How to format a CV: layout, fonts and structure that read well

Formatting is not decoration. It is how a reader finds your job title, your dates and your best line in eight seconds. Almost every choice below is settled by that.

One column, always

The single biggest formatting mistake is the two-column CV: a narrow sidebar for skills and contact details beside the main text. It photographs well in a template gallery and fails in three ways. Parsers read across the page and produce scrambled text. Human readers jump between columns instead of down the page. And the sidebar is where people put the things they least want to defend.

Use one column. If you want structure, use space, bold text and consistent headings.

The settings that work

• Font: one, throughout. A clean sans-serif at 10.5–11.5pt, or a serif for conservative sectors. Not two fonts, and not a display font.
• Line spacing: 1.15 or a little more. Body text needs to breathe.
• Margins: 1.5–2cm. Wider margins signal confidence; cramped margins signal too much to say.
• Colour: black text, one accent colour at most, and none if the CV will be printed.
• Alignment: left. Justified text creates rivers of white space and reads slower.

Headings the reader expects

Contact details · Professional summary · Work experience · Education · Skills · Certifications.

These are standard because everyone, human and machine, looks for them. "My journey" and "What I bring" are the fastest way to have a section skipped.

Dates, done one way

"January 2021 – March 2023" for every role. Month and year, never just a year, never a season, never "current" and "present" in the same document. Put the dates on the same line as the job title and employer where you can.

White space is structure

A CV with no gaps between roles makes a reader work to find where one job ends and the next begins. Give each role a clear block: title and employer on one line, then bullets, then a visible gap before the next.

The file type

Send what the posting asks for. If it does not say: a .docx, or a PDF exported from a word processor. Avoid PDFs from design tools unless you can select the text with your cursor, and never send a scan or a screenshot of a CV.

Name the file properly — Firstname Lastname CV.pdf, not "cv final FINAL 3.pdf".

Design elements that cost you

• A photograph (unless the market expects one).
• Icons instead of section headings.
• Progress bars or star ratings for skills — nobody knows what 4/5 of Excel means.
• Infographics, charts and skill wheels.
• A coloured background or border that makes the page look like a flyer.
• Text boxes and tables that a parser reads out of order.

If you want the CV to look modern, the reliable route is restraint: a strong typeface, generous spacing, a single line of accent colour, and headings that sit clearly above their content.

A formatting checklist

1. One column, left aligned.
2. One font, 10.5–11.5pt, consistent sizes for headings and body.
3. Standard section names.
4. Month and year dates, same format throughout.
5. Visible gaps between roles.
6. Contact details as body text, not in a page header.
7. Selectable text, .docx or PDF.
8. Properly named file.

Eight checks take about five minutes and remove the most common reason a strong CV is skipped.

If you would rather start from a document that is already correctly formatted, run your CV through the improver — the refined version comes as a PDF and an editable Word file you can re-format freely.