Creating your CV

Firstly, have a look at our CV guideline template above. It will give you an idea of what information you should put where, and how a professional CV should look.

There is no rule about what you must include in your CV, but the following points are typically what you need to include in all types of CV:

Personal details

Do include: your name, address, telephone number, current and most reliable email address. You could also add your LinkedIn account or other social media links if appropriate.

Don't include: a photo, your date of birth, gender, ethnicity, marital status, national insurance number or religion in a UK CV.

Personal Profile

Not essential, but if you do decide to use one, make sure it adds value to your CV - don’t just use generic buzzwords. Focus on the role applied for and include personal qualities, experience and skills.

These are useful in academic CVs as they can be helpful for highlighting the area of research you want to enter. 

Can also be useful in explaining a change of direction in your studies or career if you have a varied work or educational history.

Keep it simple and think about these three key things: 1) Who you are; 2) Your skills and highlights; 3) What you’re looking for.

Education and Qualifications

Start with university (this is most important so should be given prominence) - include relevant modules and grades; perhaps your dissertation title. If you have not yet graduated, you can give your predicted or expected degree results, e.g. BSc (Hons) Computer Science – expected 2:1. If you have lots of additional qualifications, such as ECDL, PRINCE2, COSHH, Health & Safety, you can include them here or create a separate Additional Qualifications section. 

Work backwards starting with the most recent adding the name of your high school and dates for A- Levels, GCSEs and equivalents. You don't have to write the full address of each institution - the city or town will do if it's not obvious from the institution name. Keep it concise - a sentence to cover your subjects and grades is fine. 

For overseas qualifications you should indicate the UK equivalence.

Employment History or Work Experience

Give the name of the business where you worked, your job title and the dates of your employment in reverse date order. Underneath this, detail your responsibilities, duties and skills developed.

You can include any voluntary experience in this section or list it separately if appropriate.

If you have a lot of work experience, you may want to divide this into Relevant Employment Experience and Other Employment Experience sections.

• Watch a quick video on Build My Career for more (student Build My Career link / graduate Build My Career link).

Technical skills

List the skills and knowledge which is specific to the job you are applying for, such as laboratory skills: “I have an excellent knowledge of laboratory techniques including protein analysis, handling human samples, analysis of vitamin C content by titration...”

Think about your experiences academically and through any placements and work experience where you have gained the ability to carry out the required tasks of the role.

These could alternatively be included within Education or Employment History, but don’t repeat information.

Transferrable skills

Match the skills you add to your CV to the job description, rather than producing a generic list.

Provide information about how you gained each skill, such as “My verbal presentation skills have been developed to an excellent standard as a result of delivering weekly seminar presentations to groups of 20+ as part of my degree”.

Try to avoid duplicating information shown elsewhere on your CV.

If you also have Additional Skills such as IT, Languages, First Aid, Driving Licence, etc. you can list them here or in a separate section as appropriate.

Interests, responsibilities and achievements

This is optional, but many employers value it as it can indicate a range of skills and qualities such as teamwork, responsibility and trustworthiness as well as your passions and interests.

Are there any of your personal interests that reflect the job? For example, if you are involved in gaming tournaments and applying for video game design roles, or you volunteer for a cause which has a similar ethos to the organisation you are applying to.

Be specific about your activities - “Football” doesn’t say much, but “Football: Captain of Shearbridge Tornadoes five-a-side team, organised and coordinated fixtures and was responsible for team budget” gives recruiters a much fuller picture and includes extra skills; think about how often you do the activity and the level you have reached.

Include any positions of responsibility you have held, such as equipment officer for the archery team, or social secretary of the pharmacy society, etc.

References

You can state “references available on request”, but it is acceptable to leave off the references section altogether as they are not generally required at this stage of the recruitment process. You should however include two referees on undergraduate placement CVs. 

If your application progresses you will be expected to provide references (usually two), so think about who you could ask as referees and make sure they are happy to provide you with a reference.

Formatting your CV - 10 top tips

1. Two-page CVs are the standard for graduate and internship opportunities, but one page is acceptable for part-time work (longer CVs may be acceptable for academic positions, particularly if you have lots of publications and conferences to list).
2. Use a clearly legible font, e.g. Arial, Calibri, Candara or Gill Sans no smaller than size 11.
3. Bullet points: with short concise sentences, each piece of information has the same value and the same chance of being read; key information may be missed in long paragraphs.
4. Effective formatting: if all your text is the same style it can look bland and unappealing, but the use of bold, italics and underlining can break up text and highlight important details.
5. Clear sub-headings: make things easy to find by clearly labelling them. In your skills section, name the skill first so the reader’s eye is drawn to it, e.g. “Communication: developed active listening and clear communication skills helping a diverse range of customers at Tesco.”
6. Be consistent throughout, with clear dates and locations and all indentations, bullet points, etc. all lined up perfectly.
7. Think carefully about the use of colour – formatting for black and white is the best option when it comes to reproducing your CV.
8. Order your sections so that your relevant skills and experience are prominent, ideally on the first page, to highlight your suitability for the role. Try not split sections over the page break.
9. Think about applicant tracking systems (ATS) - the majority of online CV submissions will be scanned by a programme first, so keep your formatting simple (don’t use boxes, tables or graphics) and include key words relevant to the job to increase your chance of selection (see more in FAQs, below).
10. Check spelling and grammar: mistakes can cause your application to be rejected.

Submitting your CV

Always send a covering letter together with your CV, make sure you have read the submission guidelines and you are sending it how the recruiter wants it.

By email

• When emailing, add your covering letter and CV as attachments, rather than typing the covering letter in the email itself, to ensure both are formatted correctly and are professional looking.
• Keep the email formal, professional and concise when applying for a job. Always follow the employer’s instructions and quote any references they require. You also will need to say that your CV and covering letter are attached.
• Think about your email address - it is best to use a professional sounding one rather than a personal address.

By post

• If sending your CV by post, use good quality white or cream paper, and a high-resolution printer for a professional finish.

• Post early to ensure you meet the closing date.