Resume example and writing guide

Top UK Civil Service Resume Template for England Job Seekers

The UK Civil Service uses a highly structured blind recruitment process to ensure fairness. Your CV will be stripped of your name and assessed purely on how well you demonstrate the required 'Success Profiles'. A traditional CV that simply lists your duties will fail; you must write to the Behaviours.

Create my resume

UK Civil Service resume example

James Sterling

UK Civil Service

Professional Summary

Results-driven Senior Policy Advisor (HEO equivalent) with a track record of delivering at pace within central government. Expert in seeing the big picture and making effective decisions to support ministerial priorities. Highly skilled in synthesizing complex economic data into actionable policy briefings and managing diverse stakeholder networks to achieve consensus.

Experience

Senior Policy Advisor

2021 – Present

Department for Business and Trade

(Delivering at Pace): Drafted an urgent, complex policy paper on supply chain resilience, meeting a strict 48-hour ministerial deadline and ensuring the Secretary of State was fully briefed for parliamentary questions.
(Making Effective Decisions): Analysed complex economic data sets regarding post-Brexit trade tariffs to recommend a £2M intervention strategy, which was subsequently adopted by the project board.
(Communicating and Influencing): Chaired cross-Whitehall working groups with up to 15 senior stakeholders, successfully negotiating competing departmental priorities to publish a unified strategy document.
(Seeing the Big Picture): Realigned the team's operational objectives with the newly published Departmental Strategic Plan, ensuring all project outcomes directly supported overarching government priorities.

Policy Officer

2019 – 2021

Department for Transport

(Changing and Improving): Identified inefficiencies in the public consultation review process and implemented a digital tagging system, reducing response processing time by 25%.
(Working Together): Partnered seamlessly with the legal team to draft secondary legislation, ensuring policy intent was accurately translated into legal frameworks without delay.
Drafted over 40 responses to complex Freedom of Information (FOI) requests and Ministerial Correspondence within statutory timeframes.

Fast Stream Analyst

2017 – 2019

HM Revenue & Customs

Conducted quantitative analysis on tax yield impacts, presenting findings to Grade 6 leaders to inform budget planning.
Supported the rollout of a new internal IT system by designing user-friendly training manuals for over 500 staff members.

Education

BA (Hons) Economics and Politics (2:1)University of Manchester · 2017

Agile Project Management (Foundation)APMG International · 2020

Skills

Policy Development & DraftingMinisterial Briefings & FOIsCross-Whitehall Stakeholder ManagementData Analysis & SynthesisStrategic ThinkingAgile MethodologyBehaviour: Delivering at PaceBehaviour: Making Effective Decisions

Regional Formatting Standards

The UK Civil Service uses a blind recruitment process based on the 'Success Profiles' framework. Your CV should remove personal identifiers (like your age or photo) and focus entirely on Civil Service Behaviours (e.g., 'Making Effective Decisions', 'Delivering at Pace'). Frame all achievements using the STAR method (Situation, Task, Action, Result) to match the rigorous scoring matrix used by government assessors.

Success Profiles Framework

The UK Civil Service uses the Success Profiles framework for assessment. Focus heavily on Civil Service Behaviours and ensure personal identifiers (name, age, photo) are removed if a blind recruitment process is specified. Use the STAR method to describe your achievements.

Target the specific Behaviours

Look at the job advert to see which Civil Service Behaviours are being assessed (e.g., 'Seeing the Big Picture', 'Changing and Improving').

Ensure your experience bullet points provide direct evidence of these specific behaviours. Use the exact wording from the framework so assessors can easily tick their boxes.

The STAR format is non-negotiable

Every major achievement on your CV should be written using the STAR method (Situation, Task, Action, Result).

Focus heavily on the 'Action' (what YOU specifically did, not what the team did) and the 'Result' (quantifiable metrics, delivered on time, budget saved).