Resume Format For UK 2022: CV Format Requirements, Samples & Tips

While applying to universities and colleges in the UK, students are required to submit a CV (curriculum vitae) detailing their academic history, work experience (if any) and some other details. The admissions committee members evaluate every resume with a keen eye and judge the candidate’s skills, talents, and intellect. A good resume format for the UK must follow the appropriate procedure and style that presents your attributes in a positive light. Besides being aesthetically relevant, you need to frame the CV in a way that projects your enthusiasm to study hard and be resilient to challenges.

Structure of UK CV Format

Your CV must fulfil several requirements. The most important of them is that you must understand your achievements and skills. Don’t mistake it for a technical document with bulleted points knitted together just to show that you have got a 3.7 CGPA in your academics. Treat it as an extension of your personality and prepare it accordingly. Also, using a template resume is not the right way to move forward—instead, structure and format your CV from scratch. You must include the following sections —

Personal Details/Statement

Begin your CV with a personal statement or details listing your first and second name, full address, email address, date of birth, and contact number. Make sure to check the spelling of your name and email address. It is not ideal to add your photo to the CV.

Work Experience

Work experience may not be a part of everyone’s academic history before joining an institution in the United Kingdom. But if you have worked before or have a work history, ensure to add the details here. For some degrees, the universities require work experience of at least 2 years, especially an MBA. Add details like your job description (in one line), organisation name, and duration of your tenure. However, do not condition adding the previous jobs history and experience based on the course or university requirements. Make sure to add the work experience even if there is no such requirement.

Educational Details

Write a chronological CV, which means that the information shared must have the latest details first followed by the other older ones. Start with your latest academic record first, and move ahead by adding previous records. This is a standard guideline for every type of CV, including the Resume Format For UK. In this section, mention your degree or course, the year you have passed out from the said institution, and the score obtained. Besides every degree and standard score, you can also include achievements in curricular activities in the education section. You can list the projects you have been a part of. For projects where you held a leading position, mention them as well. This helps the admission committee understand your qualities as a leader and team player and your ability to manage.

Achievements & Skills

Towards the end of the CV profile, you can mention your achievements like volunteering activities and awards and recognition you have bagged during the past years. This helps build a favourable image of your character, skills, and talents for the admissions committee. Within this, you must also list the proof of your English proficiency with an IELTS score. With the layout of a UK CV covered, we can now go through other important aspects of creating a winning resume. Besides the basic format, several other aspects play an important role in helping your CV stand out from other students.

Volunteer Experience

In addition to the sections above, you can also add your volunteer experience. You can add the same within the Work Experience section but ensure to clearly specify the volunteer position.

Languages

This section is important in case the job requirement calls for multiple languages. Add the languages you know and the level of proficiency you have in each language.

Pointers to Create a CV for UK

Here are some important pointers to keep in mind while putting together your CV for UK university applications:

Configuring the Size, Headings & Chronology of the CV

• Always use a formal font for writing your CV. Formal fonts are Arial, Times New Roman, Calibri, and Roboto. The font colour must be black.
• The ideal font size is 10 to 12 points, and for headings and subheadings, it must be between 14 to 16 points. Bold the headings and subheadings as well.
• In every section, maintain the correct chronological order. Remember, we talked about writing the latest educational information first, followed by the previous ones? Follow the same order in terms of work experience and achievements.
• To increase readability, use bullet points and numbers.
• Follow British English while writing the CV, and the grammar must also be according to UK guidelines and rules.

Do’s & Don’ts to Write a CV

Here are some points provided by Harvard University that you must adhere to for an appropriate UK CV format:

Do’s

• Always be consistent while writing the resume in terms of the format.
• Your CV must be easy to read and follow. Do not leave too much white space between the sections.
• For emphasising some aspects, use capitalisation, spacing (ranged between 1.15 and 1.5), underlining, and italics.
• The headings must be presented in the order of their importance.
• Do not miss out on information about your academic and non-academic aspects.
• The format of the CV must not change after converting it into a PDF file.

Don’ts

• Never use personal pronouns in the CV. Words like “I”, “We”, “Me”, “My”, etc., must be avoided.
• Never use abbreviations and short forms in the CV for your name and personal information.
• Refrain from using a narrative style in the Resume Format For UK universities and colleges.
• Don’t use slang and colloquialisms.
• Refrain from using pictures, graphics, and other images in the CV, especially in an academic resume.
• While writing academic information, don’t start every line with a date.

Mistakes to Avoid in Resume Format For UK

• Spelling Mistakes: Even a single spelling mistake can paint a bad picture for the admissions committee. Your resume must be thoroughly checked for spelling errors, punctuation mistakes, and grammatical errors. 
• Missing Information: Another mistake to avoid is missing out on any type of information. While information like email and contact number is crucial, take care of other essential details as well.
• Passive Language: A resume must always be written in an active voice. Avoid using passive language in the resume.
• Not Showing Results: In a resume, as you add information, make sure that it points to a concrete result. For instance, your qualifications must match the projects, work experience, and other outcomes.
• Making it Too Long: The ideal length of a resume is two pages of the A4 size sheet. Do not increase the length beyond two pages, as it can get challenging for the admissions committee members to scan through.

Things to Take Care of in the Resume Format For UK

An academic CV is different from a recruiter’s resume. For enrolling in UK universities, the CV needs to be submitted in a precise format. The language you use must be easy to understand. It must not look like you have put together the content in a hurry. So, while writing and formatting the CV, follow these points —

Concise Academic Experience

Your academic experience must be concise, listing only the crucial information and not details. The people checking your CV will only scan through the content, so adding paragraphs of information won’t look good. For additional details and explanations, you can submit a cover letter; but only if the institution requires it.

Interests & Skills

A great CV interestingly showcases your interests and skills. One of the ways to do this is by demonstrating your hobbies, skills and interests by adding the activities or events you have participated in during your college and university.

Conclusion

The UK is an ideal location to pursue higher studies, especially for students from India, Australia, and China, among other countries. However, to improve your chances of enrolling in one of the UK universities, you need to follow the right procedure, and one of those aspects is crafting a good resume. A well-written resume (not a CV template) is beneficial for a student as it helps create a good impression on the admission committee members. Besides noticing your academic performance, they also rely on the CV to understand your abilities, skills, talents, and capabilities. Hence, it is essential to follow the ideal Resume Format For UK, complete with the correct font, size, indent, and order considerations. For more related information or blog, visit LeapScholar.

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