Two questions come up with almost every CV: should it have a photo and a date of birth, and which design should it use? Neither has one right answer. The honest answer depends on where you apply, who reads the CV first, and how it reaches them. This article sets out what the evidence and the usual guidance say, then works through two versions of the same CV built in the resume builder: one for a Vietnamese company, one for an international one.
The photo: expected in some places, unwanted in others
In Vietnam, a portrait photo on a CV is common. Vietnamese recruitment guides such as CareerLink describe it as the norm for local employers and suggest a plain background, office clothing and a standard portrait crop; jobs where appearance is part of the work (reception, sales, events) treat it as necessary. Some job ads say outright that the CV should include a photo.
In the United States and the United Kingdom, the default is the opposite. Career guides from Jobscan and others note that many US employers prefer CVs without photos, because a picture reveals characteristics such as age, sex and ethnicity that hiring decisions must not depend on, and some companies would rather not receive that information at all. UK careers services give similar advice: keep appearance out of the first screening.
A photo also does nothing for an applicant tracking system (ATS), the software that extracts text from your file. It cannot read a face, and a large image only adds file size.
Practical rule: include a photo when the employer is local and expects one, or when the job ad asks for it. Leave it out for international companies, applications abroad, and online portals that do not ask. If you include one, use a recent head-and-shoulders picture with a plain background, cropped so your face is centred.
The date of birth: rarely needed
The same pattern applies, more strongly. Some Vietnamese job ads ask for a date of birth, and a few application forms require it. In the UK, age is one of the characteristics protected by the Equality Act 2010, and UK CV guidance generally says to leave the date of birth off unless you are asked for it. Many international employers in other countries follow the same habit. A date of birth uses a line that could show a skill or a result, so include it only when it is requested.
In the resume builder both are off by default. The photo has its own Show switch and the date of birth a Print checkbox, so you can keep them stored in the CV and switch them on or off for each application without deleting anything.
Which template suits which job
All eight templates in the builder contain the same content in reading order, as real text, with no tables or text boxes. What differs is the look, and one layout difference that matters for software: Sidebar uses two columns. Its PDF stores the text in a sensible order (name, contact, skills, then experience), but some parsers sort text by where it sits on the page, which can interleave the columns. For an application that goes into an online portal, choose a single-column template.
| Template | Looks like | Suits |
|---|---|---|
| Classic | Centred name, ruled headings | Conservative fields: law, finance, public sector, academia |
| Modern | Coloured header band | Most office jobs; a safe default for portals |
| Sidebar | Coloured side column with contact and skills | CVs sent by e-mail or handed over in person, design-minded fields |
| Minimal | Headings in a quiet left margin | Design, technology, research |
| Executive | Serif headings, double rule | Senior and management roles |
| Compact | Dense, small headings in tinted bars | Long careers that must fit one page |
| Timeline | Dates on a vertical rail | Careers with a clear progression of roles |
| Bold | Large name, strong accent blocks | Sales, marketing, creative roles |
Why does a simple layout matter to people as well? In a 2018 eye-tracking study by the job site Ladders, recruiters spent an average of 7.4 seconds on the first screen of a CV before deciding whether to read on, and CVs with simple layouts and clear section headings held attention better than cluttered, multi-column ones. Whatever template you choose, the top third of page one decides whether the rest is read.
A worked example: one CV, two applications
Take the Vietnamese example CV in the builder: a data analyst with two jobs, a degree, two skill groups and two languages.
Version 1, a Vietnamese retail company. Template Modern, Language of the CV set to Tiếng Việt, A4. The photo is switched on (circle crop) because the job ad asks for one; the date of birth is printed because the company's form asks for it. Headings come out in Vietnamese ("Kinh nghiệm làm việc", "Học vấn") and the current job reads "03/2023 – nay".
Version 2, a regional office of an international company. Duplicate the CV in the builder's saved list, switch the CV language to English and rewrite the entries in English. Switch the photo and date of birth off, change the template to Classic and the paper to US Letter if the office is in North America. The dates now read "03/2023 – Present", and the headings are the standard English ones that tracking systems recognise.
Both versions live side by side in the browser, so the next application of each kind starts from the right one.
How much room is there? We measured with the builder's example content (summary, education, two skill groups, two languages) and kept adding jobs with three bullets each. On A4, Classic holds five such jobs on one page and Compact holds seven. With Fit to pages set to 1, which shrinks text and spacing to no less than 80 %, Classic holds seven. If you need more than that, the older jobs should be cut to one line, not squeezed.
Common mistakes
- Using a selfie or a cropped group photo. If a photo is expected, it should look like a document photo, not a social-media picture.
- Sending the same photo-and-birth-date CV everywhere. Keep two versions instead of one compromise.
- Choosing a two-column design for an online portal. Save Sidebar for CVs a person will open directly.
- Mixing languages. An English CV with Vietnamese headings, or "nay" next to an English date, looks unfinished. Set the CV language and the defaults follow it.
- Shrinking the font until it fits. Below about 9 pt, a CV is tiring to read. Cut content first; let Fit to pages do only the last few lines.
- Low-contrast colours. Pale yellow or light grey headings vanish when printed. The builder darkens a colour automatically when text in it would be hard to read.
Summary
Follow the job ad first. Local employer that expects a photo: add one and keep the date of birth only if asked. International employer or online portal: no photo, no date of birth, single-column template. Build both versions in the resume builder and keep them saved on your device; nothing is uploaded. For the content itself, see how to structure a one-page CV for humans and ATS.