The best CV format for 2026

Almost every CV you will see follows one of three formats. They contain the same information; what changes is the order and what gets the most space.

Reverse-chronological

Your work history comes first, starting with your current or most recent job and working backwards. Each job has a title, employer, city, dates and three to six bullet points. This is what recruiters, hiring managers and applicant tracking systems (ATS) expect, because it answers their first question in seconds: what have you done recently, and for how long?

Functional (skills-based)

A functional CV groups your experience under skill headings such as "Customer service" or "Project management" and pushes the job list to the bottom, often without dates. It was popular advice for career changers, but most recruiters now treat it as a warning sign because it hides when and where you used each skill. ATS software also struggles with it, since it cannot tie skills to jobs.

Hybrid (combination)

A hybrid CV opens with a strong skills or key achievements section, then gives a normal reverse-chronological work history. It works well if you are moving into a new field, returning after a break, or have a lot of freelance or project work. Keep the skills block short (four to eight lines) so the work history still appears on the first page.

Our recommendation: use reverse-chronological unless you have a clear reason not to. If you do, choose hybrid, not functional.

Recruiters skim in a predictable pattern: name, current title, most recent job, then education. Put sections in this order so the most important facts sit where their eyes land first.

1. Contact details. Full name, phone number with country code, a professional email, city and country, and a LinkedIn or portfolio link if you have one. You do not need your full home address, CNIC number or a "Curriculum Vitae" heading.
2. Professional summary. Two to four lines about who you are, your years of experience, your strongest skills and one result. See our CV summary examples for wording that works.
3. Work experience. Latest job first. Job title, employer, city, month and year for start and end, then bullet points that start with an action verb and, where possible, include a number.
4. Education. Degree, institution, city and year. Add your grade, CGPA or division only if it helps you. Fresh graduates can move education above experience.
5. Skills. Eight to fifteen relevant hard skills (software, tools, methods, languages) plus a few soft skills that you can back up with examples. Our guide to skills for a CV lists good ones by field.
6. Optional sections. Certifications, projects, languages, volunteering, awards or publications. Include them only when they support the job you are applying for.

References are no longer expected on the CV itself. A line saying "References available on request" wastes space; employers will ask when they need them.

A good format is mostly invisible. The reader should notice your results, not the design. These rules keep the layout clean for both people and software.

• One column for the main content. Two-column designs look attractive but many ATS parsers read across columns and scramble the text. A narrow sidebar is fine if the template keeps text in reading order.
• Standard section headings. Use "Work experience", "Education" and "Skills" rather than creative labels like "My journey". Software looks for familiar headings.
• Readable fonts at 10 to 12 points. Inter, Calibri, Arial, Lato, Source Serif or Georgia all work. Headings can be 13 to 16 points.
• Margins of 1.5 to 2.5 cm and enough white space between sections that each one is easy to find.
• No tables, text boxes or images for important text. Your name, job titles and dates must be real text, not part of a graphic.
• Consistent dates. Pick one style ("Mar 2023 – Present" or "03/2023 – Present") and use it everywhere.
• Bold sparingly. Job titles and maybe employers. If everything is bold, nothing stands out.

Length depends on experience, not on a fixed rule.

• Students and fresh graduates: one page.
• Two to ten years of experience: one to two pages. A full second page is fine if every line earns its place.
• Senior managers, doctors, academics: two pages, sometimes three for academic CVs with publications.

If you are over the limit, cut older jobs to a single line each, remove duties that every person in that role performs, and drop school-level education once you have a degree. Recruiters spend under a minute on a first read, so a tight two pages beats a padded three.

The core format is the same worldwide, but a few details change by country.

Pakistan

Employers are used to longer CVs and often expect personal details such as date of birth and nationality, though these are optional. Government jobs follow their own rules; read our government jobs CV guide. For private-sector and multinational jobs, follow the international format above.

UAE, Saudi Arabia, Qatar and the Gulf

A professional photo, nationality, visa status and notice period are common and often helpful. Mention driving licences (with the country) and Gulf experience prominently. Our CV for Gulf jobs guide covers this in detail.

UK, Europe, US and Canada

Leave out the photo, date of birth, marital status and religion; in the US and Canada this protects employers from discrimination claims and many will discard CVs that include them. In the US the document is usually called a resume and is often limited to one page; see CV vs resume.

Send a PDF unless the job ad asks for Word. PDF keeps your layout exactly as designed on every device, and modern ATS software reads text-based PDFs without trouble. The exception is a PDF made by scanning or by exporting the page as an image: software cannot read it at all.

Name the file so it is easy to find later: "Ayesha-Khan-CV-Accountant.pdf" is better than "CV final new (2).pdf". Some job portals also ask for plain text; CVLumo can export a plain-text version for those forms.

• Your name and phone number are at the top and correct.
• The most recent job is first and has the most detail.
• Every job has month and year dates.
• Most bullets start with a verb and many include a number.
• The file is a text-based PDF with a sensible name.
• There are no spelling mistakes, especially in company names and your own email address.

If you want to skip the formatting work entirely, CVLumo's templates already follow every rule here, and the built-in ATS check flags missing dates, weak verbs and other common problems before you download.