Graduate Scheme CV: Applying in the UK Milk Round

• Degree and classification – a 2:1 is the common floor, and predicted grades count if you are still study complete. State the classification as it will appear on the transcript.
• School results – A-levels or equivalent with grades, and GCSE maths and English. Many schemes apply a UCAS tariff threshold.
• Work evidence – an internship, a placement year, a spring week or sustained part-time work with responsibility attached.
• Right to work – schemes rarely sponsor, so state your status in one line if it is not automatic.
• Competencies – teamwork, communication, problem solving and commercial awareness, each shown by a short example rather than a list of adjectives.

One page of A4 is the norm and two is acceptable only if you have a placement year and a substantial part-time job. Put education first while you are within three years of graduation, with the degree, institution, dates and predicted or awarded classification, then A-levels and GCSEs in a compact block. Experience follows, newest first, with the internship or placement given the most space. A skills section of four lines covers software, languages and any technical tool the advert names, and a short interests line is optional but useful when it carries a hint of character. No photo, no date of birth, no marital status, town and postcode only. Send a PDF named with your full name, and keep the same layout for every scheme you apply to so the content changes, not the design. Where a scheme asks for competency answers instead of a letter, treat the CV and the answers as one document and reuse the same examples, because inconsistencies between them are noticed at interview.

• Completed a ten-week summer internship in a finance team, reconciling supplier accounts and closing two month-end journals.
• Treasurer of a 120-member student society, managing a budget and reporting to the committee each term.
• Worked 15 hours a week in a supermarket through final year, training two new starters on the till.
• Ran a group project of five students to a first-class mark, setting the timetable and editing the final report.
• Researched and wrote a 10,000-word dissertation on consumer behaviour, using survey data from 200 respondents.

Expect an online application form, then numerical and verbal reasoning tests, then a recorded video interview, then an assessment centre with a group exercise, a presentation and a competency interview. Practise the tests under time pressure, because scores are often compared against a benchmark rather than a curve. Before the centre, prepare six stories in the situation, action, result shape and be ready to answer on why this firm and why this role. Applications are read on a rolling basis, so apply in the first month a scheme opens. If you are rejected, ask for feedback in writing and keep the record; second applications to the same firm in the following cycle are common and the feedback is what improves them. Keep a simple record of every scheme, the date you applied and the stage you reached, since the cycles overlap and one firm may run several programmes.