The first time I wrote my CV, I used the online tool from Europass. However, the flexibility is not great, we are dependent of the availability of the service and the final result is not great… and I like LaTeX better…

So…there is a fine package which provides a nice style that mimics the Europass style: http://www.ctan.org/tex-archive/help/Catalogue/entries/europecv.html.

I think TexLive 2009 already has this package, but if not you can just take the style and put it in the directory of the document you’re creating, and use it when defining the documentclass.

Next I show you my complete preamble:

\documentclass[utf8x,helvetica,narrow,english,logo,totpages, booktabs]{europecv}
\usepackage[T1]{fontenc}
\usepackage{textcomp}
\usepackage{graphicx}
\usepackage[english]{babel}
\usepackage{geometry}
\geometry{verbose,a4paper,tmargin=1.27cm,bmargin=2cm,lmargin=1cm,rmargin=1cm}
\usepackage{microtype}
\renewcommand{\ttdefault}{phv}
\ecvname{André dos Santos Cardoso}
\ecvnationality{Portuguese}
\ecvaddress{my address....}
\ecvtelephone[1234567]{1234567}
\ecvemail{email\\&another email}
\ecvdateofbirth{01/10/1987}
\ecvgender{Male}
\ecvpicture[width=90px]{eu_140x200}
\ecvbeforepicture{\ecvspace{-2.7cm}\centering}
\ecvafterpicture{\ecvspace{-1.5cm}}

After the usual inclusion of packages and so, I wrote my personal info using the appropriate commands defined in the europass package. All this information can then be printed using another command: \ecvpersonalinfo.

Depending on your picture (and whether or not you decide to put one) you may have to play with the number in \ecvafterpicture and \ecvbeforepicture. More details can be found on the documentation.

Now, I find it easier to update and get around all that I’ve wrote if I divide my CV in logical sections and different files. So, using the \include command, the rest of the master file gets pretty easy to read:

\begin{document}
\begin{europecv}
\ecvpersonalinfo % prints the personal info, defined in the preamble
\input{experience.tex}
\input{education.tex}
\input{skills.tex}
\input{aditional.tex}
\end{europecv}
\end{document}

The actual information about us gets thrown into each of those files, and every file uses the same format. It’s a collection of sections and items. For example, let’s take the file experience.tex, it will have only one section, Work Experience, and as many blocks of items as jobs you’ve done:

\ecvsection{Work Experience} % the section %%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%
\ecvitem{Dates} %%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%% the first block
{
 bla bla bla date
}
\ecvitem{Occupation or position held}
{
 bla bla you position during the job
}
\ecvitem{Main activities and responsibilities}
{
bla bla what you've done
}
\ecvitem{Name and address of employer}
{
bla bla where you've done it
}
\ecvitem{Type of business or sector}
{
bla bla category of the business
}
\ecvitem{}{} % to give some vertical space before the next block
\ecvitem{}{} % to give some vertical space before the next block
\ecvitem{Dates} %%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%% the second block
{
bla bla bla date
}
\ecvitem{Occupation or position held}
{
 bla bla you position during the job
}
\ecvitem{Main activities and responsibilities}
{
bla bla what you've done
}
\ecvitem{Name and address of employer}
{
bla bla where you've done it
}
\ecvitem{Type of business or sector}
{
bla bla category of the business
}
\ecvitem{}{} % to give some vertical space before the next block
\ecvitem{}{} % to give some vertical space before the next block
% ... and it keeps going while you have jobs 

So, you see, the information gets formatted using \ecvsection and \ecvitem. In fact, it is not quite true (but almost) because the europass has that language table: for this the package has also some special commands to build the table and fill it with the correct values (more on this in the documentation).

I will leave here the blocks and titles I’ve used for the other files:

%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%% file education.tex
\ecvsection{Education and Training} %% the section
\ecvitem{Dates}
{
bla bla
}
\ecvitem{Title of qualification awarded}
{
bla bla
}
\ecvitem{Principal subjects/occupational skills covered}
{
bla bla
}
\ecvitem{Name and type of organisation providing education and training}
{
bla bla
}
\ecvitem{ Level in national or international classification}
{
bla bla
}
\ecvitem{}{} % to give some vertical space before the next block
\ecvitem{}{} % to give some vertical space before the next block
%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%% file skills.tex
\ecvsection{Personal skills and competences}
\ecvmothertongue{Portuguese} % the language table
\ecvlanguageheader{(*)}
\ecvlanguage{English}{\ecvAOne}{\ecvAOne}{\ecvAOne}{\ecvAOne}{\ecvAOne}
\ecvlastlanguage{French}{\ecvAOne}{\ecvAOne}{\ecvAOne}{\ecvAOne}{\ecvAOne}
\ecvlanguagefooter{(*)}
\ecvitem{}{}
\ecvitem{}{}
\ecvitem{Social skills and competences}
{
bla bla
}
\ecvitem{Social skills and competences}
{
bla bla
}
\ecvitem{Computer skills and competences}
{
bla bla
}
\ecvitem{}{}
\ecvitem{}{}
%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%% file aditional.tex
\ecvsection{Additional information}
\ecvitem{}
{
}

Before closing this post, I’d like to point out a kind of a trick you can use inside the \ecvitem block to build lists. The \ecvitem works like two columns in a tabular environment, so you can do things like these:

\ecvitem{Bla bla bla bla}
{
\\&-- First item\\
&-- Second item\\
&-- Third item\\
&-- Fourth item
}

This puts 4 lines in the second column. I think that in the CV this achieves a visually better style than using an itemize environment.

I have to say thanks to João Azevedo, because he’s the one who loaned me his CV in LaTeX format, using the europecv package. Credits go to him.

Hope this is helpful:)