Your CV headline: the job you want, not your life story

Under your name sits one line: your headline. It is the first thing a recruiter reads, and the one their screening software compares with the job ad's title. This guide is only about that line: how to choose the right words and the right level, and what to write when your background doesn't fit neatly into a box. The lines that follow it, your personal statement, have a guide of their own: CV headline and personal statement.

A job title, not a summary

Your headline answers a single question: which job do you want? Not “who are you” or “what have you done”: that is the job of the personal statement and the experience section. A good headline is a few words long, and a recruiter could type it as it stands into a job search engine.

The site's ATS check treats it as a criterion in its own right, “Job title at the top”: “The CV title is compared with the job ad title: it must clearly name the role you want.” A clear headline is marked “OK”, a vague one “To improve”, and a CV with no headline “To fix”. And at the top of the CV analysis results, the site shows the job title a recruiter would write for your profile, as the AI reads it from your CV. If it looks nothing like the job you are after, your CV is telling a different story from your headline.

The formula: the market's job title, then one qualifier

1. Open a few job ads you would love to land and note their exact titles. Companies don't all name the same role the same way: “Recruitment Officer”, “Recruiter” and “Talent Acquisition Specialist” can describe the same work.
2. Keep the most common term that genuinely matches your job. It is the one recruiters type in, and your first keyword: see our guide to CV keywords.
3. Add a single qualifier, if it helps: a level (junior, experienced, senior), a specialism (payroll, tax, front-end) or a sector (manufacturing, healthcare, luxury goods). “Accountant” becomes “Accounts Payable Accountant”; “Developer” becomes “Front-end React Developer”.
4. Check that your background backs it up: the headline announces, the experience proves. If you are aiming one step above your current role, keep your real level in the headline and state your ambition in the personal statement, unless you already carry out the duties of the role you want.

Level: neither inflated nor modest

Junior, experienced, senior, manager, director: the level word matters as much as the job itself, because it sets the roles and salaries you are compared with. Too modest and you price yourself below your worth; too ambitious and you won't hold up at interview. The right level is that of the job ads you can realistically land. To find out what it is worth, What am I worth? estimates your market value from your CV.

Two limits. A CV must be written in good faith: knowingly false information, discovered after you are hired, can get you dismissed for misconduct. And some titles are protected in France: lawyer (avocat), notary, architect, chartered accountant (expert-comptable), doctor, pharmacist and psychologist, for example, are reserved for people who meet the conditions to practise. Claiming one without meeting them is a criminal offence of misusing a title (see the sources at the bottom of the page). Without the required qualification or registration, write what you actually do: “Accounting Associate” rather than “Chartered Accountant”.

When your situation doesn't fit the mould

• Career change: the headline announces the new job, at your real level (“Junior Web Developer”, “Workplace Health Prevention Officer”); your former job goes in the personal statement, as an asset. More in our guide to the career-change CV.
• Dual skills: pick the job the ad asks for and turn the other into a qualifier (“Financial Controller, data specialism”), never two titles side by side. If you really are targeting two jobs, make two versions of your CV.
• Work-study or internship: the contract belongs in the headline, because it is what the employer is looking for (“HR Assistant, work-study”, “Management Control Internship”). The schedule and dates go just below or in the personal statement: see the work-study CV.
• First job: the role you want, not your degree. “Master's in Finance” says where you come from; “Junior Financial Analyst” says where you are going. See the first-job CV.
• Self-employed: the job, followed by your status if it helps clients understand (“Freelance SEO Consultant”); to move back into employment, the job alone. See the freelance CV.
• In-house job title: if your company calls you “Customer Happiness Officer”, your CV headline uses the market's term (“Customer Relations Officer”); the in-house title stays in the experience line, where it is accurate.

Mistakes that waste your first line

• “CV” or “Curriculum vitae” as the headline: the document already says so, and the most-read line of your application is wasted.
• Your first name alone, in large letters, as some templates do: your full name is the heading, not a job title. The headline goes just below it.
• The “(H/F)” and the ad's reference number copied as they are: they belong to the job ad, not to you. Take the job title, leave the rest.
• A slogan (“Digital enthusiast”, “Always ready for a challenge”): no recruiter searches for it, and no software recognises it as a job.
• Several jobs separated by slashes: the reader can't tell which one you want, and you look ready to take any of them.
• A headline baked into an image: in some design templates, the name and headline are drawn or built into a banner. To screening software, an image has no text: your headline does not exist. See Canva CVs and ATS robots.

Before and after

Check and change your headline

Run your CV through the ATS CV check: the “Job title at the top” criterion tells you whether your headline is clear, vague or missing. The analysis's word-for-word fixes can also cover your headline: the original line quoted, the corrected version, the reason. To change it in your PDF without touching anything else, ask on Edit a PDF CV (“Replace my headline with Junior Financial Analyst”): the AI writes the new headline in place of the old one, keeping your layout. And from one application to the next, keep it aligned with each job ad.