CV Layout: Best Examples and a Template

The best product in the world will often not even be looked at if it’s in poor, messy packaging. Poor products often sell because of glossy packaging. With a professional CV layout template, the top-shelf product that you are will also have phenomenal packaging.

In this article you will find tips on how to lay out your CV the right way. You will also see a CV layout examples and a template you can use for your purposes.

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CV layout example

1. How to layout a CV? 

Every professional CV layout requires your contact details at the top, a CV personal statement, followed by work experience, education and skills. The order of these sections will depend on the type of position you’re applying to and your experience.

1. Choose your CV type

The order of your sections will depend on whether your CV is reverse-chronological or functional/hybrid. You should choose the appropriate one depending on your experience level. 

Experienced CV Layout

1. Contact Details
2. Personal Statement
3. Work Experience
4. Education
5. Skills
6. Certifications, Achievements, Awards, other additional sections

If your work history has some gaps, or you’re changing industries or jobs, you could opt for the functional CV:

Functional CV Layout

1. Contact Details
2. Personal Statement
3. Skills Summary
4. Additional Skills
5. Work Experience
6. Education

2. Create a structure

Reading CVs all day is a tiresome task. Tired eyes dart for structure, and organising your CV layout neatly will allow the recruiter to skim-read efficiently and find the most important information that you wouldn’t want them to miss. 

Eye tracking studies show that clear, simple layouts with clear headings, and bold job titles with bullet points of accomplishments are read far more often. The same study shows that most CVs only have the recruiter’s attention for 7.4 seconds, so stakes are high.

Use even margins on all sides. 1 inch on all sides looks best. Use 1.15 line spacing, and leave white space between headings and section to create skimmable structure. When listing work or education achievements, bullet points are your friend. 

For work experience, your most recent position count amount up to 7 bullet points, but older positions should not have more than 3 bullet points. 

3. Use a crisp CV font

To further increase the amount of time recruiters can spend on your CV without feeling tired or annoyed, pick a crisp, readable font. For the main bodies of information, a size between 10 and 12 is best, with slightly larger for headings. Headings and position titles should also be bold.

There is a wide range of classic CV fonts you can choose from: Arial, Calibri, Noto, Didot, Tahoma, Verdana, Cambria, Garamond or Georgia. All of them match a professional CV layout.

4. List the contact information

There is one piece of information that is more important than all—your contact information. The best, most qualified CV in the world will not get an interview if they have the wrong phone number. Make sure all your information is up to date.

Under your name, list your current job title. For most jobs, you should still include your physical address, unless your position is remote. Make sure your up to date phone number and email are listed, and that it is a professional sounding email address.

You could also add a link to your LinkedIn, portfolio, or website, if it is relevant to your job application.

5. Keep it brief

Any excellent CV layout template will be one or two pages. Once you are established in your career with a few years of experience, you will probably need two pages to lay out comprehensively, but concisely. 

If you are a recent graduate, have less experience, or feel you can confidently summarise yourself on one page, don’t feel obliged to have to stretch it out.

6. Beat the Applicant Tracking Systems

70% of CVs are never seen by a human eye. That can be a worrying thought, but there is a reason for that. 7 out of 10 big companies use Applicant Tracking Systems (ATS), which scans CVs for keywords.

That can be a problem if your CV layout prevents the ATS from scanning. Here is a simple test to see if your CV is scannable.

Passing the ATS

1. Save your CV in a PDF file
2. Open the PDF of your CV, and copy all the contents
3. Paste all the contents into a text editor (e.g. Notepad)
4. Check that all the text appears correctly and isn’t scrambled. 
5. Always send the CV in the format that the job ad asks for.

2. Best CV layout templates

The devil is in the details, and presentation is key. Sometimes, Microsoft Word and free templates from Google just don’t want to cooperate. LiveCareer has templates for every industry and position to choose from.

You fill in your details once and can browse all the available styles with a single click. 

Modern

Our in-house design team of User Experience, Graphics, and HR experts continue working on modern designs that highlight the strengths that are relevant to your goals. These are industry leading, neat, and modern CV layouts that will be a breath of fresh air to a recruiter receiving home-made Microsoft Word documents all day.

Why choose a modern CV layout?

• You are applying to a dynamic, modern industry or job
• You want to stand out without offending anyone’s aesthetic sense
• You want to show that you’re up-to-date with the current trends, or even ahead

See a selection of modern CV templates here: Best CV Templates Gallery

Creative

Are you a designer or an artist? Do you hoverboard to work? Do you wear vegan shoes? Our creative CV layouts will help you stand out. Don’t worry — they are designed to get you a job, not be crazy. They have small, thoughtful visual elements that make all the difference.

Why choose a creative CV layout?

• You applying to a creative or artistic industry or want to stand out
• You just want to stand out full stop
• You have a non-traditional work history

See a selection of creative CV templates here: Creative CV Templates and Expert Design Tips

Traditional

If you are in a conservative, old-fashioned, traditional industry, guess what—choose a traditional CV layout. These are designed to pass through automated screening software without hiccups, and trust me, all companies use those these days. Shine in the interview. Get there safely.

Why choose a traditional CV layout? 

• You are applying to a conservative industry or job
• You are applying to government or public service jobs
• You have limited work experience and/or skills

See a selection of traditional CV templates here: Basic and Simple CV Templates Gallery

3. The Dos & Don’ts

Do

• Focus on keywords (skills, specific experience) that the employer highlights in the job ad
• Use proper fonts, margins, spacing
• Keep it concise
• Expand your knowledge with our specific CV writing guides
• Customize each CV
• Proofread your CV, let a friend read it, and print it out to see how it looks

Don’t

• Rush!
• Try to build your own CV layout
• Use multiple fonts and messy formatting
• Use images
• Include irrelevant information

Does this article explain how to layout a CV? Do you have a question, or a tip you want to share with us? Leave comment below. 

How we review the content at LiveCareer

Our editorial team has reviewed this article for compliance with Livecareer’s editorial guidelines. It’s to ensure that our expert advice and recommendations are consistent across all our career guides and align with current CV and cover letter writing standards and trends. We’re trusted by over 10 million job seekers, supporting them on their way to finding their dream job. Each article is preceded by research and scrutiny to ensure our content responds to current market trends and demand.