Archivist CV Examples & Writing Guide

This sample is for an archivist who started in corporate records, took a grant-funded project post at a county record office and now works in university special collections across cataloguing and digital preservation. The institutions are not named. Adjust the standards and systems to the ones you actually use.

Archives hiring is usually done by a panel scoring against a written job description and person specification, not by a single manager scanning a page. That changes the strategy: your CV needs to prove each criterion in the person specification, in the same words the advert used.

• Output. Linear metres catalogued, catalogues published, objects ingested, boxes listed. Panels compare candidates on volume because it is the only comparable number in the field.
• Standards. ISAD(G) for description, EAD for encoding, Dublin Core or MODS for digital objects, PREMIS for preservation metadata. Naming them shows you were trained rather than improvising.
• Systems. CALM and ArchivesSpace are the common catalogues, plus a preservation repository and a digital collections platform. Say which versions and what you did in them: migration, template building, administration or just data entry.
• The digital side. Born-digital and web archiving skills are the biggest gap in most applicant pools. Even a modest amount of real experience makes you stand out.
• Public services. Enquiry numbers, teaching sessions, reading room hours, exhibitions. University adverts almost always include this and candidates often leave it off.
• The qualification. Most qualified archivist posts ask for a postgraduate qualification (MA, MSc or PGDip) in archives and records management from a course accredited by the Archives and Records Association.

• Description and standards: ISAD(G), EAD, MARC, Dublin Core, MODS, PREMIS, METS, controlled vocabularies and authority work, reparative and inclusive description.
• Processing: appraisal, accessioning, arrangement, minimal processing, processing plans, repackaging, condition surveys, preservation basics and environmental monitoring.
• Digital preservation: OAIS concepts, forensic disk imaging and write blockers, BitCurator, format identification and migration, fixity and checksums, storage tiers, email and web archiving.
• Systems: CALM, ArchivesSpace, Preservica, Archivematica, AtoM, Omeka, a document ordering or request system, and any migration you have run between them.
• Digitisation: capture standards, colour management, quality control, OCR and transcription, metadata creation at scale, project workflow design.
• Access and legal: copyright and fair dealing, data protection and UK GDPR, donor restrictions, Freedom of Information requests, deeds of gift, deposit and loan agreements.
• Public services: enquiry handling, reading room supervision, teaching and primary source literacy, exhibitions, social media and outreach, community archiving partnerships.
• Records management: retention schedules, disposal, litigation holds, e-disclosure support, information governance, off-site storage and certified secure destruction.
• Project and people: bid writing and reporting, budgets, supervising students and project staff, documentation and manuals.

• The qualification: most qualified archivist posts ask for a postgraduate qualification (MA, MSc or PGDip) in archives and records management from a course accredited by the Archives and Records Association. Some corporate and local government records roles accept a degree plus experience.
• ARA professional registration: the Archives and Records Association's registration scheme, built on a portfolio of professional development rather than an exam. Adverts tend to list it as desirable rather than essential.
• Digital preservation training: courses from the Digital Preservation Coalition and similar providers. Worth listing and worth doing, because digital skills are the scarcest thing in the applicant pool.
• Records side: membership of the Information and Records Management Society (IRMS), and data protection or information governance qualifications. Both matter for corporate and public sector records roles.
• A subject master's, a second language, or palaeography and old handwriting skills can be decisive for a specific collection. If the advert names a subject area, put your matching background high on the page.
• The academic CV question: some university and research posts ask for a full academic CV, or for an application form with a supporting statement. An academic CV runs longer and adds presentations, publications, professional service, committee work and grants. Otherwise keep to two pages.
• Membership and service: the Archives and Records Association, its regional and section groups, and any committee or editorial work. In this field, service is genuinely read.

Entry to archives is competitive and heavily project-based. The first job is usually a fixed-term project archivist post, a cataloguing assistant role or a traineeship. Your CV has to show you have already done real cataloguing, not just studied it.

1. 1Turn every placement, internship and volunteer post into a job entry with hours, linear metres catalogued and catalogues produced. '14 linear metres catalogued independently, 5 catalogues published in ArchivesSpace' is the line that gets interviews.
2. 2Name the standards you were trained in even if the volume was small. ISAD(G), EAD, Dublin Core, PREMIS.
3. 3Get into the systems. ArchivesSpace has a public demo and there are free digital preservation tools. Practise, then say what you can do in them.
4. 4Do the digital work nobody else does. Disk imaging, format identification and web archiving experience will lift a new graduate above candidates with more cataloguing hours.
5. 5Include course work with real outputs: a module project that produced a catalogue, a digital exhibition, a metadata schema, a records survey.
6. 6List related library, museum, records or research jobs. Reading room work, library counter work, cataloguing and research assistance all count.
7. 7Say you will relocate and that you will take a fixed-term contract. Most first professional posts are one- to three-year projects.
8. 8Join the Archives and Records Association and go to a regional meeting. Archives hiring runs on a small network and being visible in it matters.

• Two pages is normal in this field, as it is for most UK CVs. One page only for an entry-level candidate with little to show.
• Send a full academic CV instead if the advert asks for one, and add presentations, publications, grants and professional service.
• Plain single-column layout, no photo, no date of birth. University and local authority recruitment systems will parse your file and often ask you to retype it into a form, so keep the structure simple.
• Order: contact details, personal statement, experience, skills grouped by function, qualifications and professional service, education. Entry-level candidates put education second.
• Mirror the advert's exact language: 'arrangement and description', 'ISAD(G)', 'EAD', 'accessioning', 'born-digital', 'fixity', 'cataloguing', 'enquiry service', 'primary source teaching', 'retention schedule'.
• Answer every essential and desirable criterion in the person specification somewhere on the page. Panels often score literally against the list.
• If the job is with a local authority, a national institution or the civil service, follow the application form to the letter and repeat your content in its fields. Those processes score the form and supporting statement, not your PDF.
• Send a PDF named firstname-lastname-archivist-cv.pdf.

“Give me linear metres, catalogues and the standards you used, then tell me what you have done with born-digital material. That last part is where most applications go quiet, and it is the part every repository is trying to hire for right now.”