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How to write a CV that gets read in the UK

7 minute read · Updated 2026-08-26

Learning how to write a CV for the UK market is mostly about editing. A recruiter filling a live vacancy might open forty CVs in an afternoon, so the top third of page one has to prove you can do the job. This guide covers the CV layout UK employers expect, what belongs in a personal statement, how to turn duties into achievements, and the small formatting decisions that decide whether your CV is ever read by a person at all.

How to write a CV: what to include and what to leave out

Include your name, mobile number, a professional email address and the town and county you live in. Add a LinkedIn address only if the profile is current. Then work through five blocks in this order: a short personal statement, a key skills list, employment history in reverse chronological order, education and qualifications, and any licences, cards or memberships the role requires.

Leave out your date of birth, marital status, nationality, a photograph and your full postal address. UK employers do not need any of it, and including it makes life harder for a hiring manager trying to run a fair process. You can also drop the line about references being available on request, because it is assumed. If your right to work in the UK is not obvious from your history, a single line such as Right to work in the UK, evidence available saves a phone call.

Two pages is the standard length. School leavers, apprentices and recent graduates can use one. Contractors, senior technical specialists and academics often need three, and that is accepted in those fields, but nowhere else.

CV layout that software can actually read

Most job boards and applicant tracking systems parse your document automatically to pull out job titles, dates and skills. Anything clever breaks that parsing. Avoid tables, text boxes, multiple columns, icons, logos, charts of your skill levels, and anything placed in the header or footer of the page, because parsers frequently ignore that region entirely.

Instead use plain headings that match what the software expects (Personal statement, Key skills, Employment history, Education), a normal font at 10 to 12 point, and consistent dates written as Mar 2023 to Present. Keep bullet points to one or two lines. Save as a .docx or a text based PDF, never a scan or an image, and name the file with your own name so it is findable, for example Priya-Sharma-CV.pdf. A clean file is what an employer can actually read on a phone at the end of a shift, which is where most applications get opened.

Write achievements, not a copy of the job description

The single biggest improvement most CVs need is replacing duties with results. A duty says what you were told to do. An achievement says what changed because you did it. A simple pattern works: strong verb, what you did, then the result.

  • Weak: Responsible for stock control in the warehouse.
  • Better: Ran stock control for a 40,000 square foot distribution centre, cutting picking errors and passing two customer audits with no non-conformances.
  • Weak: Duties included serving customers and cash handling.
  • Better: Handled the busiest Saturday shift solo, trained four new starters on the till system and was trusted with cashing up and banking.

Use real numbers from your own work: team sizes, budgets, call volumes, caseloads, delivery drops per shift, square footage, machine downtime. Never invent a figure you could not defend in an interview. If you genuinely do not have numbers, describe scope and responsibility instead.

Qualifications, cards and licences employers filter on

UK recruiters search CV databases for exact terms, so spell out anything that acts as a gate to the job, with the level and the expiry date:

  • Construction: CSCS card and colour (green labourer, blue skilled worker, gold supervisor), SMSTS or SSSTS, CPCS or NPORS, first aid at work, asbestos awareness.
  • Driving: licence categories held (C, C+E, D1), Driver CPC hours or card expiry, ADR, digital tachograph card, points on your licence if asked.
  • Health and care: NMC PIN, HCPC registration, Care Certificate, Level 2 or Level 3 Diploma in Adult Care, moving and handling, and whether you hold a current enhanced DBS on the update service.
  • Warehouse and manufacturing: counterbalance or reach truck licence and its renewal date, IOSH, food hygiene level, IPAF or PASMA.

Write the full term and the common abbreviation at least once, because some employers search for one and some for the other.

Tailor it, then check it

Keep a master CV, then make a copy for each application and spend ten minutes on it. Read the advert, pick out the four or five requirements it repeats, and make sure those exact words appear in your personal statement, skills list and most recent role. If the advert says scheduling and your CV says rotas, use both.

Explain gaps in one short line without apologising: travel, caring responsibilities, study, redundancy, illness now resolved. An unexplained two year hole invites worse assumptions than the truth. Finally, proofread it aloud, check every date lines up, and ask someone else to read it, because you will not spot your own typos.

Next step: upload your CV so employers can find you, then start applying through our latest UK jobs. If your opening paragraph still feels weak, work through our guide to the CV personal statement before you send anything out.