How to tailor a UK graduate CV without inventing experience

Read the job description and separate essential criteria from preferences. For each important requirement, identify a real example from a project, placement, paid job or volunteering. If you cannot support a claim, leave it out or state your current level honestly.

The National Careers Service advises tailoring an existing CV to the role and highlights projects and volunteering as useful experience for a first job. Keep the document clear and current. Preserve a main CV, then make a separate role-specific copy so you can compare changes.

Fictional job requirement: help plan social content, edit short videos and maintain a posting schedule. Fictional candidate evidence: a university society project in which the candidate edited four event clips and scheduled posts with two committee members. These details are examples, not a JustApplyForMe user result.

Before: ‘Helped with society marketing.’ After: ‘Edited four short event videos for the university society and coordinated the posting schedule with two committee members.’ The revision makes the contribution visible. It does not add a growth percentage, paid campaign budget or leadership responsibility that was not in the original evidence.

Annotation: ‘edited’ names the action; ‘four short event videos’ names the output; ‘coordinated the posting schedule’ connects the evidence to the role. If the candidate cannot verify the number of clips, remove the number. If another person edited them, describe the candidate's actual contribution instead.

When asking for help rewriting a bullet, provide the actual facts and request a concise version using only those facts. Compare the output against the source. Reject invented software proficiency, results, qualifications and job titles even when the wording sounds polished.

A practical prompt: ‘Rewrite this bullet for a junior content role. Use only the facts below. Do not add metrics, tools or responsibilities. List any information you would need to make the example clearer.’ This keeps missing information visible rather than turning it into a confident claim.

Read the CV from start to finish, check contact details and dates, and open the final file. Keep the filename and version in your application tracker. Tailoring is one part of showing fit; it cannot guarantee an interview or a universal ATS result.