A games CV has one job: get a busy lead or recruiter to open your portfolio and invite you to talk. This guide covers UK CV conventions, how to present shipped titles and student projects, how to write a cover letter that gets read, and how to apply and follow up without annoying anyone.
How studios read CVs
At most UK studios your CV passes through two readers. First, a recruiter or HR partner checks it against the basics of the role: discipline, level, location or right to work, and any must-have skills. Then the hiring manager, usually a lead in your discipline, looks for evidence you can do the work. Both read quickly. Neither wants to hunt for information.
That shapes everything below. Put the most important things first, make them easy to find and cut anything that does not help either reader make a decision.
UK CV norms
If you are used to applying in other countries, some UK conventions may surprise you.
- Two pages at most. One page is fine for juniors. Nobody needs a third.
- No photo. Photos are not expected on UK CVs, and many employers prefer not to receive them, since they can introduce bias.
- No date of birth, age, marital status or nationality. These are irrelevant to the role and employers do not want them, partly because of equality law. You do not need to include your full home address either; a town or city is enough.
- Right to work. If you have the right to work in the UK, a short line saying so can help. If you will need visa sponsorship, be honest about it; some studios sponsor and some cannot. The gov.uk work visas pages explain the routes.
- "CV", not "résumé". And British spelling throughout, unless the studio clearly works in American English.
- References on request. You do not need to list referees on the CV itself.
- PDF format. Send a PDF unless an application form asks otherwise, so your layout survives.
Put your portfolio where it cannot be missed
For art, animation, design, audio and increasingly programming roles, the portfolio is what gets you hired. The CV's main task is to send the reader there.
- Place the portfolio link in the header, next to your name and contact details, not at the bottom of page two.
- Use a short, readable URL, and make it a working hyperlink in the PDF.
- If you have a showreel, GitHub or ArtStation profile, list those too, but keep it to the two or three links that matter.
- Where useful, link directly to the specific project that best matches the role.
- Check every link before sending. A broken portfolio link wastes an application.
If your portfolio is not ready yet, our portfolio guide is the place to start.
Structure
A clear, conventional structure works best. Studios do not award points for creative layouts; they want to find information quickly. Artists can show design sense in clean typography and spacing, but avoid graphics, skill bars and multi-column layouts that applicant tracking systems may scramble.
An example skeleton
ALEX MORGAN Junior Environment Artist | Manchester | Full UK right to work alex.morgan@example.com | 07700 900000 Portfolio: alexmorgan.art | ArtStation: artstation.com/alexmorgan PROFILE Environment artist focused on real-time modular environments in Unreal Engine 5. Recent graduate with two team projects and three finished solo scenes. Looking for a junior role on a console or PC project. SKILLS Software: Maya, Blender, ZBrush, Substance Painter & Designer, Unreal Engine 5 Areas: Modular kits, trim sheets, tiling materials, lighting, set dressing Pipeline: Perforce, Jira PROJECTS Harbourside (solo, 2026) - Unreal Engine 5 - Built a modular dock kit of 40 pieces using 3 shared trim sheets - Created all materials in Substance Designer; full breakdown on portfolio Lanternfall (team of 6, university final project, 2026) - Unreal Engine 5 - Environment artist: built two of the game's four levels from blockout to final - Worked with the level designer to keep art changes within gameplay metrics Global Game Jam (team of 4, 2025) - Made all 3D props and lighting for a 48-hour co-op puzzle game EXPERIENCE Retail Assistant, Bookshop, Manchester (2023 - present, part-time) - Trained new staff on stock systems; handled weekend shift as key holder EDUCATION BA (Hons) Games Art, University of ..., 2026
Notice the order: identity and links, a short profile, skills, then the projects that prove them. For experienced developers, professional experience moves above projects and replaces most of them.
The profile
Two or three lines at most. Say what you are, what you specialise in and what role you want. Skip clichés like "passionate gamer" or "hard-working team player"; every applicant says that. Specifics, such as an engine, a specialism and a type of project, are what get noticed.
Shipped titles and credits
If you have shipped games, they are the most valuable thing on your CV. Present them clearly:
- Title, platforms and year for each shipped game.
- Your role and what you owned. "Owned the inventory and crafting UI" says far more than "worked on UI".
- Your contribution, not the team's. Studios know a game is a team effort; they want to know your part.
- Unannounced projects. You will often be under a non-disclosure agreement. Describe the work in general terms ("unannounced third-person action game, Unreal Engine 5") and never share confidential details.
- Live games and DLC count. Updates, seasons and expansions are shipped work.
Lead with results where you can state them honestly: a feature you shipped, a pipeline you sped up, a load time you reduced. Avoid inventing metrics or claiming credit for outcomes you cannot explain in interview.
Describing student and jam projects
For juniors, projects do the work that professional experience does for everyone else. Treat them with the same seriousness.
- Name and context: team size, duration, engine, and whether it was a university project, a jam or self-directed.
- Your role in a word or two: "gameplay programmer", "level designer".
- Two or three concrete bullet points about what you built and any problem you solved.
- A link to the playable build, video or breakdown.
Compare these two descriptions of the same work:
Weak: "Worked on a team game for my final year. Did programming and some design."
Strong: "Gameplay programmer on a 6-person, 12-week Unreal project. Built the grappling-hook traversal in C++ with Blueprint hooks for designers, and reworked it twice after playtests showed players overshooting ledges."
The second shows the engine, the language, collaboration and iteration in two sentences.
Experience from outside games
Do not hide non-games jobs. Retail, hospitality, customer service and office work show reliability, teamwork and communication. Keep each one brief and pick the skill most relevant to the role: accuracy for QA, handling difficult customers for community or player support, managing schedules for production.
Tailoring each application
A generic CV sent to fifty studios usually does worse than a tailored one sent to ten. Tailoring does not mean rewriting from scratch:
- Reorder your projects so the most relevant one comes first.
- Mirror the key skills from the advert, where you genuinely have them, so both human readers and screening software can see the match.
- Adjust the profile line to name the role you are applying for.
- Remove items that are irrelevant to this studio to make room for ones that are.
Cover letters
Not every studio asks for a cover letter, and some application forms replace it with questions. When there is space for one, use it: a short, specific letter can be what moves you from a maybe to a yes.
A structure that works
- Opening (one or two sentences). The role you are applying for and a one-line summary of why you fit. Address the hiring manager by name if the advert gives one; otherwise "Dear Hiring Team" is fine.
- Why you (one paragraph). Your strongest piece of evidence for this specific role, linked to a requirement in the advert.
- Why them (one paragraph). Something specific about the studio or its games that genuinely interests you and connects to your work. "I love your games" is not enough; say which, and what about them.
- Close (one or two sentences). Point to your portfolio and say you would welcome the chance to talk.
Keep it under a page. Avoid repeating your CV line by line, and avoid long stories about your childhood love of games. Every applicant has one.
Do and don't
| Do | Don't |
|---|---|
| Name the role and studio correctly | Leave another studio's name in a reused letter |
| Refer to specific games or features | Write a letter that could be sent anywhere |
| Link evidence to the advert's requirements | List every skill you have |
| Keep it to a few short paragraphs | Write more than a page |
Applying directly through a studio's careers page
Every role listed on this site links to the studio's own careers page or applicant tracking system, and applying there is usually the best route. Your application lands directly in the studio's system, in front of the people who make the decision, with no middleman.
- Fill in every field on the form, even if it repeats your CV. Some studios filter on form answers.
- Answer screening questions properly; one-word answers look careless.
- Upload your CV as a PDF with a sensible file name, such as Alex-Morgan-Environment-Artist-CV.pdf.
- Keep a simple record of where you have applied, when, and for which role. It helps with follow-ups and stops you applying twice.
- If a studio lists several roles, apply for the one or two you are genuinely suited to rather than all of them.
Follow-up etiquette
Hiring in games can be slow, especially around milestones and launches. Some patience is normal.
- Wait until a week or two after the closing date, or two to three weeks after applying if there is none, before following up.
- Send one short, polite message to the recruiter or contact named on the advert, restating the role and asking whether there is an update.
- Do not message multiple people at the studio, or contact developers personally to chase an application.
- After an interview, a brief thank-you email within a day or so is a nice touch, not a requirement.
- If you are rejected, it is fine to ask politely for feedback. Not every studio can give it, but when they do it is valuable. Thank them either way; the industry is small and people remember courtesy.
Once you are invited to talk, our guide to studio interviews covers what to expect.
Next steps
- Search every live vacancy on the job board, or browse graduate and junior roles.
- See which studios are hiring now and research them in the studio directory.
- Read the discipline guides: programming, design, QA and the portfolio guide for art and animation.
- Check what to expect on pay with our salaries guide.
- Browse roles by discipline: art, programming, design, production and audio.