Who this CV is for
Two people, really. The sixth year who wants evening and weekend work during the school year, and the student who has just sat the Leaving Cert and wants to work June to September before college. The CV is the same shape for both. Only the education line and the availability sentence change, and both are covered below.
The jobs on offer are retail, cafes, bars (general duties only under 18), hotels, summer camps, farm work and the local pharmacy. Every one of those employers is hiring for the same three things: you turn up, you learn quickly, and customers like dealing with you. The CV has one job, which is to prove those three with facts.
The order that works
| Section | What goes in it |
|---|---|
| Contact details | Name, town or Eircode, mobile, a plain email. No photo, no date of birth. |
| Headline | “Sixth year student available for part-time and summer work”. Says what you are and why you are writing. |
| Profile | Three or four sentences: school and year, the work you want, your availability, your best proof of reliability. |
| Experience | Summer jobs, TY placement, coaching, volunteering. Newest first, two to four bullets each. |
| Education | Leaving Cert with sitting date or results date, subjects and levels. Junior Cycle in one line. |
| Skills | Six to nine, concrete. Till, cash, food safety induction, languages, learner permit. |
| References | “Available on request”. Have a teacher and a coach or previous manager lined up. |
Experience goes above education once you have anything paid to show. If the TY week is all you have, swap them and read the CV with no experience guide for how to fill the rest of the page honestly.
How to present results you do not have yet
This is the part people get wrong, usually by leaving the Leaving Cert off altogether or by writing it as if it were finished. Neither is needed. Use one of these:
- Still in sixth year: “Leaving Certificate (sitting June 2027)”, then the school and your subjects with levels: “Higher level English, Maths, Business, Geography, Biology; Ordinary level Irish, French”.
- Sat the exams, waiting on results: “Leaving Certificate 2026 (results due August 2026)” with the same subject list. Update the line the week results come out.
- Results in hand: add the points only if they help, and name the two or three subjects with your best grades. Nobody hiring for a shop floor needs the full set.
Junior Cycle gets one line: the year and, if they were good, the Distinctions. The moment you have Leaving Cert results, the Junior Cycle line can go.
Add subjects that match the job. Business or Accounting for a shop or office, Home Economics for a cafe or kitchen, Biology or Chemistry for a pharmacy, Irish for anything in a Gaeltacht area or a summer college.
The availability line
Managers hire to fill holes in a roster. A CV that tells them the holes you can fill does half their work. Put it in the profile in plain words, and be exact:
“Available Thursday and Friday evenings from 5pm, all day Saturday and Sunday, and full-time from 10 June to the end of August.”
Be honest about the exam months. If you cannot work in May and June because of the Leaving Cert, say so and give the date you are free again. A manager would much rather know now than lose you in the middle of the summer rush. And do not promise every shift going: an availability line you cannot keep is worse than a narrow one you can.
A full example CV
Darragh is fictional, and so are his school, the cafe, the supermarket and his contact details. He is seventeen, in sixth year in Ennis, with one paid summer behind him. Watch how the cafe job gets proper bullets with numbers in them, and how the TY week is written up as real work.
Open it, replace Darragh’s details with yours, and keep the structure. If you have no paid work yet, delete the cafe entry and let the TY placement and your club or volunteering carry the section.
Turning a summer job into bullet points
“Worked in a cafe” tells the next manager nothing. Ask yourself four questions about every job, and each answer is a bullet:
- How busy was it? Seats, customers a day, hours a week.
- What were you trusted with? The till, the float, closing up, the keys.
- What went right? No missed shifts, no till differences, asked back.
- What did you cover that others did not? Early starts, Sundays, bank holidays.
Darragh’s cafe entry answers all four in four lines. That is the whole technique, and it is the same one used on every CV on the sector examples page.
References: who to ask and how
For a first or second job, a teacher is the reference employers expect. Your year head, TY coordinator or a subject teacher who knows you well all work. A coach, a Tidy Towns committee member or the manager from your summer job is a strong second. Two is enough.
Ask them before you use their name, tell them what job it is for, and send them the CV so nothing surprises them on the phone. On the CV itself write “References available on request” and keep the names and numbers on a separate sheet for the interview.
Mistakes to avoid
- Leaving the Leaving Cert off because you have no results. Use the sitting date.
- No availability. The manager will not ring to ask.
- A second page. Everything you have done fits on one.
- Photo, date of birth or PPS number. Not on Irish CVs.
- Padding the skills list with “team player” and “good communicator” with nothing beside them.
- Sending the same CV to a pharmacy and a pub. Change the headline and the top bullet for each.
Related guides
- TY student CV: Transition Year students asking a local business for a work experience placement.
- Healthcare assistant CV: Healthcare assistants applying to nursing homes, hospitals, home support and HSE panels.
- Retail assistant CV: Sales assistants in supermarkets, fashion, pharmacy and convenience stores, including a first move up to supervisor.
- CV with no experience: The first-job formula: what counts as experience when you have never been paid for work.
- CV examples by sector: Six finished CVs for people with a work history: retail, healthcare, construction, admin, hospitality and driving.
Frequently asked questions
How do I put the Leaving Cert on my CV before I have results?
Write the qualification with the sitting date instead of a result: "Leaving Certificate (sitting June 2027)" or, over the summer, "Leaving Certificate 2026, results due August 2026". List your subjects and levels underneath. Nobody expects grades that do not exist yet, and a manager hiring for Saturdays is not going to ask for them.
Can a teacher be my reference?
Yes, and for a first job a teacher, year head or coach is exactly who employers expect. Ask before you name them, tell them which job you applied for, and give them your CV so they know what you said. "References available on request" on the CV is enough; have two names and numbers ready for when you are asked.
Should I say what hours I can work?
Always. Put your availability in the profile, in one plain sentence: the evenings you can do, whether you can do both weekend days, and your dates for the summer. Managers hire around gaps in the roster, so a CV that answers "when can you work" before they ask goes to the top of the pile.
How many hours can a 17 year old work in Ireland?
Up to 8 hours a day and 40 hours a week, between 6am and 10pm. On a night that is not before a school day, work can run to 11pm in a licensed premises under specific regulations. Employers know the limits; you only need to know them so your availability line is realistic.