Resume Formatting: Margins, Spacing, & Fonts

Your resume format is the way you structure and organize your resume. Resume formatting, on the other hand, refers to margins, fonts, and spacing.

Show your attention to detail and professionalism by following these basic resume formatting guidelines:

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Resume formatting guidelines

Follow these guidelines to properly format your resume:

Left-align the content

Left-aligning content makes it easy for employers to read through your qualifications and easily find the information they’re looking for.

However, if you need to save space, right-aligning minor details on your resume like your education, certifications, or awards section is acceptable.

Use 1″ margins

In most cases, you should use 1” margins on your resume. However, anywhere between ½”–1″ is acceptable.

For example, if you have less work experience you should be able to fit all your qualifications on a one page resume with 1″ margins. But you may prefer to use narrower margins if you have years of work experience and need to fit more information on the page.

Select a professional, easy-to-read font

The font used on your resume should be professional and easy to read. Generally, this means sticking to commonly used fonts like Times New Roman or Calibri.

The most important thing is that your font choice doesn’t distract from the qualifications on your resume.

Here are some of the best fonts to use on your resume:

• Times New Roman
• Cambria
• Georgia
• Garamond
• Helvetica
• Calibri
• Didot
• Arial Narrow
• Trebuchet MS
• Lato

Additionally, the font size used for the body content of your resume should be between 10 and 12 points, depending on the font you’re using and your space requirements. Meanwhile, your name and section headers should be larger to help break up your resume into sections.

Divide your information into clear sections

All the information on your resume should be divided into clear sections. This makes your resume easier for employers to scan through and find the information they’re looking for.

At a minimum, here are the sections you need to include:

1. Header
2. Introduction
3. Work experience
4. Skills section
5. Education

If you want to highlight more information on your resume, you can add additional sections for things like volunteer work, awards, or publications.

Use bullet points for your work experience

All the details of your work experience should be formatted in concise bullet points that highlight some of your key professional accomplishments.

Each bullet should start with a specific action verb that highlights what you did while at your previous or current job. You should also include hard numbers when possible to illustrate the exact impact you made while working in each role.

For example, mention the estimated dollar amounts you saved, number of sales you made, or customers you helped.

Try our AI bullet point generator to get started writing effective bullet points for your work experience section:

Keep your resume an appropriate length

The ideal resume length for most people is one page, especially if you’re a recent graduate or have less than five years of work experience.

Hiring managers are typically busy, and one page gives you enough space to summarize your main qualifications and achievements without using up their time.

However, if you have more than 10 years of relevant work experience, you can use a two page resume to communicate the depth of your experience and skills.

Additional resume formatting tips

Here are some additional tips for making your resume flow better:

Don’t use first-person pronouns

Your resume should always be written in an implied first person perspective, meaning that you describe your responsibilities and accomplishments as your own, but omit “I” or “me.”

If you started each bullet point with first-person pronouns, your resume would get repetitive fast. For example, “I built this,” “I executed this strategy,” “I increased sales.”

Hiring managers understand that everything on your resume is referring to your own experience, so just directly state what you accomplished.

Don’t double space your cover letter

Double-spacing your resume creates too much white space, which makes your resume look empty. You don’t want employers to think that you don’t have enough accomplishments to fill a one page resume. If you’re a recent graduate or still in school, you can include volunteer experience, student government positions, or school projects to make your resume longer.

The bullet points of your resume should always be single spaced. However, you should use double spacing directly underneath your resume header and each section heading to add visual breaks on the page.

Use past-tense when explaining previous work experience

If you’re currently employed and writing about experience from your present job, use the present tense for any responsibility that isn’t a one-time accomplishment. However, all your former jobs or achievements should be described using the past tense.

Stick to a consistent date format

The dates on your resume should follow a consistent format. For example, most job seekers state the month and year they began employment somewhere, followed by a dash and then the end date (or “Present” if the position is ongoing). Like this:

Content Editor
May 20XX–August 20XX
Big Software, New York, NY

However, it’s important to make sure you stick to the same formatting throughout your resume. If you start stating only the years you were employed (and not the months) halfway through your resume, it’s likely to confuse employers.

Proper resume formatting template

Here’s a resume template with proper formatting that you can copy and paste into Google Docs or Microsoft Word and fill out with your own information. This template is designed to help you stick to the basic resume formatting guidelines mentioned above.

Final resume formatting checklist

Before you send off your application, here’s a final checklist to make sure your resume formatting is correct and helps you come off as a professional: