How an employer actually reads your CV, line by line

7 minute read · Updated 2026-09-01

Write your CV in the order somebody reads it, and it will do far better than a CV written in the order you lived it.

Stop one: the top left, about one second

Your name, and immediately under it your town and the job title you are going for. Not "seeking a challenging opportunity". If the advert says Class 1 Driver and your CV says Class 1 Driver, the reader has matched you before they have thought about it.

Stop two: your current or most recent job title and employer

This is the single most looked at item on the page. It answers "does this person do the thing". Use the industry title rather than an internal one: Warehouse Operative, not Logistics Colleague Level 2. If your real title is unhelpful, write the plain one and put the official one in brackets.

Stop three: the dates

They are checking for continuity and for how long you stay. Months and years, consistently. If there is a gap, name it in one line rather than leaving them to imagine: how to word it.

Stop four: the licences, tickets and qualifications

In trades, this is the pass or fail. CSCS, Class 1, CPC, ADR, SIA, NMC pin, forklift, food hygiene, NVQ level. Put them in a short block near the top with their expiry dates, not buried in the history. An employer who cannot find your card in ten seconds assumes you do not have one.

Stop five: one or two bullets, if you have survived this far

They will read a few lines under your most recent role. Make them the ones with numbers in: drops per shift, size of site, number of residents, tonnage, team size, percentage improvement. Numbers are what people remember and repeat to a colleague.

What they are not doing

Not reading your hobbies, unless it is relevant to the job.
Not admiring the design. A creative layout mostly costs you clarity.
Not counting how many times you wrote "team player".
Not reading page two on the first pass. Page two exists for the second read, after they already like you.

The test that takes ten seconds

Print your CV, or hold your phone at arm's length. Look at the top third for five seconds, then look away. Can you say the job, the licence and the town? If not, that is what to fix first, and it matters more than every other change you could make.

Then check it properly with our free CV check, which does this and eleven other things, and keeps nothing.