UK CV format: how a British CV is put together

What a British employer expects to receive

There is no official British CV template and no law that prescribes one. What exists is a shared convention, written down most clearly by two public sources: the National Careers Service (NCS), the government's careers service, and Prospects, a careers site for students and graduates. Both describe the same reverse-chronological document; they differ on a few details, set out further down.

The short version

Name at the top as the heading, a phone number and an email, a few lines about who you are and what you want next, then your jobs and qualifications with the latest at the top, then skills. Personal data that says nothing about your ability to do the job stays off the page.

What other guides in this series cover

Visa sponsorship and the right-to-work line, the UK cover letter, and CVs for nursing, medicine, teaching, a master's or a student job each have their own page, linked at the end. This page is the format they all start from.

First, remove what a UK reader does not want

If you are adapting a CV written for Türkiye or another country that expects personal data, start by deleting, not by adding. These steps take ten minutes and fix most of what makes a CV look foreign in a British inbox.

1. Delete the photo. Prospects says not to include one unless you apply for acting or modelling work.
2. Delete date of birth, age, marital status and nationality. The NCS lists all four as things to leave out of your contact details.
3. Delete identity numbers, military service status and the number of children. None of the UK sources lists them.
4. Replace the word "CV" or "Curriculum Vitae" at the top with your name, as Prospects advises.
5. Cut the street address down to town and country if you prefer; Prospects' own example CV shows only the town.
6. Check the page count. If it is over two A4 pages, cut old or unrelated detail before you change the font.

How the UK layout works

Two sides of A4

Prospects, quoting the University of Chester's careers team, puts the limit at no more than two A4 pages. It allows a shorter CV for students applying for part-time work and up to three pages for senior roles or people with many jobs in the last five to ten years. The NCS page on CV sections does not give a page count.

The personal statement

Prospects calls it the personal statement, personal profile or summary, and sets a limit of 150 words. It sits directly under your contact details as one paragraph with no heading. Its suggested shape is three moves: who you are, what you can offer with evidence, and where you want your career to go. You may write in the first or third person, but keep one voice throughout. The NCS calls the same block an introduction and describes it as a few short lines.

Which comes first, jobs or education

The NCS puts education straight after the introduction if you are early in your career or have little work experience, and work history first otherwise. Prospects gives the same rule from the other side: move work experience above education once you have substantial relevant experience.

Each job in two or three lines

For every role the NCS asks for the employer, job title, dates and what you did, usually in two to three lines using the STAR method (situation, task, action, result). Placements and volunteering count as work history.

Fonts, margins and file names

The NCS suggests Arial, Times New Roman or Calibri at size 11 or larger. Prospects suggests body text of 10 to 12 point, bold headings of 14 or 16 point, margins of about 2.5 cm and a file name such as Joe-Smith-CV rather than Document 1.

References

Neither source wants referees' contact details on the CV. The NCS says to include a references section only if someone has agreed to act as a referee, and then to write that references are available on request. Prospects says references are not needed at this stage and the line can go if space is tight.

Is a UK CV ATS friendly

The format itself is: one column, standard headings and plain text. Prospects says large recruiters often use applicant tracking systems that screen for keywords from the job description, so it advises reusing the advert's terms, writing qualifications out in full and leaving out images and logos. It also says not every system accepts PDFs, so follow the file type the advert asks for.

Section by section, with sample lines

The order follows Prospects' suggested sequence for someone with relevant experience. The sample person is invented: Deniz, a logistics coordinator in Istanbul with five years in freight planning, applying for transport planning roles in England.

Keep Turkish names with their own letters (ı, ş, ğ) and give the English form of the degree as it appears on your diploma supplement. If a UK reader needs to know how your degree compares, the guide on degree recognition covers UK ENIC. If you need a visa sponsor, add one factual line under the contact details; the guide for international applicants shows how.

Why age and personal details stay off the page

The reason is legal as much as stylistic. Section 4 of the Equality Act 2010 lists nine protected characteristics, and age, marriage and civil partnership, race, religion or belief and sex are among them. Employers try not to see this information before they shortlist, because seeing it can later look like a reason for a decision.

Acas, the public body that advises employers on workplace law, says this directly in its age discrimination guide: employers should avoid asking for age or date of birth on application forms, because a rejected applicant may later argue that asking was evidence of discrimination. It suggests collecting age group only on a separate, anonymous monitoring form kept away from the people who shortlist.

• Age and date of birth: protected characteristic (age); the NCS and Prospects both say leave out.
• Marital status: protected characteristic (marriage and civil partnership); the NCS says leave out.
• Nationality: the Act counts it as part of race (section 9); the NCS says leave out. Work permission is a separate, factual line.
• Photo: shows several characteristics at once; Prospects says leave out outside acting and modelling.

Where the sources agree and differ, read 13 October 2026

All pages below were read on 13 October 2026. The Prospects pages are dated May 2025; the NCS page shows no date.

Where they differ, either choice is defensible. The address row matters most for applicants abroad: a town and country tells the reader where you are without publishing your street.

Where this format is not enough

• NHS, teaching and other public-sector posts may ask for an application form instead of a CV; the NHS nurse, NHS doctor and teacher guides cover those.
• A visa route that asks for a CV of its own, such as Global Talent, sets its own page limit; the graduate and Global Talent guide has the details.
• A master's application asks for a CV and a personal statement in the university's own format; see the guide to a UK master's CV.
• If the advert names a format, a page limit or a form, follow it. It overrides every convention on this page.

Next steps and other ways to build it

• The National Careers Service: free advice, job profiles that list the skills each role needs, and a link to a CV builder run by the Department for Work and Pensions.
• Your university careers service, if you study or studied in the UK; Prospects says students and recent graduates can ask theirs for help.
• A word processor with one column, plain headings and no text boxes, saved as the file type the advert asks for.
• CitedCV: it writes the CV in English with UK conventions from the facts you confirm. For the UK it leaves out photo, date of birth, marital status, nationality and full address, uses British spelling and writes dates as month and year.

Then write the covering letter in the UK form, and if you need sponsorship, read the international applicants guide before you send anything.

Questions people ask

Sources

1. National Careers Service: CV sectionsnationalcareers.service.gov.uk/careers-advice/cv-sections
2. Prospects: How to write a CV (May 2025)www.prospects.ac.uk/careers-advice/cvs-and-cover-letters/how-to-write-a-cv
3. Prospects: Writing a personal statement for your CV (May 2025)www.prospects.ac.uk/careers-advice/cvs-and-cover-letters/writing-a-personal-statement-for-your-cv
4. Prospects: Chronological CV example (May 2025)www.prospects.ac.uk/careers-advice/cvs-and-cover-letters/example-cvs/chronological-cv-example
5. Equality Act 2010, section 4: The protected characteristicswww.legislation.gov.uk/ukpga/2010/15/section/4
6. Equality Act 2010, section 9: Racewww.legislation.gov.uk/ukpga/2010/15/section/9
7. Acas: Age discrimination, key points for the workplacewww.acas.org.uk/sites/default/files/2024-04/age-discrimination-key-points-for-the-workplace.pdf