Most CV advice online still treats format like a personality test: "are you more chronological or functional?" That's not how recruiters read CVs. They scan the top third for six seconds, look for a job title and a recent employer, then decide whether to keep reading. Format choice is downstream of that scan.

This post covers what to actually pick in 2026, the section order that survives ATS parsing, and the spacing rules that make a single page feel breathable instead of cramped.

The three formats, ranked by what works

Reverse-chronological is the default and should stay the default unless you have a strong reason otherwise. It puts your most recent job at the top, then works backward. Recruiters expect this layout and ATS systems parse it cleanly. Use it if your last three roles tell a coherent story.

Functional (skills-grouped, dates buried) is sold as a way to hide gaps or pivots. It mostly signals "this person is hiding something" because that's what 90% of functional CVs do. Skip it.

Combination (a skills summary on top, then reverse-chronological below) is the only honest hybrid. Use it for a real career change where your skills don't map onto your last job title. Two or three lines of summary, then dates as normal.

If you can't decide, it's reverse-chronological. The format isn't where your CV wins.

Section order that gets read

The order that survives a six-second scan:

1. Header — name, one phone number, one email, city, LinkedIn URL. No photo for US, UK, Canada, Australia. Photo is standard for France, Germany, Spain, most of Latin America.
2. Professional summary — 3 to 4 lines, written for the role you want, not the role you've had. Skip the objective statement; nobody reads them.
3. Experience — most recent first. Job title in bold, employer next, dates on the right. Three to five bullet points per role, each starting with a verb.
4. Education — degree, institution, year. Move it above experience only if you graduated in the last two years and the degree is more relevant than your jobs.
5. Skills — a tight list, grouped if useful ("Languages," "Tools"). Avoid soft-skill clichés like "team player."
6. Optional sections — certifications, languages, publications, volunteering. Include only what strengthens the application.

If you list awards or hobbies, put them last. They're the first thing cut when a recruiter prints two pages and only reads one.

Length: one page or two

The one-page rule is enforced more in the US than anywhere else, and even there it's softening. The real rule:

• 0 to 7 years of experience: one page.
• 8+ years or technical roles with project depth: two pages, and use them.
• Academic CV or government/medical specialisms: longer is fine and sometimes required.

The failure mode isn't length. It's a two-page CV that could have been one — pad lines, repeated bullets, a skills list that runs eighteen items long. If you cut to the bone and still need two pages, take the two pages.

Spacing, fonts, and visual rules

Recruiters don't notice good design. They notice bad design. The defaults that don't get noticed:

• Fonts: Calibri, Helvetica, Arial, Source Sans, or Garamond at 10 to 11.5 pt body, 14 to 16 pt for your name.
• Margins: 0.5 to 0.75 inches all around. Tighter than 0.5 reads cramped.
• Line spacing: 1.0 to 1.15. Single-spacing only if you're squeezing onto one page.
• Color: one accent color maximum, used for headers or your name. Black body text always.
• Bullet density: three to five bullets per role. More than five and the section visually flattens; fewer than three and the role looks unfinished.

Headers should be visually distinct but not loud. Bold + a slightly larger font is enough. Underlines look dated.

ATS parsing — the part most templates get wrong

A CV that opens beautifully in Word can come out as scrambled text inside an Applicant Tracking System. The traps:

• Tables and columns — many ATS read left-to-right across columns and turn your CV into nonsense. Use a single-column layout for any role that goes through an ATS portal.
• Headers and footers — text inside a Word header field often gets dropped. Put your contact info in the document body.
• Text inside images or icons — ATS can't read it. The skill icons that look slick on a portfolio look invisible to a parser.
• Non-standard section names — call it "Experience," not "Where I've Made an Impact." The ATS keyword extractor matches on the standard label.

If you build in Canva or a graphic tool, export a parallel plain version for portals that ask for a CV upload.

A working template

If you want a starting point that handles ATS, layout, and section order out of the box, Postulit builds CVs from a LinkedIn profile and ships them in the formats most recruiters expect. It's the fastest way to skip the format-decision stage and get to writing strong bullets.

Format is the table stakes. The bullets are where you actually win the interview.