How to write a CV that gets read

A recruiter looking at a stack of applications gives each CV only a few seconds before deciding whether to read on or move to the next. That sounds harsh, but it works in your favour once you understand it. A CV that is easy to scan, tailored to the role and honest about what you have done will always beat a longer, cleverer one that buries the point. This guide shows you how to write one that gets read all the way through.

Get the basics right first

Before you write a word of content, sort out the frame:

• Length: two pages is the UK standard. One page is fine early in your career. Three pages had better be for a senior or highly technical role.
• Format: a clean, single-column layout in a normal font. Avoid photos, graphics, columns and tables, which confuse the software many employers use to read CVs.
• File type: send a Word document or a normal PDF, named with your name and the job, not "CV final v3".
• Contact details: name, phone, email and town at the very top. You do not need your full address or your date of birth.

Lead with a short, sharp profile

The first thing a recruiter reads should be three or four lines that say who you are, what you do and what you are looking for. Skip the vague filler like "hard-working team player with excellent communication skills". Instead, be specific: "Warehouse operative with four years of picking and packing experience, a current counterbalance forklift licence and a clean record on productivity targets, now looking for a permanent day-shift role near Swindon." A hiring manager knows in one sentence whether to keep reading.

Show results, not just duties

The single biggest upgrade you can make is to turn a list of duties into a list of results. Anyone in your old job did the same duties. What did you actually achieve?

• Instead of "responsible for answering customer calls", write "handled around 60 customer calls a day and kept a 95 percent satisfaction score".
• Instead of "worked on a busy till", write "processed till transactions accurately with zero cash discrepancies over 12 months".
• Instead of "helped with deliveries", write "loaded and checked up to 40 pallets a shift, cutting mispicks on my line".

Numbers, percentages and timescales make your claims believable. If you do not have exact figures, a sensible estimate is still far stronger than a bare duty.

Tailor it to the advert and beat the software

Many employers run every CV through an applicant tracking system before a human sees it. The software looks for words from the job advert. If the advert asks for "forklift", "stock control" and "shift work", and your CV never uses those exact words, you can be filtered out even when you are a perfect fit. Read the advert, note the words it repeats, and make sure the real, true parts of your experience use the same language. This is not about gaming the system, it is about describing your experience in the employer's own words.

Structure the rest simply

After your profile, list your work history with the most recent job first. For each role give the job title, the employer, the dates and a few bullet points of results. Then a short skills section (licences, tickets, software, languages), then education and any certificates. Keep dates consistent and explain any long gaps briefly and honestly rather than leaving a mystery.

The mistakes that get good candidates rejected

• Typos and sloppy formatting. They read as carelessness. Proofread, then ask someone else to.
• One generic CV for every job. Two minutes of tailoring dramatically raises your reply rate.
• Walls of text. Use bullet points and white space so it can be skimmed.
• Unexplained gaps or vague dates. Account for your time simply.
• Lying. Stretching the truth about a qualification or a date is easily caught and ends the process.

A quick final checklist

Before you hit send, check that your name and phone number are at the top, your profile names the exact role, your recent job shows results not just duties, the advert's key words appear where they are genuinely true, and there is not a single typo. Do that for each application and you will spend a little longer per job but hear back from far more of them. Quality beats quantity every time when you are job hunting.