CV Templates for Ireland and the UK
ATS-friendly, recruiter-approved, actually free.
Three downloadable CV templates built for the Irish and UK job market, plus the layout rules, section structure and industry examples we use in real coaching sessions. No email wall, no watermark, no sign up.
Download the CV templates
Every template is a single column, standard font, real text document. Edit in Word, Google Docs or Pages, then export to PDF before you apply.
Professional / All-Purpose CV Template
Operations, marketing, HR, sales, customer success, project management
The safest structure for the Irish and UK market: clear headline, summary, core skills, results-led experience. Works for almost every non-technical role.
Tech CV Template (Software, Data, IT)
Engineers, data professionals, DevOps, IT support, product
Skills block built for ATS parsing, plus an experience section that leads with scale and impact instead of a wall of tool names. Includes a projects and work authorisation block.
Irish CV vs UK CV vs US resume
Most rejections from abroad are not about experience. They are about sending a document the local market does not recognise. Here is what actually changes.
| Element | Ireland | United Kingdom | United States |
|---|---|---|---|
| Name of document | CV | CV | Resume |
| Length | 2 A4 pages | 2 A4 pages | 1 page (Letter) |
| Photo | No | No | No |
| Date of birth / marital status | No | No | No |
| Work authorisation line | Yes, if not EU or Irish | Yes, if not settled or British | Rarely |
| Degree classification | Yes (2:1, first class) | Yes (2:1, first class) | GPA instead |
| References | On request | On request | Omitted |
| Spelling | UK / Irish English | UK English | US English |
The anatomy of an Irish CV layout
Follow this order in every template. Recruiters scan top to bottom in roughly seven seconds, so the order matters more than the design.
1. Header and contact details
Full name, job title headline, city and country, phone with international dialling code, professional email, LinkedIn URL. Add one short line about work authorisation if you need sponsorship or hold a permit. Do not include your full home address, date of birth, nationality or marital status.
2. Professional summary (3 to 4 lines)
Who you are, how many years of relevant experience, two concrete results, and the role you are targeting. This is the only part most recruiters read fully, so it should read like a pitch, not a personality description.
3. Core skills block
Six to eight grouped lines covering tools, methods and domains. This is where the ATS keyword matching happens. Mirror the exact terms in the job advert when they are genuinely yours, and skip skill rating bars, they mean nothing to a recruiter.
4. Professional experience
Reverse chronological. For each role: job title, company, city, dates, one italic context line (team size, revenue, market), then three to five bullets. Every bullet should follow action, method, result. Numbers beat adjectives every single time.
5. Education and qualifications
Degree, institution, classification and year. In Ireland and the UK the classification (2:1, first class honours) matters for graduate roles. Professional qualifications such as ACCA, PMP, CIPD or AWS certifications belong here or in the header if they are central to the role.
6. Additional information
Work authorisation, languages, volunteering, publications, notable projects. Keep it short. 'References available on request' is optional and takes one line.
How to write a CV for Ireland, step by step
The template gives you the structure. These six steps are what turn it into a CV that gets shortlisted in Dublin, Cork, Galway or London.
- 1
Start from the advert, not from your old CV
Read the job advert twice and highlight every requirement, tool and phrase that repeats. Those words are almost always the ones sitting in the recruiter's ATS search. Build the CV to answer that advert instead of editing a document written for a different job three years ago.
- 2
Write the header the Irish way
Name, target job title, city and country, phone with +353 or +44, professional email, LinkedIn URL. Add one line on work authorisation if you are not an EU or Irish citizen. Leave out your full address, photo, date of birth, nationality, marital status and PPS number.
- 3
Write the summary last, but put it first
Three to four lines: years of relevant experience, industry, two hard results, and the role you are applying for. Write it after the experience section so you can lift your strongest numbers straight into it.
- 4
Turn duties into results
Every bullet should read action, method, result. 'Managed supplier accounts' becomes 'Renegotiated 14 supplier contracts, cutting annual spend by €180k'. If you cannot find a number, use scale: team size, budget, volume, geography.
- 5
Localise the details
Convert salaries and currencies where relevant, translate qualification names into the Irish or UK equivalent, list a local phone number if you have one, use Irish or UK spelling and write dates as Mmm YYYY. Explain foreign employers in one short italic line so the recruiter knows who they are.
- 6
Run the ATS check before you send it
Export as a text-based PDF, open it, and try to select the text. If nothing selects, no ATS can read it. Then paste the whole CV into a plain text document: if the order collapses or sections disappear, the layout is fighting the parser.
CV examples by situation
Same Irish CV format, different emphasis. Pick the closest situation to yours and adjust the template accordingly.
Recent graduate, first job in Ireland
One page. Education first, then internships and college projects, then part-time work and skills.
Lead with your degree classification and any Irish or EU internship. Recruiters read graduate CVs for potential, so a real project with a real outcome beats a long list of soft skills.
Software engineer moving to Dublin
Two pages. Summary, core stack, experience with scale, then a projects block and education.
Put the stack in plain text lines, not a graphic. Name the scale you worked at: requests per second, users, data volume, team size. Add one line on work authorisation, most Dublin tech roles are Critical Skills eligible.
Accountant or finance professional
Two pages. Qualification and status first (ACCA, ACA, CIMA, part-qualified), then systems, then experience.
Finance recruiters scan for the qualification and the ERP before anything else. Name the entities, the reporting standard and the close cycle you owned.
Career changer
Two pages, skills-led. Summary, transferable skills block, then reverse chronological experience.
Do not hide the change. Use the summary to state the target role and the bridge between what you did and what you want. Reframe your old bullets around the skills the new industry buys.
Non-EU applicant applying from abroad
Two pages. Standard structure with a work authorisation line directly under the contact block.
Be explicit: 'Eligible for the Critical Skills Employment Permit, occupation on the Critical Skills Occupations List' removes the biggest question in the recruiter's head. Vague wording gets filtered out.
How to keep your CV ATS-friendly
Do this
- Single column layout with standard headings
- Standard fonts: Arial, Calibri, Helvetica, Georgia
- Export a text-based PDF, never a scan or image
- Use the exact job title wording from the advert
- Write dates as Mmm YYYY, for example Mar 2021
- Name the file Firstname-Lastname-CV.pdf
Avoid this
- Two column layouts and sidebars that ATS systems read out of order
- A photo, date of birth or marital status on the CV
- Duties copied from a job description instead of results you produced
- A generic summary that could belong to anyone in your industry
- Sending the same CV to every advert with no tailoring
- Non-Irish and non-UK phone formats with no country code
- Listing every job since 2005 instead of the last ten to twelve years
- Saving as .pages or an image PDF that no ATS can read
CV templates for Ireland and the UK: FAQ
What is the standard CV format in Ireland?
An Irish CV is normally two A4 pages, in reverse chronological order, with your name and contact details at the top, a short professional summary, a core skills block, your experience with measurable results, then education. No photo, no date of birth, no marital status, no PPS number. If you are not an Irish or EU citizen, add one line stating your work authorisation, for example Stamp 4 or Critical Skills Employment Permit eligible.
Is a UK CV different from an Irish CV?
They are close to identical in structure. The main differences are wording and details: UK CVs often mention right to work status and degree classification (2:1, first class), use UK spelling, and list a UK phone number and city. Salary expectations are not included in either country unless the advert asks for them.
Should I use a CV or a resume in Ireland and the UK?
Use a CV. In Ireland and the UK the word CV means the standard two page job application document. A one page US style resume is not expected, and a full academic CV is only used for research and academic posts.
Are these CV templates ATS friendly?
Yes. They use a single column layout, standard section headings, real text rather than images or text boxes, and standard fonts. That is what applicant tracking systems such as Workday, Greenhouse, SmartRecruiters and Taleo parse reliably. Fancy two column templates with icons and sidebars are the most common cause of a mis-parsed CV.
Should I put a photo on my CV in Ireland or the UK?
No. Irish and UK recruiters do not expect a photo and many companies remove them for fairness reasons. A photo also adds file weight and can break ATS parsing. Keep your photo for LinkedIn.
How long should my CV be?
Two A4 pages for most professionals. One page is fine with under three years of experience. Three pages are only acceptable for very senior, academic or contract heavy careers, and even then the first page has to carry the story.
Do I need a different CV for every application?
You do not need to rewrite it every time, but you should tailor the headline, the summary and the top three bullets of your most recent role to the advert. That is usually twenty minutes of work and it is the single biggest factor in getting past the first screen.
Are the templates really free?
Yes. Download the Word and PDF versions directly, with no email required. If you want feedback on your finished CV, run it through our free CV analysis or book a free consultation.
Template downloaded. Now make it yours.
A template fixes the structure. The words are what get you interviewed. Run your finished CV through our free analysis, or talk to a human coach for twenty minutes.
More reading: the HULA blog, career coaching in Dublin and London.