Indian resume to UK CV format: what to change, line by line
A resume written for Indian recruiters carries things a UK recruiter does not expect and some they would rather not see. Here is what to remove, what to rewrite and what to add, with one person's resume before and after.
At a glance
What changes, at a glance
| Common on an Indian resume | On a UK CV | |
|---|---|---|
| Photo | Passport photo, top right | None |
| Date of birth | Full date, often with age | Leave it out |
| Marital status and family | Marital status, father’s name, religion, gender | Leave them out |
| Nationality | Nationality, sometimes passport details | One right-to-work line instead |
| Opening | Career objective | Personal statement |
| Pay | Current and expected CTC, notice period | Not on the CV |
| Length | Often three pages or more | Two sides of A4 |
| Dates | 01/06/2021 to till date | Jun 2021 to present |
| Ending | Signed declaration, place and date | References available on request |
Before and after
Asha Rao's resume, converted
A fictional data engineer in Pune applying for jobs in London. Same person, same jobs, same facts.
Before: the Indian resume
Resume
[passport photo, top right]
Asha Rao
Personal details
Father’s name: R. Rao
Date of birth: 12/04/1996
Gender: Female · Marital status: Single
Religion: Hindu · Nationality: Indian
Languages known: English, Hindi, Marathi
Career objective
To obtain a challenging position in a reputed organisation where I can utilise my skills for the growth of the organisation.
Current CTC
18 LPA · Expected CTC: 28 LPA · Notice period: 60 days
Work experience
Meridian Logistics Pvt. Ltd., Pune: Senior Data Engineer, 01/06/2021 to till date
Responsible for ETL pipelines and reporting.
Kestrel Software Pvt. Ltd., Pune: Data Engineer, 02/07/2018 to 31/05/2021
Responsible for SQL queries and dashboards.
Education
B.E. Computer Engineering, 2018, CGPA 8.4
HSC 2014: 85% · SSC 2012: 91%
Hobbies
Reading, travelling, listening to music
Declaration
I hereby declare that the above information is true to the best of my knowledge and belief.
Place: Pune · Date: · Signature:
After: the UK CV
Asha Rao
Pune, India, relocating to London · asha.rao@example.com · linkedin.com/in/example
Right to work: will need Skilled Worker visa sponsorship
Personal statement
Data engineer with eight years building the reporting pipelines finance and operations teams run on. Most recently cut a nightly batch from six hours to forty minutes. Looking for a senior data engineering role in London.
Experience
Senior Data Engineer, Meridian Logistics, Pune · Jun 2021 to present
Cut the nightly reporting batch from six hours to forty minutes by moving eleven services onto a shared queue.
Ran Airflow and dbt in production for three years, including backfills and schema changes on live tables.
Data Engineer, Kestrel Software, Pune · Jul 2018 to May 2021
Built the SQL models behind the sales dashboards used by the regional managers.
Education
BE Computer Engineering, 2018 · CGPA 8.4 out of 10
Skills
Python, SQL, Airflow, dbt, AWS · English (fluent), Hindi, Marathi
References
Available on request
Nothing about Asha's career changed. The UK version is shorter because the personal details, the objective, the CTC line, the school marks and the declaration are gone, and it is stronger because the two “responsible for” lines became things she did, with the size of the result. A UK recruiter reading the after version learns in the first three lines where she is, that she will need sponsorship, and what she is good at.
Personal details
Photo, date of birth, marital status and nationality
The National Careers Service, the UK government's careers advice service, is direct about this: a CV should not include your age, your date of birth, whether you are married or your nationality. The reason is UK discrimination law. Age, marriage, race (which includes nationality and national origin), religion and sex are protected characteristics, and it is against the law to discriminate against anyone because of them. A recruiter who never sees them cannot be accused of using them, so many prefer a CV without them.
The photo goes for the same reason: it shows apparent age, sex and ethnicity at a glance. Father's name, religion, gender and “languages known” as a personal detail all go too. Languages are worth keeping, but under skills, with how well you speak each one.
Nationality is the one a visa applicant needs to replace rather than delete, because the recruiter's real question is whether they can employ you. Answer that in one line under your contact details: “Right to work: will need Skilled Worker visa sponsorship”, or “Graduate visa, valid until” with the month and year. Before you apply, the UK visa sponsor checker tells you whether the employer holds a sponsor licence at all.
The opening
From career objective to personal statement
“To obtain a challenging position in a reputed organisation” tells the reader what you want. A UK personal statement does the opposite: a few lines, under your name and contact details, saying who you are, what you have done that this employer would care about, and what you are looking for next. Three sentences is enough.
Write it last, after the experience section, and lift the best result into it. Asha's says she cut a six-hour batch to forty minutes; the objective said nothing a hundred other applicants could not also say. Write it in the third person without the pronoun (“Data engineer with eight years…”) or in the first person, but keep to one.
The same rewrite applies to every “responsible for” bullet. Responsibility is the job description; a recruiter wants what changed because you were there. If you cannot put a number on it, say what it made possible.
Pay
CTC is not a UK salary, and neither belongs on the CV
Indian resumes often carry current CTC, expected CTC and notice period. UK CVs carry none of them. Pay is discussed in the application form or with the recruiter, and notice period belongs in the cover letter or the first call.
When a form does ask for your current salary, do not give the CTC. A UK salary is gross yearly pay. A CTC also counts money your employer spends on you that never reaches your account. Asha's package of ₹18,00,000, split with our CTC calculator's defaults, includes ₹36,000 of employer PF and ₹34,632 of gratuity, ₹70,632 in all. Her gross salary is ₹17,29,368, and that is the figure to quote, converted to pounds at the day's rate if the form wants pounds. If part of your CTC is variable pay, take that out too and mention it separately.
Open the CTC calculator with her package and change the figures to your own. If you are moving on a Skilled Worker visa, the job's UK salary also has to reach a published figure for its occupation code; the Skilled Worker salary threshold check shows it.
Format
Length, dates, education and the ending
Length. Two sides of A4 is the usual length once you have a few years of experience, and one side is fine for a first job. Cutting the personal details, objective, school marks and declaration usually saves most of a page on its own. Use A4, not US Letter.
Dates. Month and year, with the month as a word, most recent job first: “Jun 2021 to present”. The day of the month adds nothing, and “till date” reads as Indian English to a UK recruiter.
Education. Give the degree and grade as awarded, with the scale: “CGPA 8.4 out of 10”. Do not translate it into a UK first or 2:1 yourself. School marks (SSC and HSC) can go once you have a degree and a job. Spell out an abbreviation a UK reader may not know the first time you use it.
Ending. Drop the declaration, the place, the date and the signature line. The National Careers Service suggests saying references are available on request rather than listing referees' details, since those are someone else's contact details.
Spelling. Indian English already uses most British spellings (organise, colour, programme), which helps. Check the CV with a UK English spell checker anyway, and keep one spelling throughout.
Templates
Start from a UK template
Both of these are A4, use CV rather than resume, open with a personal statement and are set to two pages:
- Kingsway UK, for most experienced hires.
- Fenwick UK, with education first, for a first role or a graduate scheme.
The template gallery has the other UK designs, and the UK CV format guide goes through each section in more depth. If you are applying for sponsored roles, the Skilled Worker CV guide covers what a sponsor looks for. When the CV is done, the free CV checker gives an AI estimate of how it reads, straight from your file. Choose Fenwick UK if your degree is your strongest point.
Limits
What this guide does not cover
- It does not cover academic CVs, which run longer and list publications.
- It does not translate grades into UK degree classes. Ecctis compares qualifications if an employer needs it.
- It is not immigration advice. Whether you can get a visa depends on the job, the salary and the rest of your application.
- It does not rewrite your CV for you. You can upload your current resume into the builder to start from your own text, then work through this page as a checklist.
Last reviewed by the ResumeVera Editorial Team.
Sources
Fetched and read on 31 Oct 2026. The CTC split is our CTC calculator's own output, with its default assumptions.
- National Careers Service: CV sections, leave out age, date of birth, marital status and nationality; most recent experience first; references on request
- GOV.UK: discrimination, your rights, age, marriage, race including nationality, religion and sex are protected characteristics
- GOV.UK: Skilled Worker visa, when you can be paid less, Ecctis, for checking whether an overseas qualification is equivalent to a UK one
Questions
Frequently asked questions
Rewrite it once, in a UK template
Start from Kingsway UK, then check the result for free, read straight from your file.