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Create ResumeA strong UK CV is not a career autobiography. It is a relevance document. Its job is to show a recruiter or hiring manager, quickly and clearly, that you match the role they are trying to fill. That means your CV needs the right structure, clean formatting, a focused personal profile, strong work experience, measurable achievements, relevant skills, education, and keywords from the job description.
The mistake I see constantly is candidates writing a CV around what they want to say about themselves. A better CV is written around what the employer needs to confirm before inviting you to interview. Your CV should make that decision easy. Not because it is flashy, but because it is clear, specific, credible, and aligned with the job.
A CV is often described as a summary of your career. That is technically true, but not very useful.
In real hiring, your CV has to pass several different tests:
The ATS test: Can the system read your CV and recognise the right job titles, skills, qualifications, and experience?
The recruiter scan: Can a recruiter understand your fit within seconds without digging through vague paragraphs?
The hiring manager test: Does your experience look relevant enough to justify an interview?
The risk test: Are there unexplained gaps, unclear job moves, weak evidence, or confusing claims that make the employer hesitate?
This is where many CVs fail. Not because the person is unqualified, but because the CV makes the reader work too hard. Hiring is already messy enough. Recruiters are comparing candidates, chasing feedback, dealing with hiring managers who suddenly change their minds, and trying to make sense of job descriptions that sometimes read like a committee argument. Your CV needs to cut through that.
A good UK CV does three things:
For most UK job applications, the best CV format is a reverse chronological CV. That means your most recent role appears first, followed by previous roles in order.
This works because it matches how recruiters actually screen candidates. They usually want to know:
What are you doing now?
Is your current or most recent experience relevant?
Have you worked in a similar role, sector, company size, or environment?
Are your skills current?
Is your career progression logical?
A skills based CV can work in specific cases, such as career change, returning to work, or limited experience, but it is often weaker for experienced professionals because it hides the timeline. And when a CV hides the timeline, recruiters usually become more curious, not less. Not in a good way.
Your UK CV should usually follow this structure:
Shows what you do
Shows where you have done it
Shows why it matters
If your CV only lists responsibilities, it tells the employer you were present. If it explains outcomes, scope, tools, clients, teams, budgets, systems, or measurable impact, it starts to show value.
Contact details
Professional profile
Key skills or core competencies
Work experience
Education and qualifications
Certifications, technical skills, languages, or additional sections where relevant
References statement only if useful
You do not need to include your date of birth, marital status, full home address, national insurance number, or a photo. In the UK, these details are unnecessary and can make your CV look outdated.
Your contact section should be simple. This is not where you need creativity. It is where you need accuracy.
Include:
Full name
Mobile number
Professional email address
Town or city and country
LinkedIn profile if it is relevant and up to date
Portfolio, GitHub, website, or professional profile if it supports your application
Do not include your full postal address. A town, city, or region is enough. Employers want to know whether your location makes sense for the role, especially if the job is office based, hybrid, field based, or region specific.
A small but real recruiter observation: if your LinkedIn profile contradicts your CV, looks neglected, or has different job titles and dates, it can create doubt. It does not always matter, but when there are two strong candidates and one looks cleaner, more consistent, and easier to trust, that candidate has an advantage.
Your CV and LinkedIn do not need to be identical, but they should tell the same professional story.
Your CV profile is the short paragraph at the top of your CV. It should tell the employer what you are, where your experience sits, and why you are relevant.
What it should not be is a pile of adjectives.
Recruiters see phrases like “hardworking team player with excellent communication skills” constantly. It sounds pleasant, but it gives no hiring evidence. Nobody is searching a CV thinking, “I hope we find someone who admits they are lazy and terrible with people.” These phrases are too generic to help you.
A strong UK CV profile should include:
Your professional title or functional area
Years or level of experience if it strengthens the message
Industry or sector exposure
Key strengths linked to the target role
A short indication of impact, scope, or specialism
Weak Example
Hardworking and motivated professional with excellent communication skills and a passion for delivering results. Able to work well independently and as part of a team.
Good Example
Commercially focused Marketing Manager with experience leading multi channel campaigns across B2B technology and professional services. Strong background in demand generation, content strategy, CRM activity, stakeholder management, and campaign performance reporting.
The good version works because it gives me something to match against a role. I can immediately see function, sector, tools, responsibilities, and likely relevance.
The profile does not need to tell your whole story. It needs to create a clear first impression and make the reader want to continue.
A key skills section can help both recruiters and applicant tracking systems identify your fit quickly. But it needs to be specific.
The problem with many skills sections is that they become a dumping ground for generic traits:
Communication
Leadership
Teamwork
Problem solving
Organisation
Those are not useless skills, but they are too broad on their own. They also appear on almost every CV, which means they do not differentiate you.
Better skills are role specific and searchable:
Stakeholder management
Financial reporting
Salesforce CRM
Project delivery
Account management
Employee relations
Python
Paid social strategy
Supply chain planning
Risk assessment
NHS administration
Construction site coordination
B2B sales development
The skills section should reflect the job description, but do not simply copy and paste keywords you cannot prove. That is where candidates get themselves into trouble. If you put “advanced Excel” on your CV, someone may ask you about pivot tables, Power Query, macros, or formulas. If your answer is nervous silence, the CV has created a problem instead of solving one.
A recruiter does not just look for keywords. I look for whether the rest of the CV supports those keywords. If your skills section says “budget management” but your work experience never mentions budgets, forecasting, spend, cost control, or financial accountability, the claim feels thin.
Your work experience section is usually the most important part of your CV. This is where employers decide whether your background is close enough to what they need.
For each role, include:
Job title
Company name
Location or remote working arrangement if useful
Employment dates
Short company context if the employer may not be well known
Responsibilities
Achievements
Tools, systems, clients, sectors, products, budgets, or team scope where relevant
The biggest mistake is writing job descriptions instead of evidence.
Most candidates write something like this:
Weak Example
Responsible for managing social media accounts, creating content, reporting on performance, and supporting marketing campaigns.
That tells me the task, but not the level. Were you managing one small account or eight international markets? Were you posting once a week or running paid campaigns with actual budget? Were you improving anything or just keeping activity moving?
A better version gives context and outcome:
Good Example
Managed organic and paid social activity across LinkedIn, Instagram, and Facebook for a B2B software business, increasing qualified inbound enquiries by 28% over six months through targeted campaign testing, content planning, and weekly performance analysis.
This works because it answers the questions hiring managers actually care about:
What platforms?
What type of business?
What was the outcome?
What did the candidate actually do?
Is this relevant to our role?
You do not need every bullet to include a number, but you do need evidence. Evidence can be commercial, operational, technical, customer focused, process based, leadership related, or quality focused.
Examples of useful evidence include:
Revenue generated
Costs reduced
Processes improved
Time saved
Customers supported
Cases handled
Systems implemented
Projects delivered
Teams managed
Campaigns launched
The point is not to make your CV sound grander than your career. The point is to make your contribution visible.
Good CV bullet points are clear, specific, and connected to the role you want.
A simple structure that works is:
Action plus context plus result
You do not need to follow it rigidly every time, but it helps prevent vague writing.
Weak Example
Helped with customer service duties and dealt with enquiries.
Good Example
Handled 40 to 60 customer enquiries per day by phone and email, resolving order issues, delivery questions, refunds, and product queries while maintaining positive customer feedback scores.
The good version is stronger because it shows volume, communication channels, issue types, and service quality.
Another useful structure is:
Responsibility plus scope plus tools
Example
Prepared monthly management reports using Excel and Power BI, tracking sales performance, forecast accuracy, margin movement, and regional pipeline activity for senior leadership.
That gives a hiring manager much more to work with than “prepared reports”.
The best CV bullet points make your experience easier to assess. They do not make the recruiter guess what level you operated at.
For most UK professionals, a CV should be around two pages. That is not a law, but it is a strong practical guideline.
One page can work for early career candidates, graduates, apprentices, school leavers, or people with limited experience. Three pages can be reasonable for senior executives, contractors, academics, technical specialists, consultants, or professionals with extensive project history.
But the issue is rarely the number of pages. The issue is relevance.
A two page CV full of vague waffle is too long. A three page CV full of highly relevant project detail for a senior technical role may be perfectly acceptable. Recruiters are not allergic to length. They are allergic to unnecessary effort.
What usually needs cutting:
Old roles with too much detail
Repeated responsibilities across similar jobs
Generic soft skills
Outdated training
School details when you have stronger later experience
Personal interests that do not support the role
Long paragraphs explaining obvious duties
Your most recent and most relevant experience deserves the most space. Older roles can often be shortened to job title, company, dates, and a brief summary.
A CV should not give equal weight to everything you have ever done. Hiring managers do not read your career like a memoir. They read it looking for fit.
Tailoring your CV does not mean rewriting the whole thing from scratch every time. It means adjusting the emphasis so the most relevant evidence is easy to see.
Before applying, read the job advert and identify:
The core responsibilities
Required skills
Preferred experience
Sector or industry expectations
Tools, systems, or qualifications
Seniority level
Repeated language or themes
Then look at your CV and ask:
Is the most relevant experience visible in the top third?
Does my profile reflect this type of role?
Are the right keywords included naturally?
Have I shown evidence for the skills they ask for?
Is anything important buried too low?
This is where many candidates lose interviews. They technically have the experience, but the CV does not present it in the language of the role.
Employers often say they want “strong stakeholder management”. What they usually mean is: can you handle competing priorities, difficult personalities, unclear decisions, changing requirements, and people who want results without giving you the information you need? If you have that experience, show it properly.
Do not just write “stakeholder management”. Explain the level:
Example
Managed relationships with internal product, sales, finance, and operations teams to deliver monthly reporting improvements, resolve data quality issues, and align commercial priorities across departments.
That sounds more real because it shows the messy part of the work.
Applicant tracking systems are not magic career judges. They are software systems used to store, filter, search, and manage applications. Some are basic. Some are more advanced. Some are configured well. Some are frankly used in a way that makes good candidates disappear into the void. Lovely system, questionable execution.
Your job is to make your CV easy for both the system and the human to read.
Use:
Clear section headings such as Professional Profile, Key Skills, Work Experience, Education, Certifications
Standard job titles where possible
Keywords from the job description used naturally
Simple formatting
Consistent dates
Plain fonts
Word or PDF format unless the employer requests something specific
Avoid:
Text boxes
Heavy tables
Graphics
Icons used instead of words
Important information in headers and footers
Unusual section titles
Over designed layouts
Keyword stuffing
The biggest ATS misconception is that you need to “beat the bots”. That mindset often creates terrible CVs. You do not need to trick the system. You need to make your relevance readable.
If a job advert asks for “account management”, do not only write “client happiness ownership” because it sounds more exciting. Use the words employers actually use. Creativity is useful in the job. Clarity is useful in the CV.
Your education section should be proportionate to your career stage.
If you are early in your career, education may sit near the top of your CV, especially if your degree, course, grades, dissertation, projects, placements, or modules are relevant.
If you are experienced, education usually belongs after work experience unless a qualification is essential for the role.
Include:
Degree, diploma, or qualification name
Institution
Dates or completion year
Grade if strong or required
Relevant modules or projects for early career candidates
Professional certifications where relevant
For school qualifications, keep it simple. If you have a degree and several years of work experience, you do not need to list every GCSE subject unless the role specifically requires it. You can write something like:
Example
GCSEs including English and Maths
For regulated or qualification driven roles, be more precise. In accounting, teaching, healthcare, engineering, HR, project management, compliance, and technical fields, the qualification can be a screening requirement. If the employer asks for ACCA, CIPD, Prince2, IOSH, NEBOSH, QTS, NMC registration, or a specific technical certification, make it easy to find.
Do not bury required qualifications at the bottom in tiny text. If it matters to the job, it matters to the screening decision.
A stronger CV is often created by removing things, not adding more.
Leave off anything that does not help the employer assess your fit.
Usually remove:
Date of birth
Marital status
National insurance number
Full home address
A photo unless specifically required for a particular industry or international application
Salary history unless requested
Reasons for leaving every job
Long personal statements about motivation with no evidence
References and referee contact details
Irrelevant hobbies unless they support the role or show something genuinely useful
References can usually be left as “Available on request” or removed entirely. Most UK employers understand references come later in the process. You do not need to give away referee details on every application.
Be careful with hobbies. “Reading, travelling, socialising” rarely adds value. But if you are applying for a sports marketing role and you run a local football community page, that might be relevant. If you are applying for a software role and contribute to open source projects, that is not a hobby in CV terms. That is supporting evidence.
Most CV mistakes are not dramatic. They are small clarity problems that build doubt.
The most common ones I see are:
The CV is too generic: It could be sent to any employer for any role, which means it does not strongly match this role.
The profile says nothing specific: It describes personality rather than professional relevance.
The work experience reads like a job description: It lists duties but gives no outcomes, scope, tools, or evidence.
The best evidence is buried: The strongest achievements are hidden halfway down page two.
The CV uses inflated language: Phrases like “visionary leader” or “dynamic professional” can sound empty without proof.
The formatting gets in the way: Fancy layouts can make the CV harder to scan and harder for systems to parse.
The dates are unclear: Missing months, overlapping roles, or unexplained gaps can create unnecessary questions.
The CV is not aligned with the job title: The candidate has relevant experience, but the CV is positioned for a different direction.
There is no commercial or operational context: The employer cannot tell the size, scale, pace, industry, or complexity of your work.
The CV is written for the candidate, not the employer: It focuses on what the candidate wants rather than what the employer needs to see.
That last one matters more than people realise. A CV is not about expressing your entire professional identity. It is about helping someone make a hiring decision with confidence.
When I review a CV, I am usually asking a set of simple but sharp questions. You can use the same questions before sending yours.
Within a few seconds, the reader should understand what kind of role you are suitable for. If your CV could point in five different directions, it may feel unfocused.
This does not mean you need one rigid career path forever. It means this version of your CV should support this application.
The top third of your CV is valuable space. Use it properly. Your profile, skills, and most recent role should quickly show why you are relevant.
If the employer has to hunt for the good stuff, some will not bother. Not because they are evil. Because they have 80 applications and a hiring manager asking why the shortlist is not ready yet.
Every section should help the employer understand your fit. If it does not, remove it or shorten it.
If you say you are strategic, show strategic work. If you say you are analytical, show analysis. If you say you lead teams, show team size, leadership scope, hiring, coaching, performance, delivery, or stakeholder influence.
Use clear headings, short paragraphs, focused bullet points, and consistent formatting. Your CV should be readable on a laptop, in an ATS preview, and as a downloaded document.
This is underrated. Many CVs sound like they were assembled from corporate fog. Real work has texture. It has systems, customers, targets, deadlines, problems, stakeholders, tools, numbers, and outcomes. Put some of that into the CV.
If you are a graduate, school leaver, apprentice, career changer, or returning to work, you may not have years of direct experience. That does not mean your CV should be empty. It means you need to show transferable relevance clearly.
You can include:
Part time jobs
Volunteering
University projects
Internships
Placements
Freelance work
Personal projects
Training
Certifications
Relevant coursework
Customer service experience
Leadership in societies or community work
The key is to connect the experience to workplace value.
For example, a retail role can show customer service, complaint handling, sales targets, stock control, teamwork, reliability, and working under pressure. But do not expect the recruiter to make every connection for you. Spell out the transferable parts without exaggerating.
Weak Example
Worked in a shop and helped customers.
Good Example
Supported customers in a busy retail environment, handling product queries, payments, returns, stock checks, and complaints while working to daily sales and service targets.
That gives the employer useful signals: pace, communication, responsibility, customer handling, and commercial awareness.
Career change CVs need sharper positioning than standard CVs because the employer is already wondering: “Can this person really do this role?”
Do not avoid that question. Answer it.
Your CV should show:
Why your previous experience is relevant
Which skills transfer directly
What training or self development supports the move
Any projects, exposure, or achievements linked to the new field
Why the career change is credible, not random
A common mistake is over explaining the emotional reason for the career change. Employers may care that you are motivated, but they care more about whether you can do the job.
Instead of writing a long paragraph about wanting a new challenge, show the bridge.
Example
Operations professional transitioning into project coordination, with experience managing timelines, supplier communication, internal reporting, process improvements, and cross functional delivery across fast paced service environments.
That is much stronger than “I am passionate about project management”. Passion is nice. Evidence is better.
Before sending your CV, check it like a recruiter would.
Ask yourself:
Can the reader understand my target role within seconds?
Is my most relevant experience visible early?
Does my profile contain specific professional information rather than generic traits?
Have I matched the language of the job description naturally?
Have I included evidence, scope, outcomes, tools, systems, or achievements?
Are my dates clear and consistent?
Is the formatting simple and ATS friendly?
Have I removed unnecessary personal information?
Is the CV tailored to this role rather than every possible role?
Would I be ready to explain every claim in an interview?
That last question is important. Your CV gets you into the interview, but it also creates the interview agenda. If you put something on your CV, assume it can be questioned. Do not include keywords just because they sound attractive. Include them because you can back them up.
A good CV is not the loudest document. It is the clearest argument for why you should be shortlisted.
Written by Simar Malhi, a recruiter and headhunter with international recruitment experience. I write about CVs, job applications, hiring decisions, and the reality behind recruitment processes. My goal is to help candidates understand more honestly how employers, recruiters, and hiring managers actually select candidates.
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