The Complete Guide to Writing a Student CV (UK)

A UK student CV is one page, ruthlessly edited, ordered by relevance rather than chronology, and — most importantly — full of numbers. This is what recruiters at banks, consultancies, law firms and graduate schemes actually screen for.

The structure that works

Header (name, email, phone, LinkedIn — no address, no photo, no date of birth). Education (with A-levels/IB, and grades). Work experience (reverse chronological, with quantified bullets). Leadership and extracurriculars (societies, fraternity, committee roles). Skills (technical only — languages, coding, modelling; skip "Microsoft Office"). Interests (three lines, specific, not "reading and travelling").

One page. Really.

Anything over one page for a UK undergraduate reads as if you cannot edit. Recruiters spend 6–8 seconds on the first pass. Ruthless editing is a signal in itself.

Writing bullets that survive the screen

Every bullet needs a verb, a specific action, and a number. "Founded and led AKPsi Sigma Upsilon Phi chapter, growing membership from 0 to 42 across two semesters and delivering 18 professional events attended by 300+ students." That single line is worth ten "team player" bullets.

Societies and committee roles

Include the committee title, the size of the organisation, and the specific deliverable. President of a 60-member society with a £10k budget is a leadership line; passive membership is not. If you were on committee for less than a term, leave it off.

Fraternity membership on a CV

Yes, include it — but describe it like a professional development organisation, not a social club. "Alpha Kappa Psi — professional business fraternity; delivered [specific project]; alumni mentorship programme with [firm]." UK recruiters increasingly know what professional fraternities are; those who don't respond well to the one-line explanation.

Founding a society

This is the highest-leverage bullet on any student CV. Frame it as: problem you saw, action you took, quantified outcome. "Identified gap in cross-year professional community at [uni]; founded and chartered chapter of Alpha Kappa Psi; recruited founding cohort of 20; secured £3,500 in corporate sponsorship in first year."

Personal statement / About

Two to three sentences at the top, if any. What you're studying, what you're aiming for, and one thing that makes the story specific. Skip the "hard-working team player passionate about excellence" version — every reader instantly discounts it.

Tailoring for spring weeks and internships

Reorder bullets for the audience. For finance, lead with modelling, markets and any quantitative extracurriculars. For consulting, lead with structured problem-solving (case comps, 180DC, chapter leadership). For law, lead with writing, mooting and mentoring.

Skills to list, skills to skip

List: languages with CEFR level, Python/Excel/SQL/PowerBI with honest proficiency, financial modelling if you can actually build a three-statement model. Skip: Microsoft Office, "communication", "problem-solving", anything you cannot prove in an interview.

Templates

Ignore the ornate templates from Canva. Recruiters read a plain, single-column, single-font CV faster. LSE, Warwick, and Oxford careers services all publish clean templates worth copying.

UK CV vs US resume

UK CV is one page for undergraduates; US resume is one page for anyone under ten years' experience — same in practice. UK CVs include a personal statement more often, list secondary-school grades, and never include a photo. US resumes rarely mention A-levels and lean on GPA. Adapt to the market you are applying into.

The strongest single line a student CV can carry

Founding a chapter or holding a senior committee role in a professional fraternity beats years of passive membership because it signals initiative, operations and stakeholder management in one line. See how to found a chapteror find one to join.