CourseToJob guide · content date . Tool instructions reflect the CourseToJob service. Editorial method.
Quick answer
Write a UK CV as a two-page evidence sheet: contact, a short profile, skills, experience, education. Skip photos, date of birth and nationality unless the role genuinely requires them. Use a builder if layout is blocking you. Skip this page if you already have a tailored two-page CV.
Other situations: Skip this guide if you are writing a US resume (one page, “resume” conventions), an academic CV that must list every paper, or a performing-arts CV that the casting brief says must include a headshot. Those are different documents.
What is a CV, and what is it for?
A CV (curriculum vitae) is a short evidence file used to decide whether to interview you. In the UK it is not an autobiography, not a legal disclosure form, and not a US resume. If a line does not help a hiring manager say “this person can do this job”, cut it.
The National Careers Service describes a CV as a document that sells your skills, experience, qualifications and personal qualities — aimed at a specific kind of job, not at “any job” (National Careers Service — CV sections, checked 13 August 2026). That “specific kind of job” clause is the whole method: a generic CV is a ranking of duties; a useful CV is a ranking of proof.
We have not sat on your hiring panel. This verdict is desk research from published UK careers guidance and common parser behaviour, checked August 2026. Where a number appears below, it has a source and a date. Where we do not know, we say so.
| Document | Typical market | Default length | Photo |
|---|---|---|---|
| UK CV | UK, Ireland, much of Europe | Two pages | No, unless asked |
| US resume | United States | One page (often) | No |
| Academic CV | Research / HE | As long as the record | No |
If you are applying to US employers, use the CV vs resume guide instead of stretching this page.
How long should a UK CV be?
Two pages is the default for anyone with more than a couple of relevant roles. One page is right for many students and some first jobs. Three pages is for academic, research or senior portfolios that the advert expects. Do not shrink fonts to fake a one-pager.
UK Civil Service-style vacancies commonly ask for a two-page CV. Graduate schemes often say two pages. That is a convention, not a law — but it is the convention hiring teams are used to scanning. A one-page CV that drops your only quantified win to protect whitespace is the wrong trade.
Make the most relevant information easy to find. Reader attention varies; a timing statistic is not a rule for every employer.
Full split by career stage: how long should a CV be.
- Students / school leavers: one page unless a placement block needs two.
- Most professionals: two pages, last 10–15 years in detail.
- Portfolio / academic: follow the advert; do not force two pages if the record will not fit.
What sections should a CV include — and in what order?
Use contact, professional profile, skills, experience, then education. Students reverse experience and education so the degree leads. Optional extras (languages, memberships, selected projects) earn a place only when they change the hire. Skip “references available on request” — everyone knows, and it wastes the skim.
- Contact — name, mobile, email, city or region, optional LinkedIn or portfolio. Not your full home address, National Insurance number, date of birth, marital status, or photo.
- Profile — four to five lines. Target job, relevant years, two proof points, what you want next. Guide: personal statement.
- Skills — a short list the advert actually uses. Not “Microsoft Word” unless the job is admin and the advert names it. Guide: skills section.
- Experience — reverse chronological. Company, job title, dates (month + year), three to six bullets of evidence.
- Education — most recent first. Degree class if it helps; GCSEs as a one-line summary once you have A-levels or a degree.
Standard headings (“Work experience”, “Education”, “Skills”) parse more reliably than branded labels (“My journey”, “What I bring”). That is an ATS point, not a style preference — see how to make a CV ATS-friendly.
How do you write a personal statement that is not fluff?
Name the job, state relevant experience, give two proof points with numbers you can defend, and stop. Skip “dynamic self-starter” and any sentence you could paste onto a stranger’s CV. If the profile would still be true for a different occupation, it is too vague to keep.
Weak: “Hard-working team player seeking a challenging role in a fast-paced environment.” That sentence describes nobody and therefore describes everybody.
Stronger: “Marketing executive with four years in B2B SaaS. Grew inbound demo requests 38% year on year by rebuilding the landing-page tests, and cut cost per lead 22% after moving paid search to a weekly creative cycle. Looking for a product-marketing seat in a UK series-B.”
The second version can be checked in interview. The first cannot. Builders that offer a phrase library — including this one — are useful only if you replace placeholders. A leftover {X}% is a defect, not a draft.
How do you write experience bullets that survive a skim?
Use action + task + result. Lead with a verb, include scope (team size, budget, caseload), and end with a number or a clear before/after. Skip duty lists copied from your old job description. Three strong bullets beat eight chores.
| Weak (duty) | Stronger (evidence) |
|---|---|
| Responsible for managing social media accounts | Grew organic LinkedIn engagement 45% in six months by posting twice-weekly founder notes and retiring unused channels |
| Dealt with customer complaints | Closed 30+ complaints a week; cut repeat contacts 18% after introducing a same-day callback for billing errors |
| Helped with the end-of-year audit | Prepared 12 balance-sheet reconciliations for the FY25 audit; zero late schedules |
If you cannot name a number, name a constraint you worked under (shift pattern, caseload, tools, regulation) or a before/after process change. “We do not know the percentage” is publishable on this site; inventing one on your CV is how interviews die.
Role-shaped examples: CV examples.
How do you make a CV ATS-friendly without keyword stuffing?
Use a single column, standard headings, a normal font, and the advert’s real phrases only where they describe you. Avoid tables for core text, text in images, and icons that replace words. An ATS stores your file; a person searches it. Write for both, in that order.
Marketing pages often claim that “98% of Fortune 500 companies use an ATS”. We do not repeat that figure here: it is widely copied, rarely cited to a primary, dated source, and it is the wrong geography for a UK CV. What is true and useful: large UK employers keep applications in software (Workday, Greenhouse, SmartRecruiters, NHS Jobs, Civil Service Jobs). That software needs extractable text.
Stuffing the same keyword twelve times does not make you rank. Pasting the job description in white text is a known trick and a reason to bin you. Mirror the advert’s skill names once, in context.
Step-by-step: ATS-friendly CV and CV keywords.
- Safe: Classic, Modern, Professional, Compact, Academic templates in this builder.
- Use with care: Sidebar, Tech Stack, Executive two-column — some parsers read columns out of order.
- Skip for online forms: infographic CVs, photos as headers, skill bars, icons instead of the word “Python”.
What should you leave off a UK CV?
Leave off photos, date of birth, nationality, marital status, National Insurance number, a full home address, and “references available on request”. Skip hobbies that do not change the hire. Skip every job from school once you have a degree and two roles, unless it is the only evidence for a required skill.
UK equality law does not ban photos; it does make it unwise to volunteer protected characteristics a recruiter does not need. ACAS guidance on recruitment is clear that employers should only request information relevant to the job (ACAS — job applications and hiring, checked 13 August 2026). You can help them by not dumping extra identity data on page one.
| Include | Skip unless asked |
|---|---|
| City / region | Full address and postcode on the CV itself |
| Mobile and email | Date of birth, age, NI number |
| Right-to-work statement if the advert requests it | Passport scan, visa photocopy |
| Professional registration numbers (NMC PIN, SRA ID) | Photo, headshot banner |
| Selected projects with a URL | References list occupying a third of page two |
Common layout defects that cost interviews: 10 CV formatting mistakes.
Should you use a CV builder or stick to Word?
Use a builder when you need a single-column layout, a phrase scaffold and a formatting checklist faster than you can make them in Word. Stick to Word or Google Docs when you already have a clean file. The free official option — a simple PDF you export yourself — wins if the builder would only restyle fluff.
CourseToJob provides free CV editing, PDF, DOCX and plain-text downloads. Drafts stay in this tab unless you enable saving on this device. Export a JSON backup to move documents between browsers. AI rewriting is not enabled in this release.
| Word / Google Docs | This builder | |
|---|---|---|
| Cost | Free if you already have it | Free editing, PDF and DOCX exports |
| Layout risk | You can accidentally build a table-based CV | Templates are labelled with ATS risk |
| Phrases | None | Scaffolds you must rewrite |
| Where files live | Your drive | This browser, plus optional JSON export |
| When it loses | When you need a faster first draft | When you already have a tailored two-pager |
Start here: open the CV builder. Compare layouts on free CV templates before you commit to a sidebar.
How do you tailor a CV for one job in 20 minutes?
Paste the advert, list the six skills it repeats, then rewrite only the profile, the skills list and the top six bullets so those skills appear as evidence. Do not rewrite your whole history. If you cannot map four of the six skills to real work, skip the application — the CV will not save a mismatch.
- Print or split-screen the job description.
- Highlight tools, qualifications and verbs that appear more than once.
- Change the profile’s first line to the job title they used, not a creative synonym.
- Reorder skills so the advertised ones sit first.
- Swap two bullets on your latest role for evidence that matches those skills.
- Run a keyword overlap check (the builder’s matcher, or your own eyes) and read the result as a gap list, not a score to game.
Career change and gaps have their own pages: career change CV, employment gaps. Remote-first adverts: remote job CV.
What CV mistakes actually cost interviews?
The expensive mistakes are untrue numbers, unreadable layout, and a profile that does not name the job. Spelling errors still matter. Photos on UK corporate CVs still look odd. A template that a parser cannot read can hide a good candidate. A beautiful infographic that a human loves but software cannot search is a failed application to a large employer.
- Invented metrics — if you cannot explain the percentage, delete it.
- Tables and text boxes for your whole layout.
- Headers/footers that hide the email from some parsers.
- Unprofessional email addresses.
- Listing every weekend job since Year 10 once you have a degree and two roles.
- Copying the phrase library verbatim, placeholders included.
Worked examples by job: nurse, software developer, graduate, teacher.