1. What format is actually for
Every rule in this guide serves two readers.
The first is a parser. Most applications you submit online pass through an applicant tracking system (ATS) before a person sees them. It extracts the text, works out which characters are your name, your employers, your titles and your dates, and saves them as searchable fields. It does not understand your career; it matches patterns.
The second is a tired person, opening your CV with one vacancy in mind and several others already read that day.
Format keeps the two readings compatible. Clean structure helps both, but decoration that pleases the eye often removes the cues a parser needs, and a wall of text that extracts perfectly is hard to skim. Where they conflict, favour the parser.
If you are still deciding what to write, start with how to write a CV.
2. The one-column rule, and why two-column templates break
Use one column. It is the most consequential layout decision on the page.
Two-column templates put contact details or skills in a sidebar built from a table cell or text box. A parser cannot tell the sidebar from the main column, so the two interleave: a skills list running into a job description, a date attached to the wrong employer, your job title landing where your name should be.
A bad parse is not always fatal: people do read CVs, and many systems show a recruiter the original file alongside the extracted text. What you cannot see is which version the shortlisting decision used.
- Keep anything that matters out of headers, footers, text boxes and images; those are what parsers most often drop.
- Never put your name and contact details only in a header, or you become an anonymous record.
- Use a table for genuinely tabular facts, and expect it to be read in a straight line. A borderless table used as a layout is still a table.
- Make headings real text. "Work experience" in bold 14pt is a heading to you and a stray fragment to a parser.
3. Typography and layout specifics
Fonts and sizes
One font, one colour, no more than two sizes besides your name. Body text at 10 to 11.5pt is the safe range; below 9pt is hard to read on a phone, which is where plenty of first reads happen.
Calibri, Arial, Helvetica, Georgia and Times New Roman are safe: widely installed, or substituted sensibly. A template-site font may not exist on the reader's machine.
Margins and headings
Margins of 1.5 to 2cm give the page air without wasting it. Line spacing of 1.0 to 1.15 is enough; 1.5 throughout turns two pages into three. Keep headings consistent in size and weight, with more space above than below.
Bullets and dates
Use a plain round bullet or a hyphen. Arrows and ticks may not exist in the reader's font and carry no meaning. Keep punctuation consistent: all sentences with full stops, or all fragments with none.
Dates go in the same place for every role, right-aligned on the title line or straight after the employer, in Month YYYY. Do not let them float in their own column, and do not change format halfway down the page.
| Do | Don't |
|---|---|
| One column, one font, 10 to 11.5pt body text. | Two columns, two fonts, an 8pt sidebar nobody can read. |
| Plain round bullets, punctuation consistent across the list. | Arrows and ticks, full stops on some bullets and not others. |
| "March 2023 to Present", same position on every role. | Dates drifting in their own column, format changing mid-page. |
| Headings as text, consistent in size and weight. | Heading-shaped paragraphs, underlined in one section only. |
4. File format: PDF, Word, and the filename
Send a PDF unless you are asked otherwise. It renders identically everywhere, cannot be reflowed by another version of Word, and parsers handle it well.
Three good reasons to send .docx instead:
- The form asks for it, or the portal will not accept a PDF. Some large employers and public bodies require Word.
- An agency will reformat your CV onto its own letterhead before sending it to a client.
- A recruiter needs to read it with their own text settings, which Word allows.
If you send Word, reopen it on another machine: font substitution alone can push the last three lines onto a page of their own.
Never send a scan, a screenshot, or a design-tool PDF whose text is an image. Text that cannot be selected cannot be extracted.
Name the file Firstname-Lastname-CV.pdf, or Firstname-Lastname-Resume.pdf in North America. No version numbers, no "final": a recruiter handling hundreds of files will not open cv.pdf.
5. Length: one page or two
One page suits an early career: a few years of experience, one clear direction, little history to explain. Two pages suit anyone whose relevant history would lose evidence if cut, usually past five years of work or a career change.
No rule punishes a second page. A rule punishes padding, and the reader applies it.
Apply "every line earns its place" line by line:
- Does it support the job you are applying for? If not, it spends a line something relevant could use.
- Could a reader disagree with it, or learn from it? "Hard-working team player" fails both halves.
- Does it repeat a line above it in different words? Keep the stronger one.
- Would you be glad it was there in an interview? A skill you cannot defend is a liability.
One page of evidence beats two pages of duties. Squeezing three pages into two at 9pt only makes the document easier to mis-parse, which is the opposite of the point.
6. Country conventions
Conventions are national, and a CV following the wrong country's rules looks careless to the reader who matters. The details that cause real trouble are personal: a photograph, a date of birth, a statement of nationality.
In the UK, Ireland, the United States, Canada, Australia and New Zealand, leave all three off. Employers there are expected to avoid decisions based on age, race, sex, marital status and similar characteristics, and the simplest way to stay clear of that is not to receive the information.
Germany and France are the two markets where some of this is still conventional. In both, the photo is genuinely optional, and an employer may not screen on age or nationality, so neither detail is required of you.
| Country or region | Photo | Date of birth | Nationality |
|---|---|---|---|
| UK and Ireland | No | No | No. Right to work is confirmed separately. |
| United States and Canada | No | No | No |
| Germany | Traditionally included, now optional | Often included, not required | Occasionally, where a permit or language requirement applies |
| France | Still common, and optional | Not required | No |
| Australia and New Zealand | No | No | No. Right to work is confirmed separately. |
- UK and Ireland. A CV, one to two pages.
- United States. A résumé, one page as standard. There, "CV" means the long academic document.
- Germany. A Lebenslauf, classically tabular, with dates, role and employer in columns; a real table, not a two-column layout. Certificates travel separately.
- France. A CV, one page as the norm, the photo optional.
- Australia and New Zealand. Two to three pages in Australia, around two in New Zealand, the extra length spent on what you delivered.
Across borders, follow the stricter convention. Omitting a photo or a date of birth rarely costs anyone a shortlist place; including one in the wrong market can. CV vs résumé covers the naming question.
7. Section order for your situation
The default order is contact details, profile, work experience, education, skills, extras. Three situations justify moving it.
Early career
Put education above work experience, with a projects section between them. A degree and one real project are stronger evidence than a part-time job. Keep the work history, since it explains the dates, but hold each role to two lines.
Changing field
Lead with a profile naming the change and the link between what you did and what you are applying for, then projects and relevant skills, then work experience. Compress anything older than seven or eight years to a line naming its transferable part, and do not describe your old job in your new field's vocabulary; a reader who does that job will notice. Writing a CV with no experience covers the same ground.
Returning after a break
Lead with the profile and put the return in one plain line: what you have been doing, and what you are ready for. Then your most recent relevant work, even though it sits behind the gap. A long break is better named than left as a hole: "Career break, 2023 to 2025: caring responsibilities and part-time study" answers the question before it is asked. Keep something current near the top so the gap is not the last thing on the page.
8. Which format should you use?
Work down this list and stop at the first line that describes you.
- UK, Ireland, US, Canada, Australia or New Zealand: one column, 10 to 11.5pt, no photo or date of birth, PDF.
- The form asks for Word: send .docx, then reopen it and check the page count.
- Under about three years of experience: one page, education above work experience, projects included.
- Over about eight years of relevant experience: two pages, cutting the oldest roles rather than the font size.
- Changing field: two pages if the second is evidence from the new field. Compress the old career, not the new one.
- Returning after a long break: the break named in one line, current activity near the top.
- Applying in Germany: a tabular Lebenslauf of one to two pages, photo optional, certificates as separate files.
- Applying in France: one page, photo optional, no date of birth.
- Applying through an agency: ask which format their client's system takes first.
- Unsure, and nobody will answer: one-column PDF, no photo, two pages at most, your name in the filename.
Where Merit fits
Most people cannot remember the specifics that make a CV worth reading, because nobody wrote them down at the time. Merit interviews you about your work history, keeps the facts you confirm in a private vault, and drafts a CV from that record. You confirm every fact before use and can export or delete your data; one interview and one CV are free, then $20 a month.
Keep reading
- How to write a CV: the sections, the writing, and the mistakes that cost interviews.
- CV vs résumé: which document a given employer expects.
- How to write a CV with no experience: what to put on the page when there is not much to put on it.
- CV trends in 2026: what is changing, and what is not.