Best Resume Formats for 2024 (with 10+ Templates!)
A well-written CV starts with selecting the right resume format.
But what is the best resume format for you? More importantly, which format is the most effective in helping you land your dream job?
In this Resume Format Guide for 2024, we will explore various resume formats, identify the best resume format for you, and share templates for you to get started with these effective resume formats.
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In This Guide:
Resume Guideline
Your resume layout matters.
Here are the standard rules you should follow when formatting a resume:
- Set one-inch margins on all four sides. This keeps your resume neat and ensures that you don’t have large, stretched blocks of text that look unprofessional.
- Pick an 11 or 12pt resume font and stick to it. Choose an attention-grabbing (but professional) font. We recommend Roboto or Overpass.
- Divide your resume into legible sections: Contact Information, Resume Summary, Work Experience, Education, and Skills.
- Use bullet points to list work achievements and responsibilities, academic details, etc. They help make the resume much more readable.
- Be consistent with your resume formatting (stick to the exact date format: e.g., 11–2018 or November 2018.)
- Use single or 1.15 line spacing. You don’t want the information on your resume to look all cramped up.
- Add an extra space before and after each section heading.
- Don’t make your resume longer than one page. Unless you have many years of relevant work experience, there’s no reason for your resume to be two or three pages long.
- Don’t use photos on your resume. Unless the job description specifically asks for them.
- Permanently save your resume as a PDF file. It’s the safest choice, as it guarantees your resume layout will stay intact no matter what device opens it.
Top 3 Resume Formats in 2024
There are 3 Resume Formats dominating the Resume Writing industry in 2024:
- Reverse-chronological
- Functional
- Combination (of Reverse-chronological and Functional Resumes)
What are these formats exactly, and how do they differ?
1. Reverse-chronological Resume Format
The Reverse-chronological format puts your latest work experiences at the top, followed by past work experiences.
This is the most common resume format used by jobseekers. You might even be following this format with your own resume too!
2. Functional Resume Format
The Functional format emphasizes more on your skills than prior work experience. It is also known as a “skills-based resume”.
In this format, your Key Skills and Areas of Expertise dominate the top of your resume, followed by Work Experiences curated to show how you’ve applied your skills across different roles you’ve held in your career.
3. Combination Resume Format
As its name suggests, the Combination format merges elements from the Reverse-chronological and Functional formats.
This results in a resume with a strong emphasis on your skills, but also an emphasis on work experience arranged in a chronological manner.
Of the 3 formats, most jobseekers will likely follow the reverse-chronological format.
It’s effective, clear, and simple to read.
It works very well for entry-level and mid-level workers.
But trouble arises when you progress into your career. The reverse-chronological format could lead to a very lengthy CV of more than 2 pages.
Your resume might read like an autobiography, outlining every nitty gritty detail in your career.
Over time it becomes very difficult to read, and more ineffective at landing you new jobs.
So what can you do?
At ResumeWriter, we’ve written thousands of effective Resumes that land our clients jobs (we refund their purchase if they don’t!)
And we’ve found that one format is the most effective at catching the readers’ attention, so you can land a new role.
(Hint: It’s none of the above three formats!)
Best Resume Format in 2024 (Recommended by Us)
- Senior Sales Director with 10+ years of experience in B2C sales to clients in industries such as FMCG, F&B, hospitality, and automotive.
- <More career overview or key workscope lines here>
- Discover how to write an Executive Summary here
- Lead team of 10 executives to drive all aspects of sales and marketing for leading FMCG brand.
- Prepare strategic business plan, monthly reports, setting of revenue targets, and business forecasts.
- <More work descriptions here>
- Consistently exceeded sales target by 120% month on month.
- Learn how to Write Accomplishments on your Resume here.
- <Insert work descriptions here>
- <Insert achievements here>
- <Insert work descriptions here>
- <Insert achievements here>
- [Degree], [Course], [Institution] | YYYY-YYYY
- [Degree], [Course], [Institution] | YYYY-YYYY
- Technical Skills: MS Office Suite
- Languages: English, Chinese
- Availability: 1 months’ notice
References available upon request [There’s no need to list your references; if HR is interested in you they will ask you for them.]
After 10 years of writing CVs, we’ve discovered that this resume format works best in 2024 that brings real results for our clients.
Why?
- It is concise. Starting your Resume with an Executive Summary tells recruiters all they need to know about your career highlights in a snap.
- It captures your skills. Our resume format captures the skills-based resume format, and more.
- It showcases your value-add. Achievements are added separately from Work Experiences, making your unique accomplishments crystal-clear.
- It shows your career narrative. A career narrative helps you stand out from other jobseekers with a similar background as yourself.
- It is readable by ATS scanners. By inserting headers and keywords that ATS scanners look out for, your resume becomes more parsable and more likely to be sent to a human reader.
It is readable by humans. Our resume format is more modular than a reverse-chronological format. This tells recruiters your critical career highlights, while keeping your resume concise and readable.
| Want our exclusive Resume Format? Download our free Resume Templates today! |
8 Resume Formatting Tips to Beat ATS Scanners
Our resume format is effective, but can only get you so far if it’s filled with ineffective content.
Here are some resume formatting and writing tips to bear in mind:
- Ensure section headers are clearly stated in your CV so ATS Scanners can parse them effectively:
- Name and Professional Title
- Personal/Contact Information
- Executive Summary
- Key Skills/Technical Skills
- Work Experience
- Achievements
- Education & Professional Qualifications
- Awards & Certifications
- Miscellaneous Information
- Choose an appropriate font. We suggest:
- Times New Roman
- Arial
- Garamond
- Remove photographs from your resume.
- Keep your resume as short and as concise as possible. Leave out work descriptions that are already implied or obvious.
- Focus on your current and latest 2-3 work experiences. Condense or omit earlier roles such as internships and part-time jobs if possible.
- Quantify your Achievements and Work Experiences where possible.
- Ensure sufficient spacing between sections and sentences so your resume is readable.
- Save your Resume as a PDF or Microsoft Word file.
| Check out our CV Writing Guide to learn more Resume Writing tips and strategies! |
Now that you’ve learnt our most effective resume format, why not try writing one of your own?
Get extra resume help and download one of our 10+ Resume Templates today! Our templates are designed in our recommended format and written by professional resume writers.
10+ Resume Templates with our Resume Format
#1 Timeless Black
Timeless Black is a simple yet elegant ATS friendly template. Recruiters love this for its condensed text block and easy to read sections.
#2 Professional Blue
Simple yet distinctive in style. A slight shade of blue that looks great even when printed in black & white.
#3 Professional Black
An all black variation of our professional template.
#4 Classic Red
A clean template with an exciting dash of red. Perfect if you’re looking to stand out with a bit of colour.
#5 Classic Blue
A blue variation of our classic template. A more understated but still colourful option.
#6 Bold Red
A striking template with bold text and distinctive red tones. Gives a very macho feel.
#7 Modern Blue
A more contemporary style, with dashes of blue scattered throughout.
#8 Modern Purple
Variation of our modern template, with a fun hue of purple.
#9 Modern Green
Variation of our modern template, with a touch of green to add colour to the CV.
#10 Simple Violet
Simple template with a fresh shade of violet.
#11 Simple Green
Variation of our simple template with a soothing tone of green.
Common Questions about Resume Formats
What resume formats do you recommend?
The majority of people can stick with the Reverse-chronological Resume Format. A Functional Resume Format can be a better option if you have more skills than experience.
What is the most common resume format?
The Reverse-chronological Resume Format is the most commonly used CV format across the board, with the vast majority of templates using this style.
Are a resume format and resume template the same thing?
The answer is that no, not really. Whilst a template is a downloadable document that gives you a skeleton of your CV and will set out your format, the format itself is the order of which you choose to write your CV. So whilst they’re related, they’re not the same thing.
How do I write a simple resume?
Writing a simple resume doesn’t have to be difficult. As long as you include all of the essential items of a CV (like your Executive Summary, Achievements and Experiences of your career, you should be fine.
Outside of his professional pursuits, he enjoys road cycling, diving deep into biographies, and devouring copious amounts of dumplings.
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