Graduate CV example and writing guide for 2026

Use a simple reverse-chronological format, placing your most recent experience and education first. For most graduates, two pages provide enough room to show useful evidence without padding. A one-page CV can work when your experience is genuinely brief, but do not shrink the type or margins to force it.

A practical section order is contact details, personal statement, skills, experience, education and relevant extras. Move education above experience if your course contains the strongest evidence for the role. If you have substantial internships or directly relevant work, experience may deserve the earlier position.

Write the personal statement last. Once the rest of the CV is finished, you can identify the two or three points that deserve space at the top. Keep it brief and tailor it to the vacancy.

Treat experience broadly. Paid employment matters, but a graduate CV with no experience can also use assessed projects, society roles, volunteering and independent work. For graduate-scheme applications, an internship, work experience placement, insight day or placement year may help you demonstrate experience. Describe the work honestly and use figures only when you can defend them.

Choose a compact skills section, then prove those skills through examples. Under education, give the exact degree title, institution, result or expected result, and dates. Add selected modules, a dissertation or a substantial group project only when these help the reader judge your fit.

Extras should earn their place. A committee role can show responsibility; a language may be useful in a particular post. Tailor the wording and section order for each application instead of sending the same graduate CV template everywhere.

Graduate experience sections often fail because they read like job descriptions. A recruiter already understands that a shop assistant served customers or that a student completed coursework. Your bullets need to show what you changed, produced, solved or learned, with enough context to make the result believable.

Use a simple pattern: action + scope + result. Start with what you did, add the size or difficulty of the task, then state the outcome. A metric can be a percentage, time saved, audience size, number of records, project mark, event attendance or value handled. It does not need to be financial. Use only figures you recorded or can verify; never invent a number because the sentence sounds stronger with one.

The improved versions work because the reader can see the candidate's contribution, the scale involved and a result. If no numerical outcome exists, give a specific deliverable or change: drafted the handover guide adopted by the next committee, resolved a recurring booking error, or presented recommendations that the project sponsor accepted. Precision matters more than decorative language.

For academic work, name the question, method, constraints and output in plain language. A useful bullet might explain that you cleaned 1,200 survey records, checked inconsistencies and produced charts for a final report. For part-time work, focus on transferable evidence such as handling peaks in demand, training colleagues, improving an everyday process or dealing calmly with complaints. Volunteering and society positions deserve the same treatment when they support the vacancy.

Use direct verbs such as analysed, coordinated, designed, drafted, tested, resolved, scheduled, presented, improved and delivered. Avoid "helped with", "responsible for" and "involved in" when you can name your actual contribution. Keep each bullet to one main point. Three strong bullets usually say more than seven repetitive ones.

Tailor the evidence to the job specification. Match each important skill with a real example from study, work or another activity. For rotational graduate schemes, examples of adapting to a new team, subject or location can be useful because placements may span different functions, teams and sometimes locations. Do not claim flexibility as a personality trait alone; show the reader where you used it.

Education usually carries more weight on an early graduate CV than it does later in a career. List your newest qualification first, using its exact title, institution, location if useful, completion date and confirmed or expected result. Keep the wording factual. If the result is pending, label it as expected rather than presenting it as awarded.

Beneath the degree, select evidence that supports the vacancy: a dissertation, substantial project, relevant modules or an assessed presentation. Give the project a short descriptive title and add one or two lines on the method, scope and outcome. Avoid copying the course catalogue. The reader needs to understand what you did, not every topic the course offered.

Graduate schemes set their own entry terms, so check each advert carefully. A graduate scheme is an entry-level training programme that applicants may apply for if they have a degree. Graduate-scheme applicants will usually need at least a 2:1 (upper second-class honours), while some schemes allow a 2:2 (lower second-class honours) when the applicant shows potential and has a good CV. These are route-specific conditions rather than rules for every graduate job.

Some programmes publish narrower requirements. External applicants to HMRC's Finance Graduate Scheme need a degree with minimum 2:1 in any subject. Existing civil servants applying through that scheme need a minimum Level 4 qualification or equivalent. Applicants to the same scheme must be successfully assessed against the Level 7 Apprenticeship Standards and must not undertake another apprenticeship or government-funded qualification at the same time. State these conditions only when discussing that particular application; do not present them as general graduate requirements.

Do not add a certification merely because it appears in another candidate's graduate CV sample. Include a named credential only when you actually hold it and it is relevant to the vacancy. Record its exact name, awarding body and completion date. If it expires, include the status or date accurately rather than implying that it remains valid.

For short courses without a formal credential, a small "Additional training" line may be clearer than a certifications section. Remove weak school-level detail once your degree and later evidence make it redundant, unless an employer specifically asks for it. The final section should make eligibility easy to check while leaving room for the projects and achievements that distinguish you.