CV Once

Tense and pronouns on a CV: I, me, present or past?

Present tense for what you do now, past tense for what you did, and usually no "I".

Two small grammar decisions affect every line of your CV: which tense you write in, and whether you use “I”. Get them consistent and nobody notices. Get them mixed and the CV reads as if several people wrote it.

Tense: the simple rule

  • Current role: present tense for ongoing duties. “Manage a team of 6.”
  • Previous roles: past tense. “Managed a team of 6.”
  • Finished achievements in your current role: past tense, even though you still work there. “Launched the new booking system in March.”

That last point is where most people slip. A current job usually contains both ongoing work and completed achievements, so it is normal and correct to mix tenses within it:

Before: Lead the regional sales team of 8. Increase revenue by 22% in 2024. Hire 3 new account managers.

After: Lead the regional sales team of 8. Increased revenue by 22% in 2024. Hired 3 new account managers.

“Lead” is still happening. The revenue increase and the hires are done.

A shortcut for current roles

If mixing tenses in one section feels messy, write current-role bullets that are all achievements in the past tense, and put the ongoing scope in a one-line description under the job title:

Regional Sales Manager, Northfield Supplies, Jan 2022 – Present Lead a team of 8 account managers covering 140 business customers in the North West.

  • Increased revenue by 22% in 2024 …
  • Hired and trained 3 new account managers …

This keeps the bullets in one tense and is easy to scan.

Other tense pitfalls

  • “-ing” bullets. “Managing the rota” or “Leading a team” read as fragments and sit badly next to past-tense bullets. Use “Manage” or “Managed”.
  • Passive voice. “Was tasked with”, “Was given responsibility for”. Rewrite with an active verb: “Ran”, “Took over”.
  • Future tense. Only for things genuinely planned and relevant, such as an exam date: “Sitting ACCA Strategic Professional exams, June 2027.” Keep it out of bullets.

Pronouns: should you write “I”?

The common convention for CV bullets, in the US, UK and most of Europe, is implied first person: you drop “I” and start with the verb.

Before: I managed the office move for 60 staff and I negotiated a new cleaning contract.

After: Managed the office move for 60 staff. Negotiated a new cleaning contract, saving £4,200 a year.

Why: it saves space, puts the verb (the most informative word) first, and readers already know the CV is about you. The builder flags first-person pronouns (“I”, “me”, “my”) in bullets so you can decide whether to keep them.

Where “I” is acceptable

  • The summary or profile. In UK and European CVs, a sentence or two in first person is common and reads naturally: “I want to apply this to…”. On US résumés, implied first person is more usual even in the summary.
  • Academic CVs and cover letters, which follow their own conventions. Cover letters are written in first person.
  • Occasionally inside a bullet where dropping it makes the sentence awkward. “My” in “74% of my Year 10 set” is fine.

What to avoid

  • Third person: “Priya is a skilled analyst who…” It reads as if someone else wrote it, which is odd on a document you are sending yourself. (A biography for a conference programme is different.)
  • “We” for things you did. “We launched the app” hides your part. Say what you did: “Wrote the payment integration for the app launch.” Use “we” or “as part of a team” only when describing a shared result honestly.
  • Switching between “I” and implied first person bullet by bullet.

Consistency checklist

Go through each role and check:

  1. Previous jobs: every bullet in past tense?
  2. Current job: ongoing work in present, finished achievements in past?
  3. No “-ing” fragments mixed with other forms?
  4. No “I” at the start of bullets?
  5. No third person anywhere?
  6. Full stops at the end of bullets: all or none? (The builder flags a mix.)

Tip: Read your CV aloud, adding “I” silently before each bullet. “I managed…”, “I increased…” sound right. “I managing…” or “I responsible for…” do not, which shows you exactly which bullets to fix.

US and UK differences

The tense and pronoun rules are the same on both sides of the Atlantic. The differences are in spelling (organise / organize, programme / program) and vocabulary (CV / résumé). Use the spelling of the country you are applying in, and keep it consistent across the document.

Next: make every bullet start with a strong verb using the action verbs lists, then structure it with the achievement bullet pattern.