Phase 5 · Write and submit

The two-page CV

What the CV is for in a Professional Review, what reviewers read it for, and how to fit a career into two pages.

Who this is for:Candidates at any stage

The CV is not a job application. It is the document that lets two reviewers understand the shape of your career in ninety seconds, before they read anything else.

What ICE asks for

Institution of Civil Engineers

A brief, two-page CV which shows your professional development progression, gives an indication of your roles and responsibilities, and the size and financial value of the projects you have worked on.
The CV is not included within the word limit for your report.
The Career Appraisal guidance adds that it should cover the main projects you have worked on, focus on the roles you have had and the experience gained, and demonstrate that you are now working at an appropriate level for the grade you are applying for.

CV length: 2pagesOutside the report word count.

From Incorporated and Chartered Professional Review Guidance, Institution of Civil Engineers.

What reviewers are reading it for

Three things, mostly.

Progression. Does the responsibility increase over time? A CV where the role in year nine looks the same as the role in year three raises a question the report then has to answer.

Context for the report. Your report covers one or two projects in depth. The CV is where reviewers see the rest — the breadth, the sectors, the range of work.

Scale and value. ICE asks for it explicitly. It is not there to impress; it is there so a reviewer can calibrate what "I managed the budget" meant.

They are also, quietly, checking consistency. If the CV says you were a graduate engineer in 2021 and the report describes you leading a design team that year, that is a question you will be asked.

Fitting a career into two pages

Worth doing

Lead with the roles, in reverse chronological order, with dates that have no unexplained gaps.
Give each significant role its scale: project value, team size, your budget, the duration.
Say what you were responsible for, in one or two lines, not what the project was.
Make your progression visible — the change in responsibility between roles should be legible.
Include your qualifications, your CPD headline and your professional memberships.
Explain a career break or a change of direction in one short line rather than leaving a hole.

Avoid

Write project descriptions. The scheme's scope is not your evidence.
List every project. Group the routine ones and give space to the significant ones.
Include a personal statement, a skills word-cloud, or a photograph of yourself in a hard hat.
Use three pages. It is a stated limit.
Contradict your report. Reviewers read both.
Pad with software packages and short courses at the expense of responsibility.

Fictional example

One role, two ways

Fictional example — a CV entry

Weaker

2021–2023 — Senior Engineer, Northgate Consulting. Worked on a range of highway and structures projects including the A-road improvement scheme, a major multi-disciplinary project delivering significant benefits to the local community.

Stronger

2021–2023 — Senior Engineer, Northgate Consulting. A-road improvement, £14 m construction value. Led the structures package (£3.1 m): two culvert extensions and a retaining wall, team of three, my design fee budget £68 k. Approval in Principle author; technical approval obtained. Also carried out three smaller bridge assessments.

Why — The second version gives a reviewer the calibration they are looking for — value, team, budget, what the candidate personally led, and a named responsibility with a professional weight to it. It is also shorter.

The planning tool

The report planner includes a CV planner. It does not write a CV — it takes the facts you enter and points at what is missing or inconsistent: unexplained gaps, roles with no responsibility stated, no scale or value, progression that is hard to see, and anything that does not match your evidence matrix. The facts, and the words, stay yours.