A UK CV that matches the person specification, line by line
British hiring leans on structure and evidence. Large employers often anonymise shortlisting and score candidates against published criteria, which makes two things critical: the standard UK layout, and language that directly answers the essential requirements. Our builder applies A4 and the UK section labels; the checker shows you which requirements you actually cover.
Page format
UK employers expect A4. A Letter-sized PDF scaled onto A4 leaves uneven margins and looks like it was written for somewhere else.
- A4 · 210 × 297 mm
- Two pages is standard
- Text-based PDF export
- US or UK spelling, your choice
British CV conventions
These are conventions, not laws — but breaking them makes an application look careless to a local reader.
No photo, no date of birth
Removed for equality-of-opportunity reasons and frequently stripped during anonymised shortlisting. Including them signals unfamiliarity with the market.
Personal statement first
Three or four lines under a "Personal Statement" heading: who you are professionally, your most relevant experience, and what you are looking for.
Two pages is normal
One page is acceptable early in a career. Two is standard. Three is rare outside academia and research.
Answer the person specification
Public-sector and many large-employer roles publish essential and desirable criteria, and shortlisting is often scored against them. Make the evidence easy to find.
British spelling and understatement
Organisation, prioritise, programme, licence. British reviewers read restrained confidence as credibility; superlatives read as noise.
References on request
One line at the end is conventional and sufficient. Referee contact details are provided later, usually after interview.
Section order the UK market expects
The builder defaults to this order and lets you rearrange it by dragging.
- 1
Header
Name, UK contact number if applying locally, email, city, LinkedIn.
- 2
Personal statement
Three to four lines, tailored to the role and the sector.
- 3
Key skills
Useful for technical and public-sector applications with explicit criteria.
- 4
Professional experience
Reverse chronological with achievement-led bullets.
- 5
Education & qualifications
Include grades where they are strong and relevant.
- 6
Additional information
Languages, right to work, driving licence if the role needs one.
Frequent mistakes
Each of these costs a real application its first read.
- Sending a Letter-sized PDF to a UK employer — use A4.
- Opening with an objective statement about what you want rather than a personal statement about what you offer.
- Ignoring the person specification, then failing a shortlisting matrix you never saw.
- American spelling throughout an application to a UK employer.
- Making it three pages by refusing to cut a role from twelve years ago.
Everything is UK-configured in two clicks
Switch the market toggle in the builder and the page size, section labels and conventions update instantly — your content stays exactly where you wrote it. The exporter generates a genuine A4 PDF with selectable text.