US Resume Format (2026) — Rules, Sections & Free Template
The US resume is short, achievement-led and deliberately impersonal. No photo, no age, no marital status, no full address. Employers screen through applicant tracking systems and equal-opportunity rules discourage personal data, so every line has to earn its place with evidence.
American resumes omit anything an employer is not allowed to consider. Photos, dates of birth, gender, marital status and nationality are left off entirely — including them can cause an application to be discarded for compliance reasons rather than merit.
The word 'CV' means something different in the US: an academic document used for research, faculty and medical positions. For every other job, the correct word and format is a resume.
City and state only — no street address
Reverse-chronological experience is the default expectation
Include a LinkedIn URL; recruiters check it
State work authorisation only if the posting asks about it
Section order for the US format
Recruiters spend under ten seconds on the first pass, so the top third of page one has to carry your best evidence.
Header: name, target job title, city and state, phone, email, LinkedIn
Professional summary: 2–3 lines with your strongest quantified result
Core skills: 8–12 keywords matching the posting
Professional experience: company, title, dates, 3–5 achievement bullets
Education: degree, school, graduation year (GPA only if above 3.5 and recent)
Certifications, licences and relevant volunteer work
Passing US applicant tracking systems
Most mid-size and large US employers use an ATS. The failure modes are predictable: text inside images, multi-column layouts that scramble reading order, headers and footers that get stripped, and creative section names the parser does not recognise.
Mirror the job posting's exact wording for hard skills. If it says 'Salesforce' and you wrote 'CRM software', a keyword-matching filter will score you lower than a weaker candidate who used the right noun.
Use standard headings: Experience, Education, Skills, Certifications
Save as PDF unless the posting specifically requests .docx
Avoid tables, text boxes, icons and columns in the contact block
Spell out acronyms once: 'Certified Public Accountant (CPA)'
Frequently asked questions
Should a US resume be one page?
One page for students and professionals with under about ten years of experience. Two pages is standard for senior candidates. Never pad — American recruiters read density as competence.
Do I need a photo on an American resume?
No. Photos are avoided on US resumes for equal-opportunity reasons and some employers discard applications that include one.
Is a resume objective still used in the US?
Rarely. A professional summary that leads with results has replaced it for most candidates. An objective is only useful when you are changing careers and need one line to explain the pivot.