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How to write a CV in the UK: the complete guide

By Stephen Reed · Published 4 November 2026 · Updated 4 November 2026 · 13 min read

A CV is a short document that sells you to an employer. The National Careers Service describes it as a summary of your skills, achievements and experience that you use to apply for jobs, and as your first chance to promote yourself ¹. Employers often read it in seconds, so every line has to earn its place.

This guide covers everything you need to write a CV for a UK job: what goes in it, in what order, how long it should be, how to word your experience, how to lay it out, and the mistakes that cost people interviews. Each claim comes from a published UK careers or employer source, listed at the end, so you can check it yourself.

What a UK CV is, and how it differs from a résumé

In the UK, "CV" is the everyday word for the document you send with a job application. Careers services use it for the standard two-page document, with a separate, longer academic CV for research and university roles. Prospects, the graduate careers site, notes that "résumé" is the term used in the USA and Canada, where documents tend to be more concise ².

For almost any UK job, you want a reverse-chronological CV: your most recent experience first, then working backwards. A skills-based CV, which groups your abilities by theme instead of by job, can suit people with lots of job-specific skills ², but a chronological one is the safe default for most applications and for the software many employers use. We cover that in our guide to how software reads your CV.

The order of a UK CV

The National Careers Service says a CV should include your contact details, an introduction, your education history, your work history, and references ¹. Prospects gives a similar order and adds a skills and achievements section and an optional interests section ². Put together, the sensible order is:

1. Your name and contact details
2. A short profile
3. Work experience (or education first, if you are early in your career)
4. Education
5. Skills and achievements
6. Interests, only if relevant
7. References, only as a short line

The next sections take each one in turn.

Your name and contact details

Put your name at the top, as the title of the document. Prospects advises against heading the page "CV", because the reader already knows what it is ². Under your name, give:

• a phone number and an email address
• a link to a work profile such as LinkedIn, if you have one ¹
• a town or area if it helps, though you do not need a full postal address; Prospects suggests leaving your home address off any CV you post online, to avoid fraud ²

Use a professional email address. The University of Reading's careers team gives "[email protected]" as an example of the kind that undermines a good application, and Prospects suggests creating a new address if you need one ^{2 4}.

Leave out your age, date of birth, marital status and nationality ¹. For UK graduate roles, the University of Reading also advises leaving off gender and photographs ⁴. Prospects says a photo is only needed for acting or modelling jobs ².

Keep your contact details in the main body of the page, not in the header or footer. Roche's recruitment team warns that header and footer text sometimes gets dropped by their software completely ⁶.

Your profile (personal statement)

A profile is a few short lines under your name that tell the reader who you are and what you want. The National Careers Service says it should make you sound like the right person for the job ¹. Prospects adds that it should be tailored to the sector, highlight a few relevant achievements and skills, and say what you want to do next ². Reed suggests about 100 to 150 words, roughly four or five sentences ³.

A simple formula works well:

1. Who you are, in the job-title terms an employer would use.
2. Your strongest relevant experience or skill, with a number if you have one.
3. What you are looking for, which should match the job.

A weak profile is full of claims: "hard-working, reliable team player with excellent communication skills." Prospects warns against generic claims like "team player" and says to back up skills with real examples ². A stronger one is specific: "Warehouse supervisor with six years' experience running a team of 12 on a 24-hour distribution site, seeking a logistics coordinator role."

Work experience

For most people with a work history, this is the heart of the CV. The National Careers Service says to list your most recent role first and to include work placements, volunteering and paid jobs. For each role give the employer, your job title, the dates, and what you did, usually in two to three lines ¹.

Write achievements, not duties

The most common weakness is a list of duties. "Responsible for customer service" tells the reader what the job was. It does not tell them whether you were good at it. Indeed's UK advice is to focus on achievements, and the University of Reading warns that unsupported claims rarely earn a shortlisting ^{4 9}.

The National Careers Service points to the STAR method for describing what you did ¹. STAR stands for Situation, Task, Action, Result. For a CV bullet you can compress it into one line: what you did, how, and what changed.

• Weak: "Responsible for handling customer complaints."
• Stronger: "Resolved around 30 customer complaints a week, lifting the satisfaction score from 72% to 85% in six months."

If you do not have exact figures, use scale: how many people, customers, sites, items or hours. A rough, honest number is better than none. Never invent one: Prospects points out that facts on a CV are easy to check and that false claims can be serious ². We explain how to do this well in our guide to turning duties into achievements.

Use strong, active verbs

Start each bullet with a past-tense verb such as "created", "led", "reduced" or "analysed" ². Reed also suggests dropping the word "I" from bullet points, which makes each line shorter and more direct ³.

Older roles

You do not need the same detail for every job. Prospects advises summarising older roles, such as those from ten years ago, and cutting anything not relevant ². Reed suggests focusing on roughly the last five to ten years of relevant experience ³.

Education

List your qualifications with the name of the qualification, where you studied, and the dates ¹. Prospects adds grades and says to include modules only where they are relevant ². The University of Reading's advice is not to give degrees a one-line entry: dissertations show project management, and modules show knowledge and skills ⁴.

If you have little work experience, put education straight after your profile. If you have substantial work experience, put your work history first ¹. For graduates, TARGETjobs notes that there is no fixed order and that you should use the order that best shows your strengths ⁵.

Skills and achievements

A short skills section helps both people and software see at a glance what you can do. Prospects suggests languages and IT skills relevant to the job, and warns against exaggerating, since you will need to back up your claims at interview ². Use the words the job advert uses where they are true: if the advert asks for "stock control" and you have done stock control, say "stock control", not "inventory handling".

Interests and references

Prospects says to include interests only if they are relevant, for example a blog for a journalism role, and to leave the section out if nothing applies ². The National Careers Service notes that hobbies can show skills when you have a short work history, such as captaining a sports team to show leadership and organisation ¹.

On references, the National Careers Service says they are optional and that you should only name someone who has agreed to act as a referee ¹. If you do not want to give names, write "References are available on request". Prospects says references are not necessary at this stage ². If you do name referees, the University of Reading advises asking permission and briefing them first ⁴.

How long should a CV be?

Two pages is the standard. Prospects says a CV should be no longer than two A4 pages, with three possible for high-level roles or substantial experience ². Reed calls two pages the sweet spot, and cites a survey in which 91% of recruiters said two pages is ideal. Most two-page CVs run to about 700 to 1,000 words, and Reed says a one-page CV is perfectly fine for recent graduates ³.

Do not shrink the margins or font to fit more in. Reed warns that this makes the CV stand out for the wrong reasons ³. If you are over, cut early jobs and generic interests, avoid repeating yourself, and move longer stories to your cover letter. Our guide to how long a CV should be goes through this in detail.

Layout and formatting

Keep the layout plain. The National Careers Service recommends a clear font such as Arial, Times New Roman or Calibri in size 11 or bigger, the same style throughout, headings and bullet points ¹. Prospects suggests bold headings at 14 or 16 point, a body font of 10 to 12, and margins of about 2.5 cm ².

Employers' own advice on software is consistent: avoid tables, text boxes, columns and graphics, keep everything in the main body of the page, and use ordinary headings such as "Education" and "Work Experience" ⁶. Roche's recruitment team also says Word (.docx) files are the most accurately read by their systems, while PDFs are best at keeping your layout intact ⁶. Check the job advert for the file type the employer wants ². Save the file with a sensible name, such as "Joe-Smith-CV" ².

Tailor it to every job

The National Careers Service advises reading the job advert, including the job description and essential criteria, and matching your CV to the job and company, for example by highlighting the skills they ask for ¹. Prospects adds that you can use the employer's website and social media to understand what they value ².

In practice, that means:

1. Pick out the five or six requirements the advert repeats.
2. Make sure your profile and your top bullets address them, using truthful evidence.
3. Reorder your skills and bullets so the most relevant come first.
4. Cut what is not relevant to this role.

You can paste a job advert into our free CV checker to see which of its key terms are missing from your CV.

Send a cover letter

The National Careers Service says to always send a cover letter when you apply with a CV, as a short introduction of usually three to five paragraphs, addressed to a named person where you can find one ⁸. Prospects agrees you should include one unless the employer says otherwise ². Use your cover letter for the things that do not fit on the CV: why this employer, a short story about a relevant project, or a brief explanation of a gap.

Gaps in your work history

Gaps are normal, and rarely a problem if explained. The National Careers Service says to be open and honest and to focus on transferable skills and what you learned ⁷. Prospects advises stating the reason and dates briefly, with no private detail needed ². Our guide to explaining gaps in your CV has wording for common situations.

The 10 mistakes that cost interviews

The University of Reading's careers team lists ten common mistakes. In short ⁴:

1. A cluttered, unprofessional layout
2. An unprofessional email address
3. A CV that goes on too long
4. No tailoring to the job
5. One-line education entries
6. Claims with no evidence
7. Dense text with no headings or bullets
8. Unnecessary personal information
9. Referees who have not been briefed
10. Spelling and grammar errors

Prospects adds checking everything, including your contact details, by using spell-check, changing the font temporarily, or reading the CV aloud ². Ask someone else to check it too ¹.

What about AI and software?

Prospects reports a survey by the Institute of Student Employers that found nearly a third of employers use AI in their hiring processes. It says applicant tracking systems, which scan CVs for keywords, are used mainly by large-volume recruiters, and advises tailoring your CV, using keywords from the job description, naming qualifications precisely and avoiding images and graphics ².

On using AI to help write your CV, Prospects advises caution: it is fine for research, drafting and proofreading, but it should not write your CV in full or invent details, and recruiters can often spot AI-written text ². Check whether the employer has a policy on it.

A CV checklist

Before you send it, check that:

• your name is the title and your email and phone are in the main body
• the profile is short and specific
• each role shows achievements with numbers where you can
• the order is reverse-chronological and the length is two pages or fewer
• headings are standard, and there are no tables, columns, text boxes or graphics
• it is tailored to this job, with the advert's key words used truthfully
• you have a short cover letter ready, unless the employer says not to
• every claim is true and you could explain it at interview
• spelling and grammar are checked by you and someone else
• it is saved as the file type the employer asks for, with a sensible file name

Frequently asked questions

How long should a UK CV be?

Two A4 pages is the standard. Prospects says no longer than two pages, with three possible for high-level roles, and Reed says a one-page CV is fine for recent graduates ^{2 3}.

Should I put a photo or date of birth on my CV?

No. The National Careers Service says to leave out age, date of birth, marital status and nationality, and Prospects says a photo is only needed for acting or modelling ^{1 2}.

Should I include references on my CV?

Not necessarily. References are optional. If you do not want to list names, you can write that references are available on request, and you should only name people who have agreed ¹.

What font should I use?

A plain, professional font such as Arial, Calibri or Times New Roman, at size 10 to 12, with bold headings ^{1 2}.

Do I need a different CV for every job?

You do not need to rewrite it from scratch, but the National Careers Service advises tailoring it to each job by matching it to the advert and highlighting the skills they ask for ¹.

Is a PDF or a Word file better?

Check what the employer asks for ². Roche says .docx is the most accurately read by its systems, and PDFs are best for keeping your layout ⁶.

Check your CV now

Once you have written or updated your CV, you can check it free with our CV checker. It scores readability, structure and content, shows the lines behind each issue, and rewrites your weakest line for free. Your CV is read in your browser and is not uploaded. You can see the source for every check on how we score.

Sources

1. National Careers Service, CV sections
2. Prospects (Jisc), How to write a CV
3. Reed, How long should a CV be?
4. University of Reading Careers, The top 10 CV mistakes
5. TARGETjobs, How long should a CV be? Graduate jobs and other CV FAQs answered
6. Roche Careers, Resume parsing FAQ (an employer's guidance on its own systems)
7. National Careers Service, Explain gaps in work history
8. National Careers Service, Covering letter
9. Indeed UK, What to include in a CV