5 CV examples · UK · Updated October 2026
Receptionist CV Examples and Templates (UK)
A strong receptionist CV proves three things fast: you make a calm, professional first impression, you handle phones, visitors and bookings accurately, and you keep information confidential. Open with a short personal profile, then back it up with numbers.
Receptionist CV at a glance
- Best format
- Reverse-chronological, single column, personal profile first
- Length
- 1 page for most; 2 for senior or long medical careers
- Top skills
- Switchboard and call handling, Visitor sign-in and passes, Diary and appointment booking, Confidentiality and UK GDPR
- Key qualifications
- GCSE English and Maths (9-4/A*-C) or equivalent, Customer Service Practitioner Level 2 apprenticeship, First aid or fire marshal training
- Average salary
- £21,000 to £25,000 a yearstarter to experienced, National Careers Service
- Typical hours
- 37 to 40 a weekevenings, weekends, bank holidays on shifts
5 receptionist CV examples for 2026
Below are 5 UK receptionist CV examples, from a college leaver with no experience to a front of house team leader, including medical and hotel reception, plus personal profiles, skills, keywords and a free receptionist CV template in Word for each. Each one is shown at true A4 size and comes with a free single-column Word template. Open any example to read it in full.
Swipe to see all 5 examples →
Kacper Nowak
Receptionist
Peterborough · kacper.nowak@email.com · 07700 900318
Personal Profile
Friendly, organised college leaver with a Merit in the T Level in Management and Administration, including a 45-day industry placement on the front desk of a busy lettings agency. Confident greeting visitors, answering a multi-line phone and booking appointments in a shared calendar. Fluent in English and Polish and available to start immediately in Peterborough.
Core Competencies
Greeting visitors and sign-in · Multi-line phone and call transfers · Appointment and viewing bookings · Microsoft Outlook, Word and Excel · Post, keys and deliveries · Cash and card payments · Data protection (UK GDPR) basics · English and Polish (fluent) · Calm, polite communication
Employment History
Front Desk Assistant (T Level industry placement), Fenbrook Lettings, Peterborough Oct 2025 – Mar 2026
- Greeted up to 30 tenants, landlords and contractors a day, signing them in and offering seats and drinks while they waited.
- Answered a four-line phone system, taking clear messages and transferring calls to the right lettings negotiator or the maintenance team.
- Booked up to 20 property viewings a day in a shared Outlook calendar and emailed every applicant a confirmation with directions.
Café Team Member (part-time), Quillby’s Café, Peterborough Jun 2024 – Present
- Serve customers at the counter on Saturdays and Sundays, taking cash and card payments and balancing the till at close.
- Take phone orders and table bookings for weekend brunch, reading details back to the caller to avoid mistakes on busy shifts.
- Handle complaints politely and fetch the manager when needed, staying calm and friendly when the queue reaches the door.
Welcome Desk Volunteer, Brookfield Lane Community Hub, Peterborough Sep 2023 – Jun 2024
- Welcomed visitors to weekly advice sessions, signed them in and explained where to wait, in English or Polish.
- Kept the room booking diary for six community groups and texted each organiser a reminder the day before their slot.
Education & Qualifications
T Level in Management and Administration (business support specialism), Merit, 2026
7 GCSEs grades 9-4 including English Language (5) and Maths (5), 2024
Training & Certificates
Emergency First Aid at Work, one-day course (2025)
Why this example works
- Treats the T Level industry placement like a real job, with visitor, call and booking numbers a reception manager recognises.
- Uses weekend café work to prove cash handling, phone bookings and calm customer service before a first reception job.
- Puts Polish to work on the front desk, a genuine advantage when serving a diverse community in Peterborough.
Why this example works
- Gives the scale of the front desk (calls a day, visitors, meeting rooms), so a hiring manager can picture the workload instantly.
- Shows law-firm specifics such as client ID copies and confidential post, the trust signals professional services firms look for.
- Lists fire marshal and first aid training, which many offices expect their reception team to cover.
Applying through an online portal? Use the Word download: it is the same CV in a single-column, ATS-safe layout. Keep this two-column design for emailing and networking.
Why this example works
- Names the systems GP practices use (EMIS Web, Accurx, Docman, cloud telephony), which mirror the wording of NHS Jobs adverts.
- Shows care navigation in action, the core of modern GP reception, rather than only listing the training.
- Uses two dated roles at one surgery to show progression, then dental and pharmacy roles that prove broad patient-facing experience.
Callum Fraser
Hotel Receptionist
Edinburgh · callum.fraser@email.com · 07700 900649 · linkedin.com/in/callumfraser
Skills & Tools
Personal Profile
Hotel receptionist with four years on the front desk of a 140-room city-centre hotel and a family-run guest house. Fast and accurate on OPERA Cloud check-ins, upgrades and night audit cover, and calm with festival-season queues and complaints. Speaks conversational Spanish and French. HNC Hospitality Management holder aiming for a front office supervisor role.
Employment History
Front Office Receptionist, The Calderwynd Hotel, Edinburgh Apr 2024 – Present
- Check in and out up to 70 guests a shift on OPERA Cloud, matching rooms to requests and accessibility needs.
- Raised shift upgrade and breakfast sales by 18% in 2025 by offering options at check-in.
- Since July 2026, explain the Edinburgh Visitor Levy to guests, including the 5% charge on the first five nights of a stay.
Receptionist, Bellfield Lodge Guest House, Edinburgh Jun 2022 – Mar 2024
- Ran the front desk of a 22-room guest house alone on shifts, handling reservations, check-ins, payments and guest questions.
- Updated room rates and availability on Booking.com and Expedia every morning, ending overbookings during the August festivals.
- Replied to every online review within 48 hours, helping lift the guest house’s average score from 8.6 to 9.1.
Café Team Member, Corrieburn Café, Edinburgh Aug 2019 – May 2022
- Served customers at the counter and tables in a busy Old Town café, taking cash and card payments.
- Took group bookings by phone and email for walking-tour companies, confirming numbers and menus the day before.
Education & Qualifications
HNC Hospitality Management (SQA), 2023
Highers: English (B), Business Management (B), Spanish (C), 2019
National 5s: 6 including English and Maths, 2018
Training & Certificates
Emergency First Aid at Work (2025)
Why this example works
- Leads with the property management system and room count, the first two things a hotel front office manager screens for.
- Quantifies upselling and review scores, turning routine desk work into commercial results a hotel cares about.
- Mentions the Edinburgh Visitor Levy, showing current local knowledge that sets him apart from other applicants.
Joanne Whitaker
Front of House Team Leader
Leeds · joanne.whitaker@email.com · 07700 900835 · linkedin.com/in/joannewhitaker
Profile
Front of house team leader with 14 years in reception across a conference hotel, a hospital outpatients department, a law firm and a 900-person corporate headquarters. Leads a team of five receptionists, runs visitor management, meeting rooms and hospitality, and coordinates evacuations as lead fire marshal. ILM Level 3 qualified, known for raising service standards and controlling supplier costs. Seeking a front of house manager role.
Employment History
Front of House Team Leader, Pemberton Hale Group, Leeds Mar 2022 – Present
- Lead a team of five receptionists across two reception desks serving 900 staff and up to 250 visitors a day.
- Moved visitor sign-in from paper books to a digital visitor management system, cutting average sign-in time from four minutes to under one.
- Manage 26 meeting rooms and hybrid desk booking in Condeco, freeing space by releasing no-show bookings after 15 minutes.
- Renegotiated catering and floristry contracts in 2024, saving £18,000 a year while keeping hospitality feedback above 4.7 out of 5.
- Act as lead fire marshal for the ground floor, running evacuation roll calls and reporting drill times to the facilities manager.
Senior Receptionist, Whitcombe & Rhodes LLP, Leeds May 2019 – Feb 2022
- Supervised two receptionists and a post room assistant, setting the rota and covering the switchboard at peak times.
- Introduced a three-ring answering standard and call script, lifting the firm’s mystery caller score from 72% to 91%.
- Arranged hospitality for client seminars of up to 80 guests, booking caterers, audio-visual support and parking within budget.
- Kept reception running through the 2020 lockdowns by diverting the switchboard to home phones and running a booked document collection desk.
- Delivered the visitor, confidentiality and clear-desk session in every new starter’s induction across the firm’s two offices.
Outpatients Receptionist, NHS hospital trust, Leeds Jun 2016 – Apr 2019
- Checked in up to 150 patients a day for 12 outpatient clinics on the trust’s patient administration system (PAS).
- Updated patient contact and GP details at every visit, reducing returned appointment letters and missed clinic slots across the department.
- Rebooked appointments after clinic cancellations, filling short-notice slots from the waiting list in line with booking rules.
- Booked spoken-language and British Sign Language interpreters ahead of appointments for patients with limited English or hearing loss.
Hotel Receptionist, The Harlowbeck Hotel, Harrogate Sep 2012 – May 2016
- Checked in guests at a 90-room conference hotel, managing delegate lists of up to 200 during the town’s busy events season.
- Processed card payments, deposits and refunds for room, restaurant and conference bills, balancing the front desk float at every shift handover.
- Promoted to shift leader in 2015, covering the duty manager on evenings and handling escalated guest complaints.
Residences Reception Assistant (part-time), University of Leeds, Leeds Sep 2010 – Jun 2012
- Staffed a student residences reception on evenings and weekends, issuing keys, logging parcels and reporting maintenance faults for 600 residents.
- Handled out-of-hours calls and passed security or welfare concerns to the duty warden, following the written escalation procedure.
Education & Qualifications
BA (Hons) English Language, University of Leeds, 2:1, 2012
A-levels: English Language (A), History (B), French (C), 2009
Training & Certificates
ILM Level 3 Certificate in Leadership and Management (2023) · First Aid at Work (requalified 2024) · Fire marshal training (renewed 2025) · IOSH Working Safely (2022)
Key Skills
Team leadership and rotas · Digital visitor management · Meeting room and desk booking (Condeco) · Corporate hospitality and events · Supplier contracts and purchase orders · Front of house budget tracking · Lead fire marshal and roll calls · Building access and security passes · Switchboard and call standards · Induction and staff training · Microsoft 365 and Teams Rooms · Health and safety and contractor sign-in
Projects
- Led front of house through a 2023 office refurbishment, running a temporary reception for 10 weeks with no missed visitors or deliveries
- Wrote the reception operations manual now used for cover staff, covering opening, closing, post, visitor and emergency procedures
Volunteering
- Monthly evening welcome host at a city-centre homelessness charity since 2019, signing in guests and signposting them to advice services
Languages
- French (conversational, A-level), used to welcome visiting colleagues and clients from the group’s European offices
Why this example works
- Leads with team size, visitor volumes and a measured process change, the evidence a front of house manager vacancy asks for.
- Shows commercial impact through a supplier saving, which moves a senior receptionist CV beyond day-to-day desk duties.
- Covers four settings, including NHS outpatients, proving she can adapt service standards to any front desk.
Receptionist personal profile examples
Copy the personal profile that matches your level, then swap in your own experience, settings and results.
Polite, well-organised school leaver with GCSEs in English and Maths, a week of work experience on a dental practice reception and two years of weekend café work. Confident on the phone, careful with bookings and comfortable using Outlook and Excel. Looking for a first receptionist role or a Customer Service Practitioner apprenticeship.
Customer-focused retail supervisor with six years serving the public, handling cash and resolving complaints in a busy high street store, now moving into reception. Skilled at greeting customers, managing a phone line and organising rotas and deliveries. Recently completed a Level 2 business administration course and ready for an office receptionist role.
Medical receptionist with three years in a busy GP surgery, confident booking appointments, registering patients and processing repeat prescription requests on SystmOne. Trained in care navigation, so patients reach the right clinician or service first time. Calm with distressed callers and strict about confidentiality. Seeking a medical receptionist role in a patient-centred practice.
Hotel receptionist with three years on a 4-star front desk, handling check-ins, reservations and payments on OPERA Cloud. Known for turning complaints into positive reviews and lifting upgrade sales at check-in. Comfortable on early, late and weekend shifts and conversational in Italian. Seeking a senior receptionist role in a busy city hotel.
Senior receptionist with ten years on corporate front desks, leading a team of three and running visitor management, meeting rooms and client hospitality for a 400-person office. Lead fire marshal and first aider who has cut catering costs and raised caller satisfaction scores. Seeking a front of house manager role.
Best skills for a receptionist CV
List the skills the job advert and person specification name, in the same wording, and prove the important ones in your employment history.
Hard skills
- Switchboard and multi-line phone handling
- Visitor sign-in, passes and fire registers
- Appointment and diary management
- Meeting room and desk booking
- Post, courier and delivery logging
- Taking payments, deposits and refunds
- Data entry and record keeping
- Confidentiality and UK GDPR
- Hospitality and catering orders
- Complaint handling and de-escalation
- Petty cash and invoice processing
- Patient registration and repeat prescriptions (medical)
Soft skills
- Warm, professional manner
- Clear verbal communication
- Calm under pressure
- Attention to detail
- Discretion with confidential information
- Multitasking and prioritising
- Patience and empathy
- Teamwork across departments
Systems and equipment
- Microsoft Outlook, Word, Excel and Teams
- Digital visitor management systems
- Meeting room booking software such as Condeco
- EMIS Web or SystmOne (GP practices)
- OPERA Cloud or similar hotel property management systems
- Dental practice management software
- Card terminals and franking machines
Qualifications and training
- Customer Service Practitioner Level 2 apprenticeship
- Hospitality Supervisor Level 3 apprenticeship
- T Level in Management and Administration
- Emergency First Aid at Work (one day) or First Aid at Work (three days)
- Fire marshal or fire warden training
- ILM Level 3 Certificate in Leadership and Management (team leaders)
Receptionist CV bullet point examples
Strong bullets pair an action verb with a specific task and a measurable result. Adapt these to your own numbers.
Front desk and visitor management
- Welcomed up to 60 visitors a day, checking each against the expected list and briefing contractors on site safety rules before escorting them.
- Introduced a pre-registration email for expected visitors, shortening queues at the front desk during the morning peak.
- Kept the visitor log and fire register accurate throughout the day, supporting a complete roll call in every evacuation drill.
Telephone, email and switchboard
- Handled 150+ calls a day on a 10-line switchboard, screening sales calls and keeping the extension list current for 90 staff.
- Managed the shared reception inbox, replying to routine enquiries within two hours and forwarding the rest to the right team.
- Took detailed messages and logged every call-back in Outlook, so no client or patient was left waiting for a reply.
Bookings, diaries and administration
- Coordinated diaries for 12 consultants, booking appointments and sending text reminders that cut no-shows by a quarter.
- Booked meeting rooms, catering and audio-visual equipment for up to 30 meetings a week without a single double booking.
- Processed supplier invoices and petty cash, reconciling receipts monthly and flagging discrepancies to the office manager.
Medical, dental and hotel reception
- Cleared a backlog of 400 new patient registrations in six weeks on SystmOne, so new patients could use online services sooner.
- Chased the dental laboratory before every fitting appointment and rebooked patients promptly whenever crowns or dentures were not ready.
- Coordinated coach and group arrivals of up to 45 guests, pre-assigning rooms and keys so each group checked in within 20 minutes.
Action verbs for a receptionist CV
Start each bullet with a precise verb instead of “responsible for”.
- Greeted
- Welcomed
- Answered
- Routed
- Transferred
- Booked
- Scheduled
- Coordinated
- Organised
- Prioritised
- Registered
- Processed
- Logged
- Recorded
- Issued
- Signposted
- Resolved
- Reconciled
- Arranged
- Updated
- Maintained
- Trained
- Supervised
- Introduced
- Streamlined
- Handled
- Liaised
- Checked
Find more by category with the free action verb finder.
Best CV format for a receptionist
Use a reverse-chronological receptionist CV in a single column: personal profile, key skills, employment history, then education and training. Most receptionists fit on one side of A4; senior receptionists and front of house team leaders can use two. Leave off a photo, date of birth and full address.
| Your situation | Format | Length | Lead with |
|---|---|---|---|
| No experience or school leaver | Skills-led: profile, skills, placements, part-time jobs | 1 page | Phone and customer skills, GCSEs, placements and availability |
| Career changer from retail, hospitality or care | Hybrid: transferable skills first | 1 page | Customer service, cash handling and booking experience |
| Office or corporate receptionist | Reverse-chronological | 1 page | Switchboard volume, visitor numbers and meeting rooms |
| Medical or dental receptionist | Reverse-chronological | 1 to 2 pages | Clinical systems, care navigation and confidentiality |
| Hotel receptionist | Reverse-chronological | 1 page | Property management system, upselling and guest reviews |
| Senior receptionist or front of house team leader | Reverse-chronological | 2 pages | Team leadership, suppliers, budgets and fire marshal duties |
Every example above follows these rules, on A4 and without a photo, date of birth or full address.
How to write a receptionist CV that gets interviews
A receptionist CV gets interviews when it proves you can run a front desk calmly: phones, visitors, bookings and payments, handled accurately and kindly. Hiring managers read the top third first, so put your strongest evidence in the personal profile and the first bullet of each role.
Give scale and results. Say how many calls, visitors, rooms, patients or guests you handle, name the systems you use, and add outcomes such as fewer no-shows or better review scores. ‘Answered 120 calls a day within three rings’ beats ‘responsible for the phones’.
State your availability and use the advert’s job title. The National Careers Service says receptionists may work evenings, weekends and bank holidays on shifts, so say which shifts you can cover. Front of house, front desk and medical receptionist roles all use the same core skills.
Receptionist CV with no experience
You can write a receptionist CV with no experience by proving the skills the job uses every day: talking to the public, answering phones, handling money and staying organised. Part-time retail or café work, volunteering, work experience and placements all count.
The National Careers Service lists college courses in business administration, customer service and front of house reception, and apprenticeships such as Customer Service Practitioner (Level 2). The T Level in Management and Administration includes an industry placement of at least 315 hours, which gives you real front desk evidence.
Career changers from retail, hospitality or care already have the core skills. Use a hybrid layout that leads with transferable skills, such as handling complaints, cash and bookings, then lists your employment history newest first.
Keywords to include in a receptionist CV
Mirror the exact wording of the job advert, because many employers take applications online through NHS Jobs, hotel group career sites or recruitment agencies, and some screen them with applicant tracking systems. Use these keywords naturally in your skills and bullets.
- Front of house, front desk, first point of contact
- Switchboard, multi-line phone, call handling, messages
- Visitor management, sign-in, security passes, fire register
- Diary management, appointments, meeting room bookings
- Post, couriers, deliveries, franking
- Payments, invoices, petty cash, deposits
- Confidentiality, UK GDPR, data protection
- Medical: EMIS Web, SystmOne, care navigation, repeat prescriptions
- Hotel: property management system, check-in, upselling, night audit
How to write a medical or dental receptionist CV
A medical receptionist CV must show you can manage high call volumes, patient records and confidential information safely. Name the clinical system you use, such as EMIS Web or SystmOne, and give the size of the practice list.
Care navigation is now central to GP reception: staff direct patients to the most suitable service, such as community pharmacy. NHS England funded a national care navigation training programme from 2023, so list any training and show it working in a bullet.
Since October 2025, GP practices in England must keep online consultation tools open throughout core hours, so mention experience with online requests. Dental receptionists in England should show they can explain NHS Band 1, 2 and 3 and urgent charges, private treatment plans and recalls.
Hotel and front of house receptionist CVs
A hotel receptionist CV should lead with the property management system, room count and guest results such as upgrade sales or review scores. Hotels must record the full name and nationality of guests aged 16 or over, and passport details for many overseas guests, so show accurate registration.
Corporate front of house roles weigh presentation, switchboard standards, visitor security and client hospitality. Senior receptionists and team leaders should add rotas, training, supplier management and fire marshal duties, which can justify a second page.
What to include and leave off a UK receptionist CV
| ✓ Include | ✗ Avoid |
|---|---|
| A 3-5 line personal profile naming the setting and the job you want | A photo, date of birth, age, marital status or nationality |
| Call, visitor, patient or guest volumes that show the scale of your desk | Your full home address or National Insurance number |
| The systems you use: switchboard, visitor management, EMIS Web or OPERA | An ‘objective’ in place of a personal profile |
| Results such as fewer no-shows, shorter queues or higher review scores | Duty lists such as ‘answering phones’ with no numbers or results |
| Confidentiality and data protection experience | Referees’ names and phone numbers |
| Shift availability, including early, late and weekend cover | Clichés like ‘bubbly people person’ with no evidence |
| First aid, fire marshal and other short courses | Tables, text boxes and graphics that applicant tracking systems misread |
| Languages, including British Sign Language, if you use them at work | A jokey or outdated personal email address |
How to write a receptionist CV
- Read the job advert closely. Note the setting (office, GP surgery, hotel or school), the shift pattern and the systems named. Highlight words the advert repeats, such as switchboard, front of house or care navigation, and reuse them in your skills and bullets.
- Write your personal profile. In three to five lines, say who you are, the reception experience or transferable skills you bring, one result and the role you want. Add the systems you know and your availability if the job runs on shifts.
- Choose 8 to 12 key skills. Mix front desk skills, such as call handling, visitor sign-in and diary management, with the systems you use and soft skills like discretion and calm under pressure. Keep each one short so it scans in seconds.
- Prove it in your employment history. List roles newest first with job title, employer, town and dates. Give each role three to five bullets that start with an action verb and include a number, such as calls a day, visitors, rooms or review scores.
- Add education and training. Summarise GCSEs in one line, then list A-levels, T Levels, apprenticeships, degrees and short courses such as first aid or fire marshal training. School leavers can put education above employment if it is their strongest section.
- Check length, layout and spelling. Keep to one side of A4 unless you have several years’ experience or team leader duties. Use a single column, a clear font and UK spelling, then proofread twice: a typo on a receptionist CV suggests careless messages.
Receptionist salary in the UK
National averages for England. Use them to benchmark offers, not as a promise for any single job.
The National Careers Service puts average pay for a receptionist at £21,000 a year for new starters, rising to around £25,000 with experience. Typical hours are 37 to 40 a week, with evenings, weekends, bank holidays on shifts.
Source: National Careers Service, Receptionist job profile (Department for Education), contains public sector information licensed under the Open Government Licence v3.0. Figures are averages; pay varies by region, employer and experience.
Covering letter tip for a receptionist
Open your covering letter by naming the role and organisation, then give one example that proves you can run a front desk, such as a busy switchboard or a complaint you turned around. Write it carefully: for a receptionist, the letter itself is evidence of your written communication. Keep it under 250 words.
Start from our cover letter templates or draft one in seconds with the cover letter generator.
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