Rewriting Your CV and LinkedIn for the UK Job Market

A CV that worked well at home can quietly sink your applications in the UK. Not because your experience is weaker, but because British recruiters expect a particular shape, length and tone — and they read quickly. Rewriting rather than tweaking is usually the fastest route to more interviews.

What changes when you rewrite for the UK

Strip out personal details

UK employers generally do not want a photo, date of birth, nationality, religion, marital status or a full home address. Equality law means many recruiters would rather not see them at all. Your name, phone number, email, town and a LinkedIn URL are enough.

Lead with a short profile, not an objective

Replace "Objective: to obtain a challenging position..." with a three-line personal profile: what you are studying or have done, your strongest relevant skill, and the kind of role you want. Keep it specific to the sector you are applying to.

Rewrite duties as achievements

The single biggest improvement for most international CVs is moving from responsibilities to results. Compare:

• Responsible for social media for student society.
• Grew the society's Instagram following from 300 to 1,100 in one term by planning a weekly content calendar.

Every bullet should start with a strong verb (led, built, reduced, organised, analysed) and, wherever honest, include a number, scale or outcome.

Use British spelling and conventions

Organise, not organize; programme, not program (unless it's software). Put education first if you are a student or recent graduate, then experience, then skills and interests. Reverse chronological order throughout.

Keep it to two pages

One page is fine for undergraduates with limited experience. Two is the ceiling for almost everyone else below senior level. Cut school-level details once you have a degree, and remove anything older than about ten years unless it is directly relevant.

Making LinkedIn match

Recruiters often check LinkedIn after reading a CV. Inconsistencies — different job titles, dates that don't match, a profile still written in another language — create doubt.

1. Headline: not just "Student". Try "MSc Data Science, Oxford Brookes | Python, SQL | Seeking graduate analyst roles".
2. About section: a slightly warmer, first-person version of your CV profile, four to six lines.
3. Experience: same titles and dates as your CV, with two or three achievement bullets each.
4. Location: set it to your UK city so UK recruiter searches find you.
5. Photo: unlike the CV, a clear, professional photo is expected on LinkedIn.

Tailor, don't mass-send

A strong base CV is a starting point. For each application, reorder bullets so the most relevant ones come first and mirror the job advert's language where it's genuinely true. Many larger UK employers use applicant tracking systems that scan for relevant keywords, and human readers skim for the same things.

For more detail on structure, see our UK CV format guide, and for profile optimisation, our LinkedIn guide for the UK market.

How the Arrive UK online add-on helps

Our CV + LinkedIn rewrite (£49) is done entirely online — you don't need to be in Oxford or attend anything. You send us your current CV, your LinkedIn URL and the kind of roles you're targeting. We return:

• a fully rewritten UK-format CV in an editable file,
• suggested wording for your LinkedIn headline, About section and experience entries,
• notes explaining each major change, so you can tailor future versions yourself.

It's a practical way to start applying with confidence rather than guessing what UK recruiters want. See all our online services.