The rules
- One page is ideal in first year; two at most. UK CVs don’t need a photo, age or full address.
- Tailor it for each application: move the most relevant things to the top.
- Every bullet should show what you did and the result, starting with a verb: designed, built, reduced, led, tested.
- Save and send it as a PDF named sensibly (e.g.
Firstname-Lastname-CV.pdf).
Layout
NAME
Email · phone · LinkedIn · portfolio or GitHub link · city
EDUCATION
University of Warwick (WMG) · BEng Robotics Engineering with AI · 2026–2029
Relevant modules: electrical power and motors, mechanisms and machines, ...
School or college · A levels / equivalent with grades · years
PROJECTS
Project name · tools used · date
• What it does, your role, and one measurable result
• A technical challenge and how you solved it
EXPERIENCE
Job title · organisation · dates
• Responsibility + result, e.g. "Trained 4 new starters and rewrote the
opening checklist, cutting set-up time by 15 minutes"
LEADERSHIP AND ACTIVITIES
Society roles, course rep, volunteering, competitions
SKILLS
Technical: MATLAB, Python, CAD, soldering, test equipment ...
Other: languages, driving licence, first aid
What counts for a first-year
- Personal projects are gold: 3D printer builds and modifications, robots, coding projects, anything with a photo or a GitHub link.
- Course projects and labs: what you built and measured, not just the module name.
- Part-time jobs: any job shows reliability. Pull out anything involving responsibility, customers, problem solving or systems.
- Society roles: committee positions (treasurer, secretary, captain) show responsibility and organisation.
Bullet makeover
| Weak | Strong |
|---|---|
| Responsible for the club’s money | Managed a £X annual budget as society treasurer, processing N reimbursements and keeping accounts audit-ready |
| Did a robotics lab | Built and tested a 3-mesh DC circuit, verifying hand calculations to within 1% using measured data |
| Helped with a project | Wrote the PWM motor-control code for a group robot, meeting the speed target after two test iterations |
Check yourself
1. What's missing from: "Worked in a team to make a robot"?
Your specific role, what you actually did, the tools, and a result. Start with a verb and add a number if you can.