Dates of Employment]

Add up to six bullet points under each subheading. Fill each bullet point with an on-the-job achievement from that job. An achievement is the description of actions you took at work and the benefits that your employer gained as a result of those actions. Such actions are often in response to a problem or challenge.

Start each achievement bullet point with a strong verb, like ‘organised’, ‘created’ or ‘optimised’. Consider using something like the Action-Benefit formula to help structure your achievements. Quantify everything you can, the benefits that went to your employer first and foremost.

If you’re looking to find out how to write a CV for your first part-time job (i.e. if you have no work experience at all), then focus on any internships, placement work, and volunteer work you’ve done. If you have none of this kind of experience, then look into writing a student or graduate CV instead—it’ll be better suited.

CV for part-time job: sample job descriptions

3. Every CV for a part-time job needs an education section

Not every set of requirements for a part-time job will include an education requirement but all good CV templates for part-time jobs include an education section, and so should yours. No matter where you’re applying and what your educational background is, keep this section clear and to the point.

Stick to a reverse-chronological order for your academic qualifications. There’s no need to mention any grades at all (degree classes are the exception) or individual university subjects. Do mention A-level subjects by name but skip your high school education entirely if you have a tertiary qualification.

Use the following CV template for part-time job applications. It works for both university degrees and tertiary qualifications like NVQs. Here's how to list your degrees:

[Degree Type] [Degree Name](Degree Class), [Years Attended]

[Institution Name], [Institution Location]

If you’re currently finishing up a qualification, then include an expected graduation date. If you don’t have a university degree, then use the following templates to describe your high school education:

A-levels: [Subject Name 1], [Subject Name 2], [Subject Name 3]

[School Name], [School Location], [Years Attended]

[number of] GCSEs (including Mathematics and English)

[School Name], [School Location], [Years Attended]

Mention Mathematics and English when stating how many GCSEs you’ve completed. Employers often need to see that you have passes in Maths and English as a bare minimum. If you lack experience you can add bullet points here to highlight your achievements or areas of excellence while studying.

Good CV examples for part-time jobs

4. Showcase your skills in your part-time job CV

When writing a CV for a part-time job, your work history and education can only go so far in letting recruiters assess how well you’ll perform in your new role should they hire you. Fill in the picture by providing a list of your most relevant and sought-after skills and show that you really do possess each skill.

Like many parts of your CV, you’ll be rewriting your skills section every time you send off a CV for a part-time job. You need to do this to make sure that the skills you list at least match those required in the job advert. Save yourself some time by first creating a master file from which you can copy and paste later.

Open a new document and simply list all the job skills you can think of (hard and soft skills). If you’re learning how to write a CV for your first part-time job, then you can still list transferable skills you’ve picked up during your studies and through any volunteer work you’ve done (for example IT skills). Keep brainstorming skills until you can’t think of any more.

Now go back and add a sentence to each skill in your list that describes how you’ve demonstrated that skill in the workplace, at school or at university. Be as specific as you can and quantify whatever you can. The idea is to make it clear that you really possess each given skill.

Save this file and add to it over time—you’ll be able to save a lot of time by copying from it whenever you need a new skills section. Go back to your CV and the job advert to which you’re responding. Copy 5–10 skills into your CV making sure to at least cover those that are mentioned in the advert.

The final step here is making sure that you mirror the keywords used in the job advert. So if they ask for ‘communication skills’ but you’ve got ‘effective communicator’, then change what you have to match. This will help you better position your CV whether an ATS parses it or human being reads it.

CV for part-time job skills

5. Use additional sections to your advantage in your part-time job CV

Depending on what part-time job you’re going for, it’s entirely possible that you’ll be competing against people who have very similar levels of experience, skill sets, and educational backgrounds as you. This is all the more true if you’re writing, for example, a CV for a part-time job without work experience.

So how can you stand out from the crowd and show that you’re a better fit for the job and the company than the others? There’s probably no better way than creating a good CV and adding extra sections to your document. Choose them wisely and they’ll flesh-out the portrait of you as worker that your CV paints.

If additional qualifications, certifications or licences are required in your line of work, then create a CV section to list them all in one place. You can also add sections to detail any relevant awards or accolades you’ve attracted, competitions you’ve won or even your hobbies and interests.

The one rule here is that whatever you include in your CV must be relevant to the job for which you’re applying. Keep that in mind and you can hardly go wrong. Speak any languages other than English? This is something that’s always relevant, even if you only ever speak English on the job. Don’t list references on your part-time job CV, though. Recruiters know they can ask for them.

Part-time job CV template: extra sections

6. Include a cover letter when sending in your CV for a part-time job

There are two major parts to your part-time job application: your part-time job CV and a cover letter. Your application is going to be incomplete if you fail to include either one. It’s easy to become fixated on the CV and neglect the cover letter. You should always include a cover letter, though, unless asked not to.

Just as writing a CV for a part-time job is so much easier with good examples and expert CV advice on hand, a good guide will also help make writing a cover letter for a part-time job that much faster and simpler. First and foremost, be sure to stick to the standard UK business letter format.

This letter format will fix the way your header, salutation, and sign-off are written and set out. The body of your part-time job cover letter will then be up to you to structure as you see fit. A particularly effective approach is to open your cover letter with a paragraph that grabs the recruiter’s attention as it introduces you.

The next paragraph or two will be the main part of your cover letter body. In this part, you should demonstrate what exactly it is that you can bring to the company to which you’re applying. Do this by describing what benefits you’ve brought to your current and/or previous employer. Quantify what you can.

All that’s left to do then is tie up any loose ends in a brief closing paragraph and end your cover letter on a confident (but never brash) call to action. How long should a cover letter be? Your whole cover letter should end up nicely filling an A4 page (never more) and coming in at between 250 and 400 words in total.

7. Keep these things in mind when finishing off your part-time job CV

Professionalism and attention to detail are never out of place in the workplace. In fact, they’re expected and more often than not explicitly required. It’s difficult to prove that you have these attributes but all too easy to show that you lack them. Careless errors and poor CV formatting will do it every time.

So proofread your work, searching through it for spelling and grammar mistakes with a fine-tooth comb. Once you’re sure you’ve caught and fixed every last error, check again from the beginning. Use whatever software and web apps you have on hand. Get someone to do the final proofread.

Leave your contact details near the top of your CV where they’ll be easy to find. For a neat CV layout clearly break your CV down into sections by using sub-headings and ample white space. Choose an understated CV font like Noto, Arial, Liberation or even just Calibri and keep the font size at a readable 11–12 points.

How long can a CV be? Keep it to a one-page per decade of experience maximum but cap it at two pages maximum even if you have more than 20 years of experience. 

Avoid using free CV templates you find online. Some of them are not customised for the UK job market. When writing your CV in a MS Word template (or using some other basic CV template), remember to save or export your part-time job CV and cover letter in PDF unless explicitly asked for something else. If you’re sending your job application via email, avoid using “Please find attached my CV for your review” in the body of your message. It's the XXI century so simple “I’ve included my CV below” will do.

You don’t have to be a CV writing expert. In the LiveCareer CV builder you’ll find ready-made content for every industry and position, which you can then add with a single click.

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Did you find what you were looking for in this article? Is there anything you’d like me to go into in more detail? Please leave any questions, comments, and part-time job-hunting experiences in the comments section below—we’ll be sure to get back to you.

How we review the content at LiveCareer

Our editorial team has reviewed this article for compliance with Livecareer’s editorial guidelines. It’s to ensure that our expert advice and recommendations are consistent across all our career guides and align with current CV and cover letter writing standards and trends. We’re trusted by over 10 million job seekers, supporting them on their way to finding their dream job. Each article is preceded by research and scrutiny to ensure our content responds to current market trends and demand.