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Create ResumeA professional CV template in the UK should help a recruiter understand your value within seconds. That means clear structure, relevant achievements, specific evidence, and no decorative nonsense that makes the CV harder to read. A strong UK CV usually includes your name, contact details, professional profile, key skills, work experience, education, and relevant extras such as certifications, systems, languages, or sector knowledge. The template matters because recruiters do not read CVs like essays. We scan for fit, risk, relevance, progression, and evidence. The best CV template is not the prettiest one. It is the one that makes the hiring decision easier.
This guide gives you a professional CV template for the UK job market, explains why each section matters, and shows you how to avoid the mistakes that quietly damage otherwise good applications.
A professional CV template works when it helps the reader answer one simple question quickly:
Is this person worth interviewing for this role?
That sounds obvious, but most CVs are not written with that question in mind. They are written as career histories, personal summaries, or lists of responsibilities. That is why many decent candidates undersell themselves. They explain what they have done, but they do not make it easy to see why it matters.
In the UK, a professional CV should usually be practical, clean, and evidence led. It does not need heavy design, graphics, photos, columns that break in an applicant tracking system, or a personal statement that sounds like it was copied from every other CV on the internet.
Recruiters and hiring managers are usually looking for:
Clear role alignment
Relevant experience
Evidence of impact
Commercial or operational understanding
Progression or consistency
A strong UK professional CV should follow this structure:
Name and contact details
Professional profile
Key skills
Professional experience
Education and qualifications
Certifications and training
Systems, tools, or technical skills
Additional relevant information
For most candidates, this is enough. You do not need to reinvent the CV format. Recruiters are not impressed because your CV has unusual section names. We are impressed when the information is easy to find and the evidence is strong.
Skills that match the vacancy
No obvious red flags
A CV that is easy to read quickly
Here is the hiring reality candidates often miss: your CV is not being judged in isolation. It is being compared against other people who may have similar titles, similar qualifications, and similar years of experience. The template should make your strongest evidence visible before the reader gets tired, distracted, or pulled into another meeting.
A good professional CV template does not make you look “creative” unless creativity is part of the job. It makes you look relevant, credible, and easy to shortlist.
The order can change slightly depending on your situation. A recent graduate may place education higher. A senior professional should usually lead with experience. A technical candidate may need a skills or technology section near the top. A career changer may need a sharper profile and selected achievements to bridge the gap.
The mistake I see constantly is candidates choosing a CV template based on what looks modern, rather than what works in screening. A glossy template can still fail if the recruiter cannot quickly identify your job title, sector, scope, achievements, and relevant skills.
Use this as a practical professional CV template for UK applications. Keep it clean, direct, and easy to edit for each role.
Your Name
Phone Number
Email Address
LinkedIn URL
Location, UK
Write three to five lines that summarise your professional level, core expertise, sector experience, and the value you bring. Avoid vague claims such as “hard working”, “passionate”, and “excellent team player” unless they are supported by evidence.
Good structure:
Your current or target role
Your main area of expertise
The sectors, environments, or business types you understand
Your strongest measurable value
The type of role you are now targeting
Example:
Commercially focused Operations Manager with experience improving service delivery, team performance, and process efficiency across fast paced UK business environments. Skilled in managing cross functional teams, reducing operational bottlenecks, and translating business goals into practical delivery plans. Known for bringing structure to busy teams, improving reporting visibility, and supporting senior leaders with clear operational insight.
Include eight to twelve relevant skills. These should reflect the job description, but they must also be true. Do not fill this section with generic workplace words that say nothing.
Example key skills:
Operational management
Stakeholder management
Process improvement
Budget control
Team leadership
Performance reporting
Client service delivery
Risk management
Project coordination
List your roles in reverse chronological order, starting with your most recent position.
For each role, include:
Job title
Company name
Location
Dates of employment
Brief company context where useful
Key responsibilities
Achievements with evidence
Format:
Job Title
Company Name, Location
Month Year to Month Year
Briefly explain the scope of the role if the company is not well known or if the title alone does not explain your level of responsibility.
Then use bullet points to show responsibilities and achievements.
Strong bullets should answer:
What did you do?
Who or what did it affect?
What changed because of it?
What evidence proves the value?
Include your most relevant qualifications. For experienced professionals, education normally goes after experience unless the qualification is central to the role.
Format:
Qualification
Institution, Location
Year completed
Add professional certifications, licences, short courses, or specialist training if they support the role.
This section is useful for roles where software knowledge matters. Include systems such as CRM platforms, applicant tracking systems, finance tools, HR systems, project management tools, data platforms, or industry specific software.
Only include information that helps the application. This could include languages, right to work details, professional memberships, security clearance, driving licence, or sector specific requirements.
Do not add hobbies unless they genuinely strengthen the picture. “Socialising with friends” has never rescued a weak CV. I promise.
Below is a realistic example using the structure above. This is not meant to be copied word for word. Use it to understand the level of clarity, evidence, and positioning expected in a strong professional CV.
Amelia Roberts
Manchester, UK
07123 456789
linkedin.com/in/ameliaroberts
Commercially aware Senior Project Coordinator with experience supporting complex operational, client delivery, and transformation projects across professional services environments. Skilled in coordinating stakeholders, tracking project milestones, improving reporting processes, and keeping delivery teams aligned under pressure. Known for bringing order to moving parts, spotting risks early, and helping senior managers make better decisions with clearer project information.
Project coordination
Stakeholder management
Risk and issue tracking
Project reporting
Process improvement
Client communication
Resource planning
Budget tracking
Meeting facilitation
Data analysis
Microsoft Excel
Power BI
Monday.com
SharePoint
Senior Project Coordinator
Brightstone Consulting, Manchester
March 2022 to Present
Brightstone Consulting is a professional services firm delivering operational improvement and change projects for mid market UK clients.
Coordinate multiple client delivery projects across operations, technology, and process improvement workstreams, supporting project managers with planning, reporting, documentation, and stakeholder follow up.
Improved weekly project reporting by redesigning status templates, reducing unclear updates and giving senior stakeholders faster visibility of delays, ownership, and decision points.
Track risks, issues, actions, and dependencies across active projects, helping project leads identify blockers before they affect client delivery timelines.
Support client meetings by preparing agendas, capturing actions, and following up with internal teams to ensure agreed next steps are completed on time.
Built a central project documentation process in SharePoint, improving version control and reducing time wasted searching for key documents across email threads.
Worked closely with finance teams to monitor project budgets, flagging potential overspend and supporting more accurate monthly reporting.
Supported onboarding of new project coordinators by creating process notes, reporting guidance, and handover documents.
Project Administrator
Northgate Facilities Group, Leeds
June 2019 to February 2022
Supported facilities and operations projects across multiple UK sites, including office moves, supplier transitions, maintenance programmes, and internal improvement initiatives.
Maintained project trackers, updated milestone plans, and prepared weekly progress summaries for operations managers.
Liaised with suppliers, site managers, and internal departments to coordinate timelines, access requirements, documentation, and issue resolution.
Helped improve purchase order tracking by maintaining a more accurate project cost log, reducing invoice queries and missed approvals.
Organised project meetings, prepared supporting materials, and followed up on action points with stakeholders across several business functions.
Built strong working relationships with regional teams, helping project managers identify practical site level issues earlier in the process.
Office Administrator
Calder & Rowe Accountants, Leeds
September 2017 to May 2019
Provided administrative support to a busy accountancy practice, including diary management, client communication, document preparation, and internal coordination.
Managed client records and helped maintain accurate documentation for tax and compliance deadlines.
Supported senior team members with reporting, meeting preparation, and process improvements during peak workload periods.
Developed strong attention to detail, confidentiality, and deadline management in a regulated professional services environment.
BA Business Management
University of Huddersfield
2017
PRINCE2 Foundation
Microsoft Excel Advanced Training
Power BI Fundamentals
Managing Successful Projects Workshop
Microsoft Excel
Power BI
Microsoft Project
Monday.com
SharePoint
Teams
Salesforce
Full right to work in the UK
Available on one month notice
Open to hybrid roles across Greater Manchester and Leeds
The professional profile is one of the most misunderstood parts of a CV. Candidates often treat it like a personality statement. Recruiters treat it like a quick positioning summary.
A weak profile says:
Weak Example:
I am a motivated and enthusiastic professional with excellent communication skills and a strong ability to work independently or as part of a team. I am looking for a new opportunity where I can grow and contribute to a successful organisation.
This sounds polite, but it tells me almost nothing. It could belong to a marketing assistant, finance analyst, office manager, graduate, or operations director. That is the problem.
A stronger profile says:
Good Example:
Commercially focused Finance Analyst with experience supporting budgeting, forecasting, variance analysis, and monthly reporting across multi site retail environments. Confident working with senior stakeholders, improving reporting accuracy, and translating financial data into practical business insight. Now seeking a role where strong analytical skills and commercial judgement can support better planning and decision making.
This works because it gives the recruiter useful information quickly. I can see the role, skill area, sector context, stakeholder level, and direction of travel.
A strong UK CV profile should not try to say everything. It should make the reader think, “Yes, this person broadly fits the type of candidate we need. Let me keep reading.”
Recruiters rarely read a CV from top to bottom on the first pass. We scan first, then read properly if the CV looks relevant.
That first scan usually checks:
Current or most recent job title
Career level
Industry or sector match
Relevant skills
Recent experience
Length of time in roles
Evidence of results
Location and right to work
Salary or seniority clues
Gaps or unexplained changes
This is not because recruiters are lazy. It is because recruitment is comparison based. A recruiter may have dozens or hundreds of CVs for one role, and the first job is to identify who is worth deeper review.
The best professional CV template helps the recruiter find the right evidence quickly. If your strongest experience is buried halfway down page two under a vague heading, that is not the recruiter being unfair. That is poor positioning.
Candidates often assume, “If they read carefully, they will see I can do the job.” Maybe. But hiring does not reward hidden relevance. It rewards visible relevance.
Your CV needs to make the match obvious without making exaggerated claims.
For most UK professionals, a CV should be two pages. That is the safest and most accepted length for experienced candidates.
One page can work for graduates, early career candidates, contractors with project summaries, or people with very limited experience. Three pages can be acceptable for senior executives, academics, technical specialists, consultants, or candidates with extensive project based experience.
The issue is not the page count by itself. The issue is whether every section earns its space.
A two page CV full of strong, relevant evidence is fine. A two page CV padded with generic responsibilities is not. A three page CV can work if the content genuinely supports seniority, scope, and decision making. A three page CV full of old tasks from 2009 is just making the reader work harder for no reward.
A practical rule I use is this: the more recent and relevant the experience, the more space it deserves. Older roles should usually become shorter unless they contain highly relevant evidence.
For example:
Current role: detailed bullets with achievements
Previous role: good detail, but slightly shorter
Older roles: summarised where possible
Early career roles: brief listing if no longer central
Do not give equal space to every job you have ever had. Your CV is not an archive. It is a positioning document.
Keep this simple. Include your name, phone number, professional email address, LinkedIn profile, and location.
You do not need your full home address. Town or city is enough. You also do not need date of birth, marital status, National Insurance number, or a photograph for a standard UK CV.
A professional email address matters more than candidates think. If your email address looks like it was created during a chaotic teenage phase, create a new one. Recruiters notice small signals. We may not reject you for them, but they do affect the overall impression.
Your key skills section should match the role you are targeting. This is not a place for every skill you have ever used. It is a relevance filter.
For example, a marketing manager might include campaign strategy, content planning, paid social, stakeholder management, budget ownership, brand positioning, analytics, agency management, and CRM.
A finance professional might include forecasting, variance analysis, management accounts, financial modelling, month end reporting, budgeting, audit support, Excel, Power BI, and stakeholder reporting.
The mistake is filling this section with soft skills only. Communication, teamwork, organisation, and problem solving are useful, but they are expected. They rarely differentiate you unless connected to role specific evidence.
This is where the hiring decision is usually made.
A good experience section should show:
Scope of responsibility
Type of company or environment
Stakeholders supported
Problems solved
Results delivered
Tools or systems used
Level of ownership
Progression and reliability
Avoid writing every bullet as a responsibility. Responsibilities show what you were supposed to do. Achievements show what changed because you did it well.
Weak Example:
Responsible for managing reports and working with stakeholders.
Good Example:
Improved monthly reporting process by consolidating stakeholder updates into one dashboard, reducing duplicate requests and giving senior managers clearer visibility of project risks.
The good version shows action, context, and value. It also sounds more believable because it explains the practical improvement.
Keep education clear and relevant. If you are an experienced professional, your degree or qualifications do not need to dominate the CV unless they are essential for the role.
Include grades if they strengthen your application, especially for early career roles. For senior roles, grades usually matter less than professional impact.
Professional qualifications should be easy to find. If you are applying for roles where qualifications are mandatory or strongly preferred, do not bury them.
Many candidates underestimate this section. In modern hiring, systems knowledge can make a difference, especially when employers want someone who can settle quickly.
Include tools that genuinely matter in your field. Examples include:
Microsoft Excel
Power BI
Tableau
Salesforce
HubSpot
SAP
Workday
Xero
Sage
Jira
Do not overclaim. If you list advanced Excel, be ready to discuss what that means. Hiring managers can usually tell when someone has listed systems they barely touched.
The most damaging CV mistakes are not always dramatic. Often, they are small choices that make the CV harder to trust, harder to scan, or harder to shortlist.
A CV template should support the content, not compete with it. Heavy colours, icons, skill bars, photographs, and unusual layouts may look interesting, but they often reduce readability.
Skill bars are especially pointless. What does four out of five dots in leadership mean? Did one dot resign? Nobody knows.
Use clean headings, consistent spacing, readable fonts, and a logical order. That is enough.
If your profile says you are dynamic, motivated, passionate, results driven, and a strong communicator, you have said what almost everyone says. The recruiter still does not know what you actually do.
Replace personality claims with professional positioning.
Many CVs read like job descriptions. The problem is that job descriptions describe the role, not your performance.
Instead of only saying what you managed, supported, coordinated, or delivered, explain what improved, changed, reduced, increased, prevented, clarified, or solved.
Your most recent and relevant experience should carry the most weight. If an old role from ten years ago takes up the same space as your current role, the CV feels poorly judged.
A professional CV template should be tailored. That does not mean rewriting your entire CV every time. It means adjusting the profile, key skills, and most relevant bullets to reflect the role.
Recruiters can spot a generic CV quickly. It feels like the candidate is applying everywhere and hoping something sticks.
If you have a required qualification, sector experience, technical skill, clearance, language, or right to work status that matters for the role, make it visible.
Do not make the recruiter hunt for the one detail that could get you shortlisted.
Tailoring your CV does not mean pretending to be a different candidate. It means making the most relevant version of your experience easier to see.
Before applying, compare your CV against the job advert and ask:
What are the most important responsibilities in this role?
Which skills appear more than once?
What problems is this employer likely trying to solve?
What experience do I have that proves I can do this?
Is that evidence visible in the first half of my CV?
Most candidates tailor too lightly. They change a few keywords and hope that is enough. Strong tailoring is more strategic. It adjusts the emphasis.
For example, if you are applying for an operations role focused on process improvement, your CV should highlight efficiency, workflow, reporting, systems, stakeholder coordination, and measurable improvements.
If you are applying for a client facing role, your CV should highlight communication, relationship management, service delivery, issue resolution, commercial awareness, and examples of managing expectations.
If you are applying for a leadership role, your CV should show team size, performance management, coaching, decision making, hiring involvement, conflict resolution, and accountability for outcomes.
The same person can have three strong versions of a CV depending on the role. That is not dishonest. That is intelligent positioning.
Applicant tracking systems are often misunderstood. Candidates sometimes talk about them as if they are mysterious robots rejecting people at random. In reality, most systems are databases that help employers store, search, filter, and manage applications.
Yes, formatting matters. Yes, keywords matter. But the bigger issue is relevance.
A CV that is clear, well structured, and uses normal job related language will usually perform better than a decorative CV with text boxes, icons, graphics, and unusual formatting.
To make your CV easier for applicant tracking systems and recruiters:
Use standard section headings
Avoid important information inside images
Avoid tables if they make the layout unstable
Use clear job titles and dates
Include relevant role specific keywords naturally
Save the file as a Word document or PDF unless told otherwise
Avoid headers and footers for critical information
Keep formatting consistent
Do not stuff your CV with keywords. It reads badly and can make you look like you are trying to game the system. The best keyword strategy is simple: use the language of your profession accurately.
If the job advert says stakeholder management, and you genuinely have that experience, use that phrase. If it says budget forecasting, do not call it “financial future planning” because you want to sound different. This is not the time for creative vocabulary.
Recruiters and hiring managers look at CVs differently. A recruiter is often screening for fit against the vacancy. A hiring manager is thinking more deeply about whether you can actually do the job in their team.
Hiring managers usually want to know:
Can this person handle the actual work?
Have they worked in a similar environment?
Will they need heavy support?
Do they understand the level of pressure or complexity?
Can they communicate clearly?
Have they solved problems like ours before?
Are their achievements believable?
Is there enough evidence to justify an interview?
This is where vague CVs fall down. A hiring manager does not want to read that you are “experienced in fast paced environments”. They want to know what kind of fast paced environment. Retail operations? SaaS scale up? NHS administration? Legal services? Manufacturing? Financial services?
Context matters. The same job title can mean very different things in different companies.
For example, an “Office Manager” in a ten person business may handle suppliers, finance admin, HR coordination, facilities, diaries, events, and client communication. An “Office Manager” in a large corporate may have a narrower remit but more stakeholder complexity.
A professional CV template should leave room for context, because context helps employers judge transferability.
A one page CV works best when your experience is limited, highly focused, or early career. It can also work in fields where concise profiles are expected, but this is less common for general UK applications.
A two page CV is the standard for most experienced professionals. It gives enough room for profile, skills, experience, achievements, education, and systems without overwhelming the reader.
A three page CV can work when there is genuine depth to justify it. Senior leaders, consultants, technical specialists, programme managers, academics, and contractors may need more space. But the third page must still earn its place.
The wrong question is, “How long is allowed?”
The better question is, “How much relevant evidence does the reader need to make a confident interview decision?”
If the answer fits on two pages, use two pages. If it needs three, use three carefully. If it can be one, do not stretch it just to look more experienced.
A strong UK CV should look calm, clean, and easy to read. That may sound boring, but boring formatting often performs better than chaotic creativity.
Use:
Clear section headings
Consistent spacing
A readable font
Normal margins
Reverse chronological order
Bullet points for experience
Evidence based achievements
Simple file naming
Avoid:
Photos unless specifically requested
Date of birth
Marital status
Full home address
National Insurance number
Excessive colour
Skill rating graphics
Tiny font
Long paragraphs
Your file name should also be professional. Use something like:
Amelia Roberts CV Project Coordinator
Do not send a file called “CV final final new version edited 7”. We have all done some version of this in life, but do not let the employer see the chaos folder.
Professional does not mean formal, stiff, or full of corporate language. It means clear, credible, and specific.
To make your CV stronger, replace weak phrases with sharper evidence.
Weak Example:
Helped with reports.
Good Example:
Prepared weekly performance reports for senior managers, highlighting service trends, unresolved issues, and actions needed to improve delivery.
Weak Example:
Worked with different teams.
Good Example:
Coordinated input from sales, operations, finance, and customer service teams to improve handover accuracy and reduce delays.
Weak Example:
Responsible for customer service.
Good Example:
Managed customer queries across phone and email channels, resolving escalations, identifying recurring issues, and improving response consistency.
Weak Example:
Good communication skills.
Good Example:
Presented project updates to internal stakeholders, translating operational detail into clear actions, risks, and decisions.
The good examples work because they show professional judgement. They do not just say the candidate has a skill. They show how the skill is used.
That is what strong CV writing does. It turns vague competence into visible evidence.
Before sending your CV, check it against this list.
Is the CV clearly targeted to the role?
Can the recruiter identify your current role within seconds?
Does the profile explain your professional value clearly?
Are your key skills relevant to the job advert?
Does your experience include achievements, not only duties?
Have you included measurable evidence where possible?
Are your dates, job titles, and company names clear?
Is the formatting simple and consistent?
Have you removed irrelevant personal details?
Is your most relevant evidence easy to find?
Does the CV read like a credible professional document?
Have you checked spelling, grammar, and formatting?
Does the file name look professional?
Would a hiring manager understand why you fit the role?
The strongest CVs are not the ones that try hardest to impress. They are the ones that make the candidate easy to understand, easy to trust, and easy to shortlist.
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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