CV Tips UK: 12 Things Recruiters Look For in 2026

Your CV has roughly eight seconds to make an impression on a human recruiter — and even less time on the AI-driven applicant tracking systems (ATS) that now screen the majority of UK applications before a person ever sees them. In 2026 the rules have shifted again, and CVs that worked five years ago are quietly being filtered out. Here is what our consultants are seeing land interviews this year.

Lead with measurable impact, not duties. 'Reduced supplier costs by 14% across a £4m spend' beats 'responsible for supplier management' every single time. Recruiters are trained to look for verbs followed by numbers in the top third of your CV. If your current bullets read like a job description, rewrite them as outcomes — what changed because you were in the role?

Keep formatting simple and ATS-friendly. Single column, standard fonts (Arial, Calibri, Helvetica), no tables, no text boxes, no graphics, no headshots. ATS parsers in 2026 are better than they were, but they still routinely strip out content trapped in design elements. Save as a .docx or PDF generated from a word processor, never as a flattened image.

Tailor the top half of the CV to the job advert. The personal statement, key skills and most recent role should mirror the language of the job description — if the advert says 'stakeholder management' don't write 'relationship building'. ATS systems score keyword matches, and human recruiters skim for the same terms. You don't need a brand new CV for every application, but the first half page should feel bespoke.

Cover the basics ruthlessly. Include full dates (month and year) for every role, explain any gaps of more than three months in one honest line, list right-to-work status if you're not a UK or Irish national, and put your location as a city — not a full address. Two pages is the UK standard for most professionals; three pages is acceptable for senior or technical roles with a long publication or project list.

Finally, get a second pair of eyes on it before you send it anywhere. Typos, inconsistent tenses and dates that don't add up are the three most common reasons strong candidates get rejected at first sift. If you'd like a confidential CV review from a Birmingham specialist, send it through our contact page and one of our consultants will come back to you within a working day.