Work experience examples for a UK CV

Work history helps an employer understand what you have done and what you can bring to the next job. Clear tasks, dates and context are more useful than a long list of responsibilities copied from a job advert.

Start each entry with the facts

Use the job title, employer and dates. Include a location when it helps distinguish workplaces. Put the latest role first. If two roles overlap because one was part-time, make that clear rather than changing the dates.

For agency work, a useful structure is ‘Warehouse Operative — Example Staffing Agency, assigned to a distribution site’. Replace the fictional names with your real agency and workplace details. Do not claim the client employed you directly if the agency did.

Use action, task and context

A good line says what you did and enough about how or where you did it. ‘Prepared customer orders using a handheld scanner and checked item codes before packing’ is clearer than ‘Responsible for warehouse duties’.

For a current role, use ‘Prepare’; for a previous role, use ‘Prepared’. Include an outcome only when it is factual. You can describe following a safety procedure without claiming you reduced incidents by a percentage.

Cleaner: ‘Cleaned washrooms and recorded completed checks on the site schedule.’
Receptionist: ‘Booked appointments and passed urgent queries to the appropriate colleague.’
Kitchen porter: ‘Washed utensils and kept clean equipment ready for the next service.’

Include relevant unpaid experience honestly

Volunteering, placements and practical projects can show useful skills. Label the context clearly. Helping at a community event is not the same as holding a paid manager position, but it can demonstrate organisation and communication.

Do not upgrade ordinary assistance into management. If you trained a new colleague informally, describe what you actually showed them; do not invent a formal supervisory title or responsibility for a team.

Handle gaps without oversharing

You can briefly explain a period away from paid work, for example ‘Career break for family responsibilities’, if you want to and it is true. You do not need to disclose diagnoses or private family information on a CV.

Never hide a gap by extending an employment date. If you are unsure of dates, check your records and use the precision you can support. Review the final CV against the original notes so improved wording has not changed the facts.