CV Templates UK 2026:
What Actually Gets Interviews
A template is only a small part of the battle. The rest is tailoring it to each job description. Most people send the same CV to 50 jobs and wonder why nobody calls back. Autoply does the tailoring automatically.
Why templates fail most people
Popular UK roles attract hundreds of CVs, and many are screened out before a human reads them. The CVs that get through are the ones that mirror the job description's language, not the ones with the prettiest formatting. Templates give you structure — Autoply gives you relevance.
The 4 UK CV formats (and when to use each)
ATS compatibility score based on testing across Greenhouse, Lever, Workday, and Ashby.
Chronological
ATS: 95%Best for: Most roles with 2+ years experience
- 1.Contact + headline
- 2.Work experience (newest first)
- 3.Education
- 4.Skills
Best ATS compatibility. Use for 90% of applications.
Functional (Skills-first)
ATS: 60%Best for: Career changers, gaps in employment
- 1.Contact + summary
- 2.Core skills (3-4 categories)
- 3.Work history (minimal)
- 4.Education
ATS systems struggle to parse this format. Use sparingly.
Hybrid / Combination
ATS: 88%Best for: Senior roles, consultants, PMs
- 1.Contact + headline
- 2.Core competencies (brief)
- 3.Work experience
- 4.Education + certs
Best of both. Strong for leadership and specialist roles.
Tech / Engineering
ATS: 90%Best for: Software engineers, data scientists
- 1.Contact
- 2.Technical skills summary
- 3.Projects + GitHub
- 4.Work experience
- 5.Education
List languages, frameworks, and tools in a dedicated section — ATS scans for them.
UK CV section guide
What to include, what to skip, and how each section gets parsed by UK employers.
Professional headline
One line below your name. "Senior Marketing Manager | SaaS | B2B" beats "Experienced professional".
Contact details
Email, phone, LinkedIn, location (city only). Remove full home address for remote roles.
Professional summary
3-4 lines. Lead with years of experience, sector, and your biggest career proof point.
Work experience
Reverse chronological. Each role: company, title, dates, 3-5 bullet achievements with metrics.
Education
Degree, university, year. Skip A-levels if you have a degree. No primary school.
Skills
Tools, platforms, languages. Match keywords from job descriptions. No soft skills here.
Certifications
Google, AWS, PRINCE2, CFA etc. Include year obtained.
Projects / Portfolio
For tech and creative roles — GitHub URL, Behance, case study link.
Interests
Only if genuinely relevant (e.g. coding side projects for a dev role). Never include "socialising".
7 ATS formatting mistakes that get you rejected instantly
These are the most common reasons a well-written CV never reaches a human recruiter.
Tables and columns
Fix: Use single-column layout — ATS parsers read left to right, top to bottom
Headers/footers for contact info
Fix: Put name, email, phone in the body — ATS ignores headers/footers
Images or charts
Fix: Remove all images. Even a logo can scramble parsing
"Creative" fonts
Fix: Stick to Arial, Calibri, or Helvetica. Serif fonts sometimes fail OCR
Abbreviations without spelling out
Fix: "PM (Product Manager)" not just "PM" — ATS matches on full terms
Saving as DOCX with track changes
Fix: Export clean PDF or accept all changes before saving
Keyword stuffing
Fix: Match the job description naturally — ATS scores for density, not volume
Beyond templates: AI that tailors per job
You upload your CV once. For every job you apply to, Autoply's AI rewrites the relevant bullet points and summary to mirror the job description. Same experience, different framing — the way recruiters want it.
Tailored vs untailored
1.8x
interview rate (5.7% vs 3.1%, Huntr Job Search Trends Q2 2026)
Tailoring
Every job
CV and cover letter rewritten per role
Delivery
Direct
sent to the hiring manager, not the ATS pile
Check your CV score before you apply — free
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