How to Write a CV in 2026

The 6-second test your CV must pass

Before a recruiter ever reads your CV, an applicant tracking system (ATS) parses it. If the structure is unclear, your CV never reaches a human. Multi-column resumes score an average of 18 points lower in independent ATS benchmarks, and sidebars are the single most common cause of parsing failures.

A modern CV is optimised twice: once for machine parsing, and once for a fast human skim. This guide walks you through every section in the order a recruiter will read it.

1. Header & contact block

Put your full name, job title, city + country, phone, email, and one or two links (LinkedIn, GitHub or portfolio) in plain text at the top. No icons inside the text, no text boxes, no tables.

2. Professional summary (3–4 lines, not a paragraph)

Your summary must answer three questions in under 50 words: how many years of experience do you have, what is your specialism, and what evidence backs it up? Generic phrases such as “committed to delivering high-quality solutions” are invisible to both ATS keyword matching and experienced recruiters.

Template that works

[Role title] with [X] years of experience building [type of product] using [top 3 technologies]. Experienced with [domain specific detail]. Delivered [named project/outcome]. Strong in [differentiating skill].

3. Experience: the section that actually gets you hired

This is where most CVs fail. Generic bullet lists that read as job descriptions (“Develop and maintain web applications”) tell a recruiter nothing. Every role needs four structured elements:

• Employer name (or "Freelance / Client" if under NDA).
• Your title.
• Start and end date (month + year).
• 3–5 achievement bullets — each one contains an action verb, a concrete deliverable, and where possible a measurable outcome.

Before / after

Generic →

“Develop and maintain web applications using JavaScript and SQL.”

Specific →

“Built a Node.js + PostgreSQL rewards platform serving ~3,000 monthly active users; reduced average API response time from 480 ms to 140 ms by adding query indexing and Redis caching.”

4. Projects (especially for junior or transitioning roles)

If your experience is mostly personal or open-source, a Projects section is mandatory — not optional. Use the same structure as Experience: name, stack, 2–3 bullets describing what it does and how you built it, and a public link.

5. Skills section — categorised, de-duplicated, truthful

Group skills by category (Languages, Frameworks, Databases, DevOps, Testing, Cloud). Avoid listing the same skill twice in different places — duplicate skill blocks cause ATS ranking noise.

• Only list tools you have actually used in a commercial or published project.
• Mirror exact names from the job posting (e.g. "React", not "ReactJS"; "Node.js", not "NodeJS").
• Include DevOps (Docker, CI/CD) and testing frameworks — these are among the most searched keywords in 2026.

6. Education

Always include degree title, institution, city, and both start and end year. A single date (e.g. "Feb 2016") confuses recruiters — did you graduate or drop out? Be explicit.

7. Certifications, languages, and links

Name each certification individually ("AWS Certified Cloud Practitioner, 2024"). A generic "Certificates" link that the reader must click through tells them nothing.

Your 10-minute checklist

1. Single-column layout. No sidebars.
2. Standard font (Calibri, Arial, Georgia). No ligatures.
3. Every role has name, title, dates, location.
4. Every bullet starts with an action verb.
5. At least three measurable outcomes on the page.
6. Skills categorised, not a flat list.
7. Contact info visible within first 2 cm of the page.
8. File saved as both PDF and DOCX.
9. Filename: FirstName-LastName-Role.pdf.
10. Run the CV through a free ATS checker before you submit.

When you are ready, use one of our recruiter-tested single-column templates — they are built to score well on ATS parsing and stay readable for the human scan that follows.