ai-job-search/.claude/skills/job-application-assistant/05-cv-templates.md

CV Templates and Tailoring Guide

Template: LaTeX moderncv (Banking Style)

All CVs use the moderncv LaTeX package with the "banking" style and "blue" color scheme.

Output file: cv/main_<company>.tex Compile with: lualatex on MiKTeX/TeX Live. pdflatex often fails on modern MiKTeX installs with fontawesome5 font-expansion errors; lualatex handles the same sources cleanly. Master reference: cv/main_example.tex (comprehensive CV with all competencies, experience, and achievements - use as source when building targeted CVs)

Compile command

cd cv && lualatex -interaction=nonstopmode main_<company>.tex

Expected output: Output written on main_<company>.pdf (2 pages, ...). Any page count other than 2 is a failure that must be fixed before presenting to the user.

Document Structure

\documentclass[11pt,a4paper,sans]{moderncv}
\moderncvstyle{banking}
\moderncvcolor{blue}

\usepackage[utf8]{inputenc}
\usepackage{hyperref}
\hypersetup{
    colorlinks=true,
    linkcolor=blue,
    filecolor=magenta,
    urlcolor=blue,
    pdftitle={[YOUR_NAME] - CV},
    pdfpagemode=FullScreen,
}
\usepackage[scale=0.77]{geometry}
\usepackage{import}

% Personal data
\name{[FIRST_NAME]}{[LAST_NAME]}
\address{[YOUR_ADDRESS]}{}{}
\phone[mobile]{[YOUR_PHONE]}
\email{[YOUR_EMAIL]}
\extrainfo{\href{[YOUR_LINKEDIN_URL]}{LinkedIn}, \href{[YOUR_GITHUB_URL]}{GitHub}}

\begin{document}
\makecvtitle

% 1. Profile statement (1-3 sentences, tailored per role)
% 2. Skills section
% 3. Education section
% 4. Professional Experience section
% 5. Selected Publications (if applicable)
% 6. Honors and Awards (if applicable)
% 7. References

\end{document}

Section-by-Section Tailoring

Profile Statement / Elevator Pitch (Best Practice)

This is the most important section to customize. It appears right after \makecvtitle.

Write 5-7 lines that function as an "elevator pitch": a concise, compelling introduction explaining why you're qualified for this specific role. Focus on what the employer gains from hiring you.

Create 2-3 profile statement templates for your main role types:

For [YOUR_PRIMARY_ROLE_TYPE] roles:

[YOUR_PROFILE_STATEMENT_TEMPLATE_1]

For [YOUR_SECONDARY_ROLE_TYPE] roles:

[YOUR_PROFILE_STATEMENT_TEMPLATE_2]

Core Competencies / Skills Section (Best Practice)

Reorder and emphasize based on the role. Use bold category labels.

List 5-7 key competencies in bullet format, tailored to the specific job. For each competency, briefly explain how it adds value to the position.

Education

• Always include your highest degrees
• For senior roles, keep education brief (dates and titles only)
• Include thesis topics when relevant to the target role

Professional Experience

• Rewrite bullet points to emphasize aspects most relevant to the target role
• Use 4-6 bullets for most recent role, 3-4 for previous, 2-3 for older
• Emphasize measurable results where possible: "Reduced processing time by X%", "Model adopted by the team"

Handling Employment Gaps (Best Practice)

If there is a gap in your employment history:

• The gap should be explained matter-of-factly if needed
• Describe how professional development continued during the gap
• Frame as deliberate skill-building and career repositioning

Publications

• Include Google Scholar link if applicable
• Select 3-4 most relevant publications (not always all of them)
• For non-academic roles, keep brief

Honors and Awards

• Keep format brief, one line each

References

• List 2-4 references with name, title, company, and contact
• End with: "More references are available upon request."
• Do not attach reference letters - employers typically contact references directly

Compile-and-Inspect Loop (MANDATORY)

After writing the CV and before presenting to the user, always compile and visually inspect the PDF. Iterate until the layout is clean. Workflow:

1. Run lualatex -interaction=nonstopmode main_<company>.tex
2. Check the output page count: must be exactly 2
3. Read the PDF via the Read tool and visually inspect both pages
4. Check for orphaned entries: a \cventry title line must never sit alone at the bottom of page 1 with its bullets on page 2

Fixing common page-break problems

Problem: entry title on page 1, bullets orphaned to page 2 Add \needspace{5\baselineskip} immediately before the problematic \cventry:

\needspace{5\baselineskip}
\item{\cventry{YEAR--YEAR}{Role Title}{Organization}{Location}{}{...}}

Include \usepackage{needspace} in the preamble.

Problem: one trailing section spills to page 3 (e.g., References alone on page 3) Add \enlargethispage{2-3\baselineskip} before a late section (e.g., before \section{Honors and Awards}) to stretch page 2 by a few lines. This is the standard LaTeX rescue for near-miss overflows.

Problem: 3 pages with significant content on page 3 Cut content — do not compress geometry or \vspace. See "Relevance-weighted cutting" below for the rule.

Problem: content finishes early on page 2 (feels thin) Restore the highest-relevance item that was previously cut — a CV that ends mid-page 2 looks incomplete.

Page Budget - Hard 2-Page Limit

The CV must fit on exactly 2 pages when compiled. Use these content limits as a guide:

Section	Max budget
Profile statement	3-4 lines
Skills	5 items, each 1-2 lines
Most recent role	4-5 bullets
Previous role	2-3 bullets
Older roles	2 bullets (1 line each)
Education	2-3 entries
Publications	2-3 entries
Awards	3 entries, single line each
References	"Available upon request." (single line)

If in doubt, cut rather than squeeze. Reducing \vspace or geometry scale to force-fit content makes the CV look cramped.

Relevance-weighted cutting (the right way to shrink a CV)

Cut by signal, not by section. Static priority lists ("remove oldest education first, then shorten the earliest role...") are wrong when a relevant "lower-priority" item is competing with an irrelevant "higher-priority" item. An older-role bullet that speaks directly to the posting is worth more than a recent-role bullet that does not.

For every candidate line, score three things:

1. Relevance to THIS posting — does the line hit a named tool, keyword, or stated responsibility in the job ad?
2. Uniqueness — is it the only place this claim appears, or is it duplicated elsewhere in the CV?
3. Narrative load — does the cover letter depend on it? If cutting the line would force you to rewrite a cover-letter paragraph, it is load-bearing.

Cut the lowest-total-score line first, regardless of which section it sits in.

Practical order of cuts (easiest → last resort)

1. Redundancy. If an achievement appears in both Core Competencies AND a role bullet, the Core Competencies version is usually the cleaner cut (the experience bullet is more concrete evidence).
2. Profile-statement fluff. A sentence that just restates what Publications or Skills will show. ("Peer-reviewed publications on X..." is already a Publications entry — profile can claim it once and stop.)
3. Low-relevance experience bullets. A bullet about work that does not touch posting keywords, wherever it sits. This cuts across sections before touching the structural list.
4. Low-relevance supporting content. An older-role bullet that does not speak to the target role. A certification that does not touch the posting's stack. A language entry that can be condensed to one line.
5. Low-relevance publications. Keep 1-2 publications that best match the posting. Cut the rest before touching experience bullets.
6. Last-resort structural cuts. Oldest education entry, tightening an older role to 2 bullets, collapsing Certifications into a single line. These only happen if the relevance-weighted cuts above have already been exhausted.

Pitfalls to avoid

• Do not mechanically cut from the bottom of a static section list without checking relevance. "Cut the oldest role first" is wrong if that role is literally about the skill the posting asks for.
• Do not cut the one concrete example the cover letter leans on. Relevance is measured against the cover letter you wrote, not just the job posting — interviewers will have read both.
• Do not cut to fit if the fit is borderline (2.02 pages). Prefer \enlargethispage{2-3\baselineskip} on a late section for near-misses; reserve content cuts for genuine overflow (content on page 3 that is more than a single trailing section).

Recommended Section Order

The section order varies by role type:

For technical / data science / ML roles:

1. Profile statement / elevator pitch
2. Core competencies / Skills
3. Professional Experience (reverse chronological)
4. Education (reverse chronological)
5. Languages
6. Publications & Awards
7. References

For domain-specific / specialist roles:

1. Profile statement / elevator pitch
2. Core competencies / Skills
3. Education (reverse chronological) - credentials are a key qualifier
4. Professional Experience (reverse chronological)
5. Publications & Awards
6. References