Format is not decoration. It determines what a reader sees first, and it determines whether a parser can reconstruct your history at all. There are three formats in general use, and for most people the choice is straightforward.
Reverse-chronological — the default
Most recent role first, working backwards. It is what every recruiter expects, what every applicant tracking system is built to parse, and what makes career progression legible at a glance. Unless you have a specific reason to do otherwise, use this.
Functional — almost never
Groups achievements by skill area and pushes employment history to a bare list. It is intended for career changers and people with fragmented histories, and it has a serious problem: recruiters know it is used to obscure gaps, so it invites the scrutiny it was meant to avoid. Many discard functional resumes on sight, and applicant tracking systems parse them poorly because achievements are detached from employers and dates.
Hybrid — the useful middle
A skills-and-highlights block at the top, followed by a full reverse-chronological history. This is the right answer for career changers and for anyone whose most relevant experience is not their most recent: the top block makes the argument, the history reassures the reader that nothing is hidden.
Section order
- Contact details — name, city, phone, email, LinkedIn, portfolio.
- Summary — two to four lines, retargeted per application.
- Experience — unless you graduated within the last year.
- Education — move above experience only for current students and recent graduates, or where a credential is the hard requirement.
- Skills — technical and role-specific; omit soft-skill adjectives.
- Certifications, projects, languages, and anything else that is genuinely relevant.
Typography and spacing
- Body text 10–12pt; headings 14–16pt. Below 10pt you are compensating for content you should have cut.
- One typeface throughout. A clean sans-serif or a workhorse serif; avoid anything decorative.
- Margins 0.5–1 inch on all sides. Narrower than half an inch risks clipping when printed.
- Line spacing 1.0–1.15, with clear white space between sections. Whitespace is what makes a document skimmable.
- One accent colour at most, used for headings or rules. Never rely on colour alone to convey meaning.
Resume or CV?
In the US and Canada, a resume is the one-to-two-page job-application document and a CV is the long academic record. In the UK, Ireland, and much of Europe, "CV" simply means the application document — the British CV is the American resume with a different name and a two-page convention. For academic, medical, and research posts anywhere, a CV means the full unabridged record of publications, grants, and teaching.
Every template in our library is built on a single logical reading order with real, selectable text, so the format decisions above are already made correctly. What is left for you is the content.