Creating the Best Resume Format in 2025

The best resume format in 2025 is a well-organized one, with an informative summary of your abilities, education, and experience. A resume alone won’t get you a job or internship, but a great one is an important factor in obtaining an interview.

In this guide, we will go over what the different resume formats are, and what the best one will be for you to use is in 2025. We will also be including specific help on how to create the perfect one for you.

Key takeaways for the best resume format in 2025

The most widely used and generally preferred resume format is the chronological or reverse-chronological format. This format lists your work experience in reverse order, starting with your most recent position, making it easy for recruiters to understand your career progression and identify your strengths.

Here’s why it’s the best choice for most job seekers wondering how to write a resume in 2025:

Choosing the right format

Different resume formats are designed to emphasize different strengths. Specific formats are also suggested for different experience levels, such as an entry-level format that places education higher to highlight academic achievements.

Below are the three most common and best resume formats to use in 2025.

Chronological resume

The chronological resume (or reverse chronological resume) format highlights your work experience, starting with your most recent job.

This is a popular type of resume format because it quickly shows recruiters your career progression and how your competencies and skills have developed over time.

It works well for candidates with steady jobs. This helps employers spot patterns of growth, promotions, and specialization easily. Most applicant tracking systems (ATS) work best with this format. So, it’s great for online job applications.

Here is an example of what a chronological resume looks like:

Functional resume

Instead of your work experience, the functional resume places your skills center stage at the top of your resume. Your job history is pushed to the bottom with minimal detail.

This format shows your skills and achievements, especially those gained from non-traditional ways. This includes coursework, personal projects, or volunteer roles. Career changers, recent graduates, and those with gaps in their work history often use it. This format shifts the focus from timelines to the value you offer in a new role.

Read more: Functional Resume Template: Should You Ever Use One?

Here’s an example of a functional resume template:

Combination or hybrid resume

The hybrid resume, also called a combination resume, combines the chronological resume format and the functional resume format.

It highlights the job seeker’s skills and achievements section first (like a functional resume) followed by work experience (the focus of a chronological resume format). While the chronological resume format seems a bit too traditional to some modern job seekers, the functional resume format is typically not preferred by hiring managers.

Think of it like Goldilocks and the Three Bears: the hybrid resume is the resume format that’s “just right.”

Here’s an example of a hybrid resume template:

Getting started on the best resume format

The key objective of your resume is to highlight your strongest assets and skills. The ultimate goal of creating one with the best resume format is to highlight your strengths and get an interview.

When you are getting started with your resume, there are several ways to effectively highlight your strengths and skills:

Tailoring your resume

It is crucial to tailor your resume to the specific type of position you are seeking. This doesn’t mean every past experience must be a direct match, but rather that the skills you choose to highlight should be those that the employer would value for the targeted role.

Customizing helps focus on the experiences most relevant to the job or industry.

In a recent study conducted by Jobscan, we found that over 99.7% of the 384 recruiters use filters in their ATS or similar system to find the right candidate to interview. That’s why tailoring your resume is so important.

The best way to tailor your resume, and create ATS-compatible resumes, is by using helpful tools like Jobscan’s free resume builder. By choosing one of five free ATS-friendly templates, you know you’ll be using the best resume format possible right from the start. You can import an existing resume, start from scratch, or pull information directly from your LinkedIn profile.

Below is an image of what the best resume templates in 2025 looks like in the builder tool.

It helps you create a well-structured resume that uses the right keywords. This way, you can impress hiring managers.

Using specific and action-oriented language

Resume language should be specific rather than general. When describing your experiences, use action verbs. Focus on what you accomplished or contributed, and emphasize measurable results and relevant achievements where possible. Quantifying and qualifying your points helps demonstrate results.

Structuring for visibility

The format and layout play a significant role in making your strengths visible. Recruiters often scan resumes quickly, so the document must be well-organized, concise, and easy to skim. Using brief statements in the form of bullets or sentences helps achieve conciseness and readability.

Bullet points are specifically recommended in experience, skills, or education sections to allow employers to easily read the most relevant information.

Dedicated sections

Including dedicated sections for “Skills” is essential for listing specific technical abilities, languages, software proficiency, and other relevant competencies. Highlighting these helps recruiters quickly identify if you possess the required qualifications.

Best resume formatting tips

The format of your resume is as important as the content itself. Its primary purpose is to deliver an easily scannable document that allows employers to quickly see why you’re a good fit for the job. Good formatting ensures your resume is well-organized, concise, or easy to skim, and it helps make your strongest assets and skills visible.

The goal is to make the document clear, easy to scan, easy to read, and professional. Formatting helps impress employers and emphasizes your professional strengths.

Here are the key formatting elements for the best resume layout:

Page length

Do your best to keep your resume to one page. If it’s longer, focus on making ideas concise. You can definitely create a two page resume, but it will have to be justified. The two page resume is ideal, and even beneficial, for job seekers with five years or more experience in the same career field.

Margins

Apply appropriate margins. Standard margins are one inch on all sides. If you need more space, you might reduce margins, but they should be no less than 0.5 inch on all sides. Text that spans outside 0.5-inch margins might get lost when processed by an ATS or converted to PDF.

Font choice and size

Select a professional, readable font. Avoid fonts that are intricate or hard to read on screen or paper. Many ATS don’t read intricate fonts well. Recommended fonts include Avenir, Calibri, Cambria, Corbel, Garamond, Georgia, Helvetica, etc..

The best font size should generally be between 10 and 12 points. Use 12-point font if you have a shorter resume to fill space; use 10-point if you have a lot of information. Avoid “light” or “thin” fonts. Your name should be in a larger font than the rest of the resume.

Section headers

Use a clear section hierarchy using headings (like “Experience”) that are distinct from the section body. Headings should be in order of importance. Avoid inserting lines that span across the page, as these can cause ATS errors.

Bullet points

Use brief statements in the form of bullets or sentences. Bullet points are specifically recommended in your experience, skills, or education sections to allow employers to easily read the most relevant information. Use bullets to list achievements. Avoid using only one or two bullets in a section; list them without bullets if there are fewer than three.

The easiest way to make sure you’re using bullet points effectively is to use Jobscan’s bullet point generator.

White space

Balance white space to make it easy to read and follow. Overcrowding the page makes it overwhelming and hard to scan.

Text alignment

Left-align all text on your resume as it’s easiest to read, but you can center-align your name and contact information if you’d rather.

Common mistakes in creating the best resume format

Below are some of the common mistakes that you should avoid when creating your resume. Avoiding these errors is important because employers often scan resumes quickly, and Applicant Tracking Systems (ATS) evaluate them before they reach a human reviewer.

Here are the key mistakes highlighted in the sources:

Formatting and organization mistakes:

Content to exclude:

FAQs