Writing a CV Summary: Examples & Guidance for UK Jobs

A CV summary is a short 3–5 sentence profile (it can also be a list of 3–5 bullet points) of your work history as an experienced professional.

Your CV summary details your most impressive accomplishments, years of experience, key skills, and relevant academic and vocational qualifications.

A CV summary doesn’t usually target a specific role or company; the idea is that you’re so skilled or accomplished that companies will want to reach out to you instead. For that reason, it’s a good idea to add your CV summary to your LinkedIn profile.

Your summary sits at the top of your CV, where employers will see it first, like this:

Use This Design

Here’s a copy-and-paste, templated summary for a CV you can fill in with your own information:

14 CV summary examples

Here are professional CV summary examples that you can use for inspiration as you write yours.

Sales associate

If you’re writing a sales CV, gain ideas from this CV personal summary example:

📜 Related CV samples: Sales manager CV, sales CV, sales assistant CV, sales executive CV

Receptionist

Crafting a receptionist CV? Write something along these lines and your CV is sure to impress:

Cleaner

Here’s a neatly organised cleaner CV summary example:

📜 Related CV template: Hospitality CV

Waiting staff

Looking for waiting staff work? Highlight your skills, qualifications, and work experience in a professional summary on your waiter CV.

📜 Related CV samples: McDonalds CV, restaurant manager CV, barista CV

Supervisor

Take inspiration from this supervisor CV summary example to craft your own:

📜 Related CV templates: Assistant manager CV, manager CV, team leader CV

Customer service representative

Here’s an effective customer service CV summary that uses hard numbers to showcase the candidate’s excellent customer service skills:

📜 Related CV examples: Customer service advisor CV, customer success manager CV

Administrator

If you’re applying for administrative roles, highlight your time management and organisational skills on your CV:

📜 Related CV templates: Administrative assistant CV, administrator CV, civil service CV, office manager CV

Teacher

Here’s the best personal summary for a CV written by a teacher:

When writing a teacher CV, always clarify which key stage you’re trained for, what kind of teaching qualification you have (e.g., PGCE), which subject(s) you teach, and what kind of school you’ve taught at (e.g., primary or secondary, comprehensive or grammar, and state, public, or private).

📜 Related CV samples: Teaching assistant CV, tutor CV, librarian CV

Healthcare assistant

If you’re working for the NHS, you’ll need lots of hard skills related to your medical abilities, so emphasise them in your healthcare assistant CV summary.

📜 Related CV samples: Health care assistant CV, support worker CV, nursing CV, care worker CV

Accountant

Writing an accountant CV? As you’re used to dealing with data, stick some hard numbers into your CV summary to provide context for your achievements:

📜 Related CV examples: Account executive CV, account manager CV, finance CV

Marketer

Underline your experience as a marketer by showing how you improved the sales of products you worked on.

📜 Related CV templates: Marketing CV, PR CV, social media CV

Engineer

Individual and team successes should be highlighted in an engineering CV summary:

📜 Related CV examples: Engineer CV, civil engineer CV, mechanic CV

Data analyst

Writing a data analyst CV? Add some data into your CV summary to show recruiting managers what you’re capable of achieving for them.

📜 Related CV templates: Data scientist CV, ecommerce CV, business analyst CV

Retail

Interested in a career in retail? Put your best foot forward by writing a good summary for your CV.

Including hard numbers in your summary is a great tactic if you’re writing a retail CV. Here are some ideas for numbers:

• how much you increased sales
• how many customers you served daily/weekly
• how many colleagues you worked with

📜 Related CV templates: Retail assistant CV, shop assistant CV, Tesco CV

How to write a summary for a CV

One key CV writing tip is to leave making your summary until last. First, write your CV’s other bits (including sections like work history, education, skills, etc.), and then pick out the best achievements on your CV for your summary. Here are the three key steps:

1. Start with your years of experience and main responsibilities

In the first sentence of your CV summary, provide your position or industry, years of experience, and key job responsibilities.

For example, if you’re writing a nursing CV, mention your speciality (e.g., paediatrics, gynaecology, mental health, orthopaedics, etc.), level (e.g., RN, matron, nurse practitioner, ward sister, etc.) and years of experience.

Also worth mentioning is what you do every day at work. For example:

Ward Sister on the Paediatrics Ward at the King George Hospital, Kingston-upon-Thames with 7+ years of experience providing care to children.

This sample briefly sums up the job applicant’s current job title, years of experience, key responsibilities, and their daily duties.

2. Name your biggest achievement

Employers don’t just want to know what you do on a daily basis. Use your second sentence to describe a big achievement — one that’s relevant to the job you’re applying for.

Here’s an example of a noteworthy accomplishment in a CV summary:

Spearheaded a new marketing strategy for the London Overground Midmay Line that led to an 11% increase in ticket sales during Q1 20xx.

See how this job hunter uses hard numbers to give employers some context about their accomplishments. To include hard numbers in your CV, you could also use amounts in pounds (e.g., ‘Increased profits by £47,000′).

Try to fit numbers into your CV summary no matter what job you’re applying for.

Here are some more examples of hard numbers highlighting achievements in CV summaries:

Served as Front Desk Agent at Newcastle’s New Croft House Clinic, processing an average of 109 patients per day.

Averaged £156 in commission per week from CeX for being No. 1 salesperson in its busy Marylebone branch.

Manned the front desk at a busy grammar school with 2,470+ pupils.

3. Mention other skills and achievements that make you the perfect fit

In the last sentence of your summary, mention any other skills, qualifications, or licences that make you the perfect fit for the job you’re going for.

For example, if you’re applying for a position that requires technical abilities, name-check some of the tools you know how to use. Take this plumber CV summary:

You can also add extra details about any work-related accomplishments, as in these chemist and lorry driver CV summaries:

Achieved a 100% error-free rate in dispensing prescriptions.

Clocked up 470,000+ miles while maintaining a <1.7% lateness rate.

Frequently asked questions

Here are the answers to several frequently asked questions about CV summaries:

1. Should you put a summary on a CV?

Yes, you should put a summary on a CV so the recruiting manager can quickly see whether they should continue reading your CV.

So make things easier for the recruiting manager by adding a CV summary.

Start My CV Summary

2. What are four things to avoid in a CV summary?

Here are four things to avoid in a CV summary:

1. negative comments about your current and previous jobs or colleagues
2. talking about what you want from the job without considering what kind of person the company needs
3. adding qualifications you don’t have
4. making it obvious you don’t know anything about the company or the position

3. How can I make my CV summary attractive?

You can make your CV summary attractive by using a splash of colour. However, keep the rest of the font for your CV summary’s colours black or grey.

Find a good CV template design and download it to your device to save yourself time setting up a document.

4. Is a CV summary the same as a CV personal statement?

No, a CV summary is not the same as a CV personal statement. A CV summary is designed to be used by someone with several years of experience in their current field.

Meanwhile, a CV personal statement can be used by anyone so you can write one if you’re writing a CV with no experience.

So if you want to write a summary for a student CV, school leaver CV, or a CV for a 16 year old, use a personal statement instead.

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