Problem
What wasn't working / what was needed?
The Method
03The CV
Your CV's job isn't to get you hired — it's to get you the next call.
Once you internalise that sentence, the length, the level of detail and the tone all settle themselves.
Format
Readability is hygiene, not decoration
Six rules that decide whether a human ever reads the content you worked on.
- One page — the rule under ten years of experience
- Left-aligned, single column — ATS-scannable
- Inter, Helvetica or Space Grotesk, not Times
- 10–11pt body, 1.15 line spacing
- Section headings in caps, one accent colour at most
- Export as PDF, never .docx
The artifact
What a senior CV actually looks like
The same example used in the live session — every bullet ends in a number.
Ayse_Demir_Senior_Backend_Engineer.pdf
Ayşe Demir
Senior Backend Engineer · İstanbul · linkedin.com/in/example-profile
EXPERIENCE
Scaleup Fintech — Senior BE Engineer
2022–present · İstanbul (remote)
- Rewrote the payment pipeline; p99 latency 820ms → 140ms.
- Led a team of 6 technically; promoted 3 people to senior.
- Designed and deployed 4 microservices handling 12M daily requests.
- Cut the release cycle from 2 weeks to 3 days.
Illustrative CV from the Tech Kariyerim live session — the person and the figures are examples, not a real candidate.
Note the pattern: no line describes a responsibility. Every line describes a result.
Every line is a result
Stop writing responsibilities. Start writing outcomes.
- Was responsible for the technical direction of the team.
- Developed API services.
- Made various performance improvements.
- Took part in an Agile team.
- Led a team of 6; promoted 3 people to senior.
- Designed and deployed 4 microservices, 12M daily requests.
- Cut p99 latency from 820ms to 140ms (83%).
- Reduced the release cycle from 2 weeks to 3 days.
PARI
One pattern for every bullet
Problem, action, result, impact — in that order, in one sentence.
Action
What exactly did you do?
Result
A number — time, money, users.
Impact
What did it mean for the company?
Worked example“Payment delays were causing customer churn (P); I moved the pipeline to Go (A); p99 820ms → 140ms (R); churn dropped 18% (I).”
The honest caveat
Eight things that don't belong on a senior CV
- A photo (for Europe outside the EU, and the US)
- A “references available on request” line
- University projects from ten years ago
- Generic adjectives like “problem solver” or “detail-oriented”
- A half-page professional summary paragraph
- An alphabetical skill dump listing every technology
- Soft-skill bars (“communication 75%”)
- Multiple colours, icons and charts
Before you send
The eight-point final check
- At least 7 of the keywords from the job ad appear in the CV
- Every bullet ends with a number
- The first 3 bullets are your strongest wins closest to the role
- Your LinkedIn URL is custom (linkedin.com/in/yourname)
- A GitHub or portfolio link is on every CV
- The PDF filename is Name_Position.pdf
- No white gap at the bottom of the page — fill it or end at one page
- Have a friend read it for 30 seconds — “what do they do?” must be obvious
“No employer looks at your certificate. They all look at what you built.
Cover letter
When it works, and when it doesn't
- A large company's ATS form (nobody reads it)
- You're the textbook profile for the role (the CV is enough)
- You're going in through a referral
- You were going to write a standard “motivated candidate” template — then don't
- You're slightly off the ideal profile for the role (a sector change)
- You're writing directly to a founder or hiring manager
- You're applying to a small team (first 50 people)
- You have a personal connection to the subject — you use the product
The four-paragraph structure
Why this company
Not generic praise — something concrete: a product they just shipped, a blog post, someone you spoke to.
Why this role
Show you know the real pain behind the position. Don't copy the JD — read between its lines.
Why you
Pick one story from the CV and tell it properly, with the number.
The next step
A clear, low-pressure ask. One sentence.
Go deeper
Free resources for this chapter
CV & applications
ATS Master Guide
How applicant tracking systems really read your CV — and how to get past them.
Open in Notion (opens in a new tab)CV & applicationsJob Tracker
A ready Notion tracker to run your applications like a pipeline, not a pile.
Open in Notion (opens in a new tab)CV & applicationsRole-Based Job Application Platforms
The best job boards and platforms for your specific role track.
Open in Notion (opens in a new tab)CV & applicationsJob Search Toolkit
The essential toolbox for an organized, strategic job search.
Open in Notion (opens in a new tab)tech-kariyerim.com
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