How to choose a resume format
Most resume advice starts with fonts and templates, but the bigger decision is how the page is organized. The three common resume formats are reverse-chronological, functional, and combination, which some guides call hybrid, and all three hold the same facts about you. They differ in what a recruiter sees first, and that matters because a reader skimming the page forms a view of your fit from the first section they reach.
This Purzue guide explains each format, who it suits, and the layout choices that work no matter which one you pick. For most people the answer is reverse-chronological, and the sections below explain when it isn't.
Reverse-chronological, the default for most applicants
A reverse-chronological resume lists your jobs newest first, each with a title, employer, dates, and a few bullet points. It's the format recruiters expect to see, and applicant tracking systems parse it predictably because each entry pairs an employer with a title and dates, which are the fields the software tries to fill in. The usual order runs like this:
- Name, contact details, and a link to your LinkedIn profile or portfolio
- A short summary aimed at the target role (optional early in a career)
- Work experience, most recent first
- Education, with certifications or licenses if the job calls for them
- Skills, especially tools and methods named in the job posting
Choose this format if your recent experience is relevant to the job you want and your history doesn't have long gaps that you'd prefer to explain in a cover letter. That describes most applicants, including people early in a career whose most recent role is an internship, a part-time job, or a first full-time position. A recent graduate with little work history can move education above experience and keep everything else the same.
Functional, and why recruiters are wary of it
A functional resume groups accomplishments under skill headings like "Project management" or "Client relations," and it lists employers briefly at the bottom or leaves them off. The format was designed to put transferable skills first and play down gaps or unrelated jobs. The trouble is that a recruiter can't tell when or where you did the work, and many read the format as a sign that something is being hidden.
It causes software problems too. Applicant tracking systems look for employer, title, and date groupings, so a resume without them can arrive in the recruiter's view with an empty or scrambled work history. We don't recommend a functional resume for most applications. People in some situations still use one, like someone returning after many years away or a freelancer with dozens of short engagements, but a combination format usually solves the same problem without the drawbacks.
Combination, for career changers and mixed histories
A combination resume opens with a short highlights section of three to five accomplishments chosen for the target role, then follows with a standard reverse-chronological work history. The reader sees your most relevant proof first and still gets a clear timeline. It suits career changers, people returning after a gap, and anyone whose strongest evidence comes from an older job or from volunteer work.
Keep the highlights section tight. Each item should name what you did and what came of it, in a line or two, and the whole section should take up no more than about a third of the page. If it grows past that, the reader has to dig for your dates, which brings back the problem the format was meant to avoid.
How long should a resume be?
One page is the common expectation early in a career, and two pages is normal for someone with ten or more years of relevant experience. The better test is whether every line supports this application. Older roles can shrink to a single line each, and jobs from more than ten to fifteen years ago can often go entirely unless they're relevant to the role.
Some settings have their own rules. Since September 27, 2025, USAJOBS limits resumes for most federal job announcements to two pages, following the U.S. Office of Personnel Management's merit hiring plan. Academic and research jobs often ask for a CV, which is a longer record of publications, teaching, and grants. In the UK, Ireland, and much of Europe, "CV" is the everyday word for what Americans call a resume.
Layout choices that work with any format
Whatever format you choose, a few layout habits keep the page easy for both software and people to read. Use a single column, standard section headings like "Experience" and "Education," and a common font at 10.5 to 12 points with margins of half an inch to an inch. Put dates in the same place for every entry, and keep contact details in the body of the page, since some systems skip headers and footers.
Templates from design tools often use two columns, icons, and skill bars. They can look polished, but some parsers read the columns in the wrong order and drop the graphics entirely. The guide to getting a resume past ATS covers file types and the parsing problems in more detail.
A quick way to decide
Ask whether your most recent job is the best evidence you have for the role you're applying to. If it is, use reverse-chronological. If your best evidence is older, or comes from outside paid work, use a combination format so the highlights reach the reader first. Save the functional format for the rare case where a recruiter or career counselor who knows your field recommends it.
Once the format is set, the next step is fitting the content to each posting, which the guide to tailoring a resume to a job posting covers. If you're building your first full draft from scratch, exporting your LinkedIn data saves you from retyping your history.
