UK CV format: the layout British employers expect

Almost every UK CV that works follows the same order. Deviating from it is allowed, but it has to earn its place, for example putting education first when you are a recent graduate with little experience.

A UK header is minimal. Your full name, a UK or international mobile number with the country code, a professional email address, your town or city and your LinkedIn URL. A full street address is no longer expected; ‘Manchester’ or ‘Leeds, open to relocation’ is enough. If you live outside the UK, write your real location honestly and add your plans, such as ‘Colombo, Sri Lanka. Relocating to London, January 2027’.

What stays out is the personal biodata that many other markets include: photo, date of birth, age, gender, marital status, nationality, religion, and national ID or passport numbers. None of it is illegal to include, but UK employers do not want it at the CV stage, and its presence signals a CV built for another market. The separate guide on photos covers the reasoning in detail.

Right to work is the one personal detail that can earn a place. If you already hold it, a line such as ‘Full right to work in the UK’ under your contact details answers a question every employer has to check anyway.

Each role opens with a consistent line: job title, employer, location and dates. UK convention is month and year, written as words, such as ‘June 2021 to present’. Year-only dates look evasive, and numeric formats like 06/2021 are harder to read. Put the job title first if it is your strongest signal; put the employer first if the name carries more weight than the title.

Under each role, a single line of context helps an overseas or unfamiliar employer: what the organisation does, its size or sector, and your scope. A UK reader does not know a regional Sri Lankan bank or an Indian mid-size IT services firm by name, and one line fixes that.

Then come the bullets, written as outcomes rather than duties. The UK register is understated, so numbers and scope do the persuading: ‘Reduced month-end close from eight working days to five across three entities’ is British in tone even without a single adjective. Recent roles get four to six bullets. Roles older than ten or so years shrink to one or two lines or move into a brief ‘Earlier career’ section.

For UK degrees, state the classification: First, 2:1, 2:2 or Third. Employers, especially graduate schemes, read it immediately. For overseas degrees, write the qualification as awarded, with the institution and country, and give the grade in its own system, such as a CGPA out of 10 or a class designation, rather than inventing a UK equivalent. If you have a UK ENIC Statement of Comparability, you can mention it in a short line.

School results matter only early in a career. A graduate might list A levels, or the equivalent overseas school qualifications in a single line. Once you have a few years of experience, remove them. UK CVs never list primary or lower secondary schools.

Professional memberships carry real weight in the UK and deserve their own section: ACCA, CIMA and ICAEW for accountants, NMC registration for nurses, chartered status for engineers, CIPD for HR professionals. Name the body in full once, show your membership status accurately, and include the year you qualified.

UK CVs are A4, not US Letter. The difference is small, but a Letter-size PDF prints with odd margins in a British office and shows up in document properties. Use a clean single-column layout with standard headings such as ‘Work experience’ and ‘Education’, a readable font at around 10 to 11 point for body text, and consistent spacing.

Send Word or a text-based PDF unless the advert asks for one format. Recruitment agencies in particular often prefer Word because they reformat CVs onto their own branded template before sending them to clients. Name the file clearly, such as ‘Firstname-Lastname-CV.pdf’, never ‘CV final v3’. The ATS-friendly format guide covers parsing in more detail.

On a two-page CV, put your name and a page number in the footer or a small header on page two. Agency consultants and hiring managers often print or split CVs when sharing them internally, and a loose second page with no name on it is easily lost. Let page one end at a natural break between roles rather than splitting a job across the pages mid-bullet.

Spelling is the fastest way a UK reader spots an imported CV. Use organised, analysed, programme (for a planned set of activities), licence as a noun, centre, and behaviour. Keep product names and official job titles as written, even when they use American spelling.

Vocabulary shifts too. The UK says ‘CV’ rather than ‘resume’, ‘university’ or ‘uni’ rather than ‘college’ for degrees, ‘graduate scheme’ rather than ‘new grad program’, and ‘secondary school’ rather than ‘high school’. Currency, where it appears, is best left in the original with context, or translated into scope such as budget size relative to the business, rather than converted at a rate that will change.