What sections should a UK CV include?

Contact details, a short personal profile, key skills, work experience in reverse chronological order, education, and any additional sections that genuinely earn their place (certifications, publications, volunteering). Two pages is the UK norm for most experience levels.

How long should a CV be?

Two pages, most of the time. The one-page rule is a US import. Length should follow relevance: cut anything that does not help this specific application, and you will usually land around two pages naturally.

Does CVBetter write my CV for me from scratch?

No, and that is deliberate. You write the master CV using the structure on this page. CVBetter then rewrites that CV around a specific job advert, matching the language recruiters and ATS software are scanning for, without inventing experience you do not have.

A master CV is one thorough document holding every role, achievement and STAR example you have, with nothing trimmed for length. You never send it as-is. Instead you or a tool tailors a shorter version from it for each application, so the writing work happens once.

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How to write a CV (UK)

Most CVs fail before a human ever reads them, because they are structured for the writer rather than the reader. Here is the section order that works, what belongs in each one, and how to keep it in shape for every job you apply to.

August 2026 · 8 min read

The 30-second version

A CV is not your life story. It is a short, targeted document that gets a recruiter to the interview stage. Structure it in this order: contact details, personal profile, key skills, work experience, education, then any extra sections that genuinely help.

Write one thorough master CV first, covering everything. Then trim and adjust a copy of it for each specific role, rather than rewriting from nothing every time. See how long a CV should be for the detail on trimming.

1. Contact details

Name, phone number, email, city (not full address), and a LinkedIn URL if it is kept up to date. Nothing else. Photos, date of birth, marital status and nationality do not belong on a UK CV and can introduce bias risk for the employer, which some will screen out for automatically.

2. Personal profile

Three to four sentences, at the top, that answer one question: why should this employer keep reading? State your role, your years of relevant experience, and one or two things you are known for. This is the section you rewrite most for every application, because it is the first thing anyone reads.

3. Key skills

A short list or set of tags, not a paragraph. Pull from the actual skills you use day to day. This section exists as much for applicant tracking software as for the human reader; the exact wording matters. See how to find the keywords in a job advert for how to choose which ones to lead with.

4. Work experience

Reverse chronological order, most recent first. For each role: job title, employer, dates, then three to six bullet points. The bullets are where most CVs lose the reader, so they deserve the most care.

Weak bullet

Responsible for managing the reporting process for the finance team.

Strong bullet

Rebuilt the monthly reporting process for a 12-person finance team, cutting turnaround from 5 days to 2.

The strong version follows a STAR shape: what you did, for whom or what scale, and the measurable result. See writing STAR examples that land for a full method, including what to do when you cannot put a number on the result.

5. Education

Qualification, institution, and grade if it is a strength. Once you have more than a few years of relevant work experience, this section moves down and shrinks; nobody past their first few jobs needs A-level grades taking up space that could go to recent achievements.

6. Additional sections, only if they earn it

Certifications, publications, volunteering, languages. Include a section only if it genuinely supports this application. A generic "Hobbies and interests" section that says "socialising with friends" wastes space a stronger bullet point could use instead.

Formatting a CV for the ATS. Most large employers scan CVs with software before a person sees them. Stick to a single column, standard section headings, and no tables, text boxes or graphics for anything you need read. A CV that looks sharp but cannot be parsed is invisible. See what ATS is and why CV format matters for the full picture, and how to handle a career break if one shows up in your dates.

Writing the CV once, then adapting it per job

Sending the same CV to every employer is the single biggest reason good candidates get no response. But rewriting a CV from nothing for every application is not realistic either. The fix is the master-CV approach: write the thorough version above once, covering every role and every strong example you have, then adapt a shorter copy of it for each specific advert. That adapting step is what CV tailoring means, and it is where CVBetter fits in.

Once you have a first draft written using the structure above, this is how the app uses it:

Paste your CV and the job advert. CVBetter reads both and rewrites your CV in the language the advert actually uses, without inventing employers, skills or achievements you do not have.
Check the ATS and recruiter-fit scores. You get a keyword-match score against the job description, a recruiter-fit score, and a parseability check, so you can see exactly what a scanning system and a human reviewer will each pick up on.
Generate the matching cover letter. Pick from five letter styles (Classic, Story-led, Academic, Career changer, Short-form) built from the same tailored CV, and edit any line before you send it.
Log the application. The tracker records which CV and cover letter version you used for that employer, so you can see interview and offer rates by role family over time.

CVBetter does not write a CV from nothing. It needs your real CV to start from, because every claim it produces has to be something you can defend in an interview. Writing the master CV is still your job; the tailoring per application is where the tool saves the hours.

Wrote your CV? Now tailor it in a minute.

Paste a job advert and your CV. CVBetter rewrites it to match, checks it against the ATS, and shows you what recruiters actually see. Free during beta, no card needed.

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