FREE DOWNLOAD

The UK CV template our writers actually use

Two pages, single column, no gimmicks. The same layout we use when a client pays us to write theirs, with notes in every section on what to put there and what to leave out. It passes the 20-second scan a hiring manager gives page one, and it opens in Word, Google Docs and Pages.

  • A personal statement formula that takes three sentences, not three paragraphs
  • Worked examples of turning duties into outcomes with numbers
  • A one-page guide to the 20-second test and a before-you-send checklist
  • No photo, no tables, no two-column layout to break applicant tracking systems

Get the template

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What is in the download

The two-page template

Name and contact line, personal statement, key achievements, experience, education and additional. Grey notes in every section tell you what goes there and what to cut.

The 20-second test

What a hiring manager looks for in the top third of page one, and how to check your CV passes before you send it.

Duties into outcomes

The weak-versus-strong bullet examples we use with clients, so every line under your last two roles carries a number.

Why this layout and not a designed one

Most free CV templates are built to look good as a thumbnail. Two columns, a sidebar of skill bars, a photo, a coloured header. Recruiters do not read them that way. The CV is usually opened in an applicant tracking system that flattens the layout, or skimmed on a phone, and the sidebar content arrives out of order or not at all.

Every writer at The CV Expert has hired at manager level or above, and this is the layout we come back to because it is the one that reads fastest: the job title and level in the first line, a number in the second, and the current role doing most of the work on page one. It is not pretty. It gets interviews.

If you would rather read the full method first, start with how to write a CV in the UK and the personal statement examples.

Prefer to have it written for you?

A professionally written CV from someone who has sat on the hiring side. Five working days, unlimited revisions, from £249.

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