UK · Career change

CV writing guide

A practical UK CV writing guide covering modern structure, ATS optimisation, the common mistakes that derail applications, how to tailor for each opportunity, and what to do with a CV after redundancy or a career break.

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Modern UK CV structure

The convention that works across most UK sectors is a two-page CV with the following sections, in order:

  1. Header. Name, location (city only is fine), email, mobile, LinkedIn URL. No date of birth, photo, nationality, marital status or any of the things UK employers don’t need and the Equality Act discourages them asking for.
  2. Personal statement. Three to five sentences. Who you are professionally, what you do, and what you are looking for. Tailored per application.
  3. Key skills. A short block of role-relevant skills. Bullet-pointed or comma-separated. Mirror the language of the job description.
  4. Experience. Reverse chronological. Company, role, dates. Three to six bullets per role focusing on achievements with numbers where possible.
  5. Education and qualifications. Reverse chronological. Institution, qualification, dates. Add professional certifications here or in a separate block if there are many.
  6. Optional sections. Languages, volunteering, publications, relevant interests. Cut these if you need space.

For career-change applications, the personal statement and key skills move to the top of page one and do the work of bridging your previous experience to the new direction. Examples of strong career-change personal statements are at CV personal statement examples.

ATS optimisation

Applicant tracking systems (ATS) are the software layer most UK employers use to filter applications before a human sees them. A CV that scores poorly with the ATS does not reach the recruiter, regardless of its quality.

The reliable rules are:

  • Format. Use a clean single-column layout. No tables, text boxes, columns, images, headers, footers, icons or graphics. ATS software does not reliably parse visual elements.
  • File type. Save as .docx unless the job advert says otherwise. Modern ATS handle text-based PDFs well, but Word is the safest common denominator.
  • Section headings. Use standard names: Profile, Experience, Skills, Education. ATS look for these specific strings.
  • Fonts. Standard sans-serif (Arial, Calibri) at 10 to 12 point body, 14 to 16 point headers.
  • Keywords. Use the same phrases as the job description where they genuinely apply. ATS scores applications partly on keyword match.
  • Job titles. Use standard industry titles. Internal titles that mean nothing externally (Customer Wow Champion) score badly. Add the external equivalent in brackets.

Common mistakes

Ten mistakes that derail UK CVs repeatedly:

  1. Generic CV used for every application. Tailor the personal statement at minimum.
  2. Listing duties instead of achievements. “Responsible for X” is weaker than “Delivered X achieving Y%”.
  3. No numbers. Quantify scope (team size, budget, customer count) and outcomes (revenue, time saved, percentage improvement) wherever possible.
  4. Too long. If it does not fit in two pages, cut older roles to one-line entries.
  5. Photo, date of birth, nationality. None of these belong on a UK CV.
  6. Unexplained gaps. Brief, factual explanation is better than silence.
  7. Buzzword soup. “Synergy”, “passionate”, “dynamic”, “results-driven” tell a recruiter nothing. Replace with specifics.
  8. Spelling and grammar errors. Read aloud once, run through a spellchecker, ask someone else to proofread.
  9. Mismatched verb tense. Use past tense for previous roles, present tense for the current role, throughout.
  10. Wrong file name. “CV.docx” is rejected by some ATS. Use “Firstname-Lastname-CV.docx” or similar.

Tailoring applications

A tailored CV does not need to be rewritten. Three quick adjustments significantly increase response rates:

Personal statement match. Reference the role and one or two specific things about the employer. Two sentences out of the original four.

Skills reordering. Put the most role-relevant skills first. Drop or demote skills that are irrelevant to this application.

Bullet reordering. Within each previous role, put the most relevant bullet first. Edit one or two bullets to use the language of the job description if you can do so honestly.

Ten to fifteen minutes per application is the right time budget. Less, and the tailoring is cosmetic. More, and the numbers stop working in a job search at scale.

CV after redundancy

A redundancy is not a black mark. Recruiters know it is rarely about performance. The standard approach:

  • On the CV. List the role and dates as normal. Do not mention redundancy in the CV body itself.
  • In the cover letter or personal statement. One line is enough: “Role ended on redundancy following organisational restructure in [month/year]”.
  • At interview. Be ready to answer factually. The employer wants to confirm it was a structural redundancy, not a performance dismissal.

For redundancy more broadly (your rights, the lump sum, the runway), see redundancy rights UK and surviving redundancy financially.

CV after a career break

Career breaks are increasingly common in UK CV histories. Caring responsibilities, travel, study, illness or simply taking time. The right approach is to include the break as a labelled section in the experience timeline rather than leaving it as silence.

Format options:

  • “Career break (parental, 2023-2024). Returned to professional work with [recent training / volunteer project / continuing development].”
  • “Sabbatical (2024). Used the break to [travel / care for family / study]; returning with [renewed focus on / additional skills in].”
  • “Health-related break (2023). Now fully fit and seeking [target role].” (Brief, factual; details are private.)

Then use the personal statement to signal continuity: connection with the previous field, recent activity that keeps skills current, and the specific direction now. Recent UK employers are generally sympathetic to career breaks; the framing is what matters.

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Frequently asked questions

How long should a UK CV be?
Two pages for most professionals, three at the very senior end. One page for early-career applicants. UK CVs are not the same as US resumes; the two-page convention is well established and expected. Three pages is acceptable for academic CVs, senior leadership roles and consultants with substantial project histories.
What is an ATS and how do I optimise for it?
An applicant tracking system (ATS) is the software most large UK employers use to filter incoming applications. Optimising for ATS means: using a clean text-based format (no complex tables, columns, images or text boxes), including keywords from the job description, using standard section headings (Profile, Experience, Skills, Education), and saving as either a Word document or a text-based PDF. Image-only PDFs and design-heavy templates are routinely rejected.
Should I tailor my CV to each application?
Yes, for any application you genuinely care about. Tailoring means adjusting the personal statement to reference the specific role, surfacing the most relevant experience first, and including keywords from the job description. Full rewrites are not needed; a 10 to 15 minute adjustment is usually enough and significantly increases response rates.
How do I explain a career break or redundancy on my CV?
Address it directly and briefly. For redundancy: include the role and dates as normal; the redundancy itself is explained in the cover letter or at interview, not on the CV. For a career break: include a short labelled entry in the experience section (Career break, dates, one-line reason if useful). Gaps left unexplained look worse than gaps explained briefly and factually.