Writing a CV for public sector jobs

Most public sector jobs do not ask for a CV at all. Schools and the NHS use application forms, and many councils do too. The Civil Service is the main exception. A large share of its adverts ask for a CV alongside a personal statement, and some ask for a CV only. When one is requested, it is scored against the advertised criteria, so it needs to show evidence for each in plain terms.

Who asks for what

Employer	What you usually submit
Schools and academies	Application form, plus a letter or statement. CVs on their own are not accepted under safer recruitment
NHS (NHS Jobs, Trac)	Online form with employment history and a supporting statement. Some senior or specialist posts also ask for a CV upload
Civil Service	Depends on the advert: CV, personal statement, behaviour examples, tests, or a mix
Councils	Mostly forms with a supporting statement. Some senior, technical or agency-recruited roles use CV and cover letter
Police staff, fire services	Usually forms, often with competency questions

If an advert says “CVs will not be accepted”, sending one will get you rejected at first glance. If a form lets you attach a CV as an extra, the panel will still mark the form, and the CV is rarely read closely.

How a public sector CV gets marked

In the private sector a CV is often skimmed for a few seconds. In the public sector at least one trained person is more likely to mark it against a list of criteria, sometimes with a scoring grid. That changes how you should write it.

The panel works from the advert. For Civil Service roles that means the Success Profiles elements chosen for the job (usually some mix of behaviours, experience and technical skills). For other employers it means the essential and desirable criteria in the person specification. A CV that is impressive in general but never touches the specific criteria will score poorly.

Civil Service CVs are usually assessed with your name and personal details hidden, so put everything that matters in the body of the CV, not in the header.

A layout that works

Keep it to two pages unless the advert says otherwise. Use plain formatting, since online application systems often strip tables, columns and text boxes.

1. Name and contact details (email and phone are enough; no photo, date of birth or marital status).
2. A short profile, two or three lines, saying who you are in terms of the job advertised.
3. Employment history, most recent first, with job title, employer, month and year for start and end.
4. Under each job, three to six bullet points about what you actually did and what changed because of it.
5. Education and qualifications, including professional registrations and their numbers where relevant.
6. Training, licences and anything else the advert asks for, such as a driving licence or language skills.

Give complete dates. Public sector employers check employment history closely, and gaps will be asked about later even if the CV stage does not mention them.

Writing the bullet points

Each point should carry one piece of evidence. Start with what you did, add the scale, and finish with the result. “Answered phones” tells the panel nothing. “Ran the department’s switchboard and shared email inbox for a team of 12, logging and routing enquiries to the right caseworker” gives them something to score.

Use the language of the advert where it honestly fits. If the role asks for experience of “managing a caseload”, write about your caseload in those words. Panels mark against fixed criteria, and they are not supposed to infer evidence you did not give.

Coming from the private sector, translate the jargon. A “client account” might become “a set of service users”; a “KPI” might be “a performance target set by my manager”. The panel may not know your industry.

CV plus personal statement

Where the Civil Service asks for both, the CV shows your history and the statement shows how you meet the criteria. Do not repeat the same material word for word. Use the statement to pick two or three strong examples and explain them properly; the guidance in Civil Service personal statement covers the length limits and structure.

For the NHS, the supporting statement takes the place of the personal statement and carries most of the weight. See How to write an NHS supporting statement.

Things that cost marks

• Missing a criterion entirely, especially an essential one.
• Long blocks of text with no clear evidence.
• Unexplained acronyms from a previous employer.
• Claiming skills in a list (“excellent communicator, team player”) with no example behind them.
• Wrong job title or employer name copied from a previous application.

A cover letter is only worth sending when the advert asks for one or there is nowhere else to explain your fit. Most public sector systems give you a statement box instead, and that is where the scoring happens.