How to Write a CV: A Step-by-Step UK Guide

British employers expect a familiar set of sections, in a familiar order. You can adjust the order to suit your situation, but leaving out one of the core sections usually raises questions.

• Name and contact details: your name as the heading, then a phone number, a professional email address and your town or city. A full postal address is no longer needed.
• Personal statement: three to five lines that say who you are, what you offer and what you are looking for.
• Work experience: your roles in reverse-chronological order, most recent first, with job title, employer, dates and achievement-led bullet points.
• Education and qualifications: degrees, A-levels or equivalent, and relevant professional qualifications. Recent graduates can place this above work experience.
• Skills: technical skills, tools, languages and other abilities that match the job advert.
• Optional sections: professional memberships, voluntary work, publications, a driving licence if the job needs one, and interests if they add something.

You do not need to write 'Curriculum Vitae' at the top. Your name is the title, and the space is better spent on content.

UK recruitment practice is shaped by the Equality Act 2010, which protects candidates from discrimination on grounds such as age, sex, race, religion and marital status. Employers do not need this information to assess you, and most prefer not to see it.

• A photograph, unless you are applying for acting or modelling work where it is standard.
• Your date of birth, age, marital status, nationality or religion.
• Your National Insurance number or other identity details. These are collected after an offer, not before.
• Referees' names and contact details. 'References available on request' is also unnecessary; employers will ask when they need them.
• Your current salary or reasons for leaving each job.

If you need to confirm your right to work in the UK, a single line such as 'Full right to work in the UK' in your personal statement or contact block is enough.

The reverse-chronological format is the standard in the UK and the one recruiters find easiest to read. It lists your most recent role first and works backwards. A skills-based format, which groups experience under skill headings, can help career changers, but many recruiters find it harder to follow, so use it only when you have a clear reason.

Keep the layout simple: one column or a restrained two-column design, a readable font at 10 to 12 point, consistent headings and generous margins. Save the finished document as a PDF unless the advert asks for Word, and give the file a sensible name such as your full name followed by 'CV'.

The personal statement sits directly under your contact details. In three to five lines it should cover your professional identity, your strongest relevant skills or achievements, and the type of role you want. Write it last, once you know what the rest of the CV says, and rewrite it for each application.

For example: 'Customer service team leader with six years' experience in retail banking. Led a team of twelve advisers and introduced a call-back process that shortened complaint resolution times. Now seeking an operations management role in financial services.'

Avoid lists of adjectives such as hard-working, motivated and reliable. Anyone can claim them, and they take space from evidence.

Your work experience section carries the most weight. For each role give your job title, the employer, the location if useful, and the dates in months and years. Then add three to six bullet points for recent roles and fewer for older ones.

The most common weakness in CVs is describing the job rather than what you did in it. A duty tells the reader what was expected of you; an achievement tells them how well you did it. Start each bullet with a strong verb and, where you honestly can, include a number, a scale or a result.

• Duty: 'Responsible for managing the office diary and travel bookings.'
• Achievement: 'Managed diaries and travel for four directors, renegotiating the travel supplier contract to reduce booking costs.'
• Duty: 'Dealt with customer complaints.'
• Achievement: 'Resolved an average of thirty customer complaints a week, with most closed at first contact.'

Only use figures you can stand behind at interview. If you do not have numbers, describe scale and outcome in words: the size of the team, the type of clients, what changed because of your work.

List your highest qualification first. For a degree, give the title, the university, the dates and your classification if it helps you, for example 'BSc (Hons) Psychology, 2:1'. Below that, summarise A-levels with subjects and grades, and GCSEs in a single line such as '9 GCSEs at grades 9 to 5, including English and Maths'.

Once you have several years of experience, your education section can shrink to a few lines. Professional qualifications, such as accountancy or HR qualifications, can sit in the same section or under their own heading if they are central to the job.

Read the job description and note the skills, tools and qualifications it repeats. Where you genuinely have them, use the same wording in your skills section and in your experience bullets. This helps a human skim-reader and also helps applicant tracking systems, which match the text of your CV against the vacancy.

Group skills so they are easy to scan, for example 'Software', 'Languages' and 'Certifications'. Be specific: 'Excel (pivot tables, lookups, Power Query)' says more than 'Microsoft Office'.

A CV sent unchanged to every vacancy rarely performs well. For each application, reorder your bullets so the most relevant come first, adjust the personal statement and check that the key terms from the advert appear naturally.

Then proofread. Use British spelling throughout, such as organised, programme and licence as a noun. Check that dates are consistent, that every bullet is in the same tense, past for previous roles and present for your current one, and that the document fits on two pages without shrinking the font to an unreadable size. Reading it aloud or asking someone else to check it catches errors that spellcheck misses.

• Name, phone, email, town or city, LinkedIn profile if you have one.
• Personal statement: three to five lines.
• Key skills: six to ten items matched to the advert.
• Work experience: reverse-chronological, with achievement-led bullets.
• Education and qualifications.
• Additional information: languages, voluntary work, driving licence, professional memberships.

A good template handles the spacing and headings for you so that you can concentrate on the content.