CV Format: Which Layout and Length to Use

The right CV format makes your experience easy to follow in the short time a recruiter spends on a first read. The wrong one hides your strengths or raises questions you would rather not answer. This guide compares the three main CV formats, then covers length, fonts, layout and file type, with a look at what employers in the UK, Ireland and the rest of Europe expect.

The three main CV formats

Almost every CV follows one of three structures. They contain the same information; what changes is the order and the emphasis.

Reverse-chronological: the default in the UK and Ireland

This is the format recruiters in the UK and Ireland expect, and the one most applicant tracking systems parse best. You list your jobs starting with the current or most recent one and work backwards.

Its structure is simple:

1. Name and contact details
2. Personal statement
3. Work experience (most recent first)
4. Education
5. Skills, plus optional sections such as certifications or languages

It works because it answers the questions recruiters ask first: what are you doing now, how have you progressed, and how recent is your relevant experience? Use it unless you have a clear reason not to. Our step-by-step guide on how to write a CV follows this structure section by section.

Functional CVs: why they rarely help

A functional CV groups your experience under skill headings ("Leadership", "Customer service", "Budget management") and reduces the employment history to a short list of employers and dates, or leaves it out.

In theory this helps people with gaps or unrelated jobs. In practice, many UK recruiters distrust it, because it makes it hard to see what you did where and when. It also tends to parse poorly in applicant tracking systems, which look for job titles connected to dates. If you are considering a functional CV to hide a gap, a combined format with an honest one-line explanation usually works better; see explaining gaps in your CV.

Combined CVs: the flexible middle ground

A combined or hybrid CV opens with a short "Key skills" or "Core competencies" section, three to five points, each backed by a brief example, and then gives a normal reverse-chronological work history.

It suits:

• Career changers, such as a teacher moving into learning and development, who need to show transferable skills before the reader sees an unrelated job title.
• Returners after a career break, who want to put recent training or volunteering up front.
• People with portfolio careers or several part-time roles at once.

Example key skills section for a teacher moving into corporate training:

• Training design: planned and delivered 25 lessons a week for groups of 30, adapting material for different abilities.
• Coaching: mentored three newly qualified teachers through their induction year.
• Digital learning: built a Moodle course used across the science department.

How long should a CV be?

In the UK and Ireland, the usual answer is two sides of A4 for experienced candidates and one side for students, school leavers and people early in their career.

• One page: students, graduates, school leavers, people with one or two jobs, and many hourly-paid roles such as retail or hospitality.
• Two pages: most professionals with several years' experience. Do not cram onto one page with a tiny font if your experience genuinely needs two.
• Longer: academic CVs (with publications and grants), some medical and research CVs, and senior technical roles where a project list is expected.

If you go onto a second page, make sure the first page carries the most important information: your personal statement, your current or most recent role and your key skills. Use A4, not US Letter, for UK, Irish and European employers.

Fonts, spacing and layout

Good layout is mostly about consistency and white space.

• Font: a clean, common typeface such as Calibri, Arial, Helvetica, Lato, Georgia or Garamond. Avoid novelty fonts.
• Size: 10 to 12 points for body text, 14 to 18 for your name and section headings.
• Margins: roughly 1.5 to 2.5 cm on all sides.
• Bullets: use them for achievements in each role; keep each bullet to one or two lines.
• Dates: pick one format ("Sept 2022 to present" or "09/2022 to present") and use it everywhere, aligned the same way.
• Colour: one accent colour for headings is enough. Make sure the CV still reads well if printed in black and white.
• Columns: a single column is safest. A narrow side column for contact details and skills is fine if the main content runs in one column.

Creative fields such as graphic design give you more freedom, but the content still needs a clear order; the graphic designer CV example shows a design-led CV that stays easy to read. For a ready-made, consistent layout, choose one of our CV templates.

Formatting each job entry

Whatever overall format you choose, each role in your work history should follow the same pattern, so the reader can scan quickly from one job to the next.

1. Job title in bold, as the most prominent element.
2. Employer and location, for example "Tesco, Leeds" or "HSE, Cork University Hospital".
3. Dates in month and year, aligned in the same position for every role.
4. Optional one-line context if the employer is not well known: "Family-run hotel group with four sites in the West of Ireland".
5. Three to six bullet points, starting with action verbs and focusing on results.

Example:

Assistant Store Manager, Boots, Norwich, April 2022 to present

Run the store on the manager's days off, leading a team of 14.

Cut stock loss through a new delivery checking routine.

Trained five colleagues to become key holders.

If you held several roles at the same employer, list the employer once and show each job title with its own dates underneath. This makes promotions easy to see, which is a strong signal to any recruiter.

File type: PDF or Word?

Send a PDF unless the employer asks otherwise. It looks the same on every screen and cannot be accidentally edited. Some recruitment agencies ask for Word documents because they reformat CVs before sending them to clients; in that case, send .docx.

Make sure your PDF contains real text rather than a scanned image, otherwise applicant tracking systems cannot read it. You can test this with our free ATS CV checker, and our guide to an ATS-friendly CV explains which formatting choices cause problems.

Name the file clearly: Firstname-Lastname-CV.pdf.

What to leave out in the UK and Ireland

Some details that are standard elsewhere in Europe do not belong on a UK or Irish CV:

• Photo: not expected, and many employers prefer not to receive one. See photo on a CV.
• Date of birth and age
• Marital status, children, religion
• Full postal address: town and county or country is enough
• Signature and date at the bottom
• "References available on request": it is assumed

CV formats across Europe

If you are applying in another European country, local expectations shift. In brief:

• Europass: the EU's standard CV format, created through an official online tool. It is recognised everywhere and sometimes requested for EU institutions, public-sector jobs, Erasmus placements and some applications in Southern and Eastern Europe. Private employers in the UK and Ireland rarely ask for it, and it tends to be long and generic, so use it only when requested.
• Germany, Austria and Switzerland: the Lebenslauf is often tabular, with dates in a left column, and traditionally includes a photo, date of birth and sometimes a signature, although these are becoming optional.
• France: a CV is typically one page for junior candidates, often with a photo and a short title line.
• Netherlands and Nordic countries: closer to the UK style, concise and direct, with a photo more common than in the UK.

When applying abroad in English, for example to an international company in Amsterdam, Dublin or Berlin, a clear reverse-chronological CV in English is widely accepted. Follow the advert and the company's own language first.

Choosing your format: a quick decision guide

• Steady career in one field? Reverse-chronological, one or two pages.
• Student or recent graduate? Reverse-chronological with Education first, one page. Our guide to a CV with no experience and the student CV example show how.
• Changing career or returning after a break? Combined format with a short key skills section.
• Applying to an EU institution or a job that asks for it? Europass.

Whatever you choose, the format serves the content. A clear structure with strong, specific achievements will always do more than clever design. You can see the formats in action across our CV examples by job title.