UK CV Tips · 2026
How to List Promotions on Your CV (UK 2026)
Why this matters
Internal promotions are one of the strongest signals on a UK CV — they show your previous employer trusted you enough to expand your scope. The candidates who hide their promotions inside a single 5-year role lose this signal completely. Recruiters reading 'Senior Product Manager, Acme Corp, 2020-Present' have no idea whether you progressed; reading 'Senior PM, 2023-Present / PM, 2021-2023 / Associate PM, 2020-2021' tells the story instantly.
Exact steps
- 1 Add the company name as a single header at the top of the section
- 2 Below the company, list each role you held there as a sub-entry
- 3 Most recent role first, most senior at the top
- 4 Include date ranges for each role (Month YYYY - Month YYYY format)
- 5 Add 3-4 bullets per role describing scope and outcomes at that level
- 6 Reduce older roles at the same company to 1-2 lines
- 7 Use indentation or visual hierarchy to make the company-level grouping clear
What good looks like
Acme Corp · 2020-Present
→ Senior Product Manager (Apr 2023 - Present)
• Owned roadmap for activation team of 4 engineers + 1 designer; activated 41% of new sign-ups in week 1, up from 22%
• Led pricing redesign that lifted gross margin 4 points on £8m ARR
→ Product Manager (Sep 2021 - Apr 2023)
• Owned onboarding flow; reduced friction-related churn from 12% to 6.5%
→ Associate Product Manager (Jul 2020 - Sep 2021)
• First PM hire; built initial PM processes What bad looks like
Senior Product Manager, Acme Corp, 2020-Present • Various product management responsibilities • Worked on multiple projects • Promoted twice during my time at Acme
Common mistakes
- ✗Listing only the senior title with the full duration — hides progression
- ✗Mentioning promotions in bullet points rather than separate role entries
- ✗Not showing dates for each role — flags career stagnation visually
- ✗Equal-weighting old roles to new roles — wastes space on older context
- ✗Using internal Acme job titles that aren't standard externally
Recruiter pro tip
The single most-effective promotion display I see is when candidates use visual indentation to make the company-level grouping clear and put dates against each individual role. UK recruiters skim CVs in 8 seconds; the visual progression should be readable in that window. Putting promotions in bullet points loses 80% of the signal because it requires deeper reading the recruiter doesn't have time for.
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