How to structure a one-page CV for humans and ATS

A CV has two readers. The first is often software: an applicant tracking system (ATS) that stores applications, pulls out names, dates and job titles, and lets a recruiter search them. The second is a person who skims the page, usually quickly, before deciding whether to read on. A good CV works for both, and the things that help one rarely hurt the other. This article walks through a one-page structure, rewrites a few weak bullets, and lists the layout choices that confuse parsers. The examples use the resume builder, whose templates are all one column of real text for exactly this reason.

The structure, top to bottom

1. Name, large, on its own line.
2. Headline: the role you are applying for, in the words the advert uses ("Data Analyst", not "Passionate problem-solver").
3. One contact line: e-mail, phone, city, and one link (LinkedIn or a portfolio). No street address is needed.
4. Summary: two or three sentences. What you do, for how long, what you are best at.
5. Experience, most recent first. Each job: title, employer and place, dates, then two to four bullets.
6. Education: degree, school, years. Grades only if they are recent and strong.
7. Skills: one or two lines, grouped (tools, languages, certifications).

If you are a student or changing careers, put Education or Projects above Experience. The resume builder's arrow buttons move a whole section, so you can make a version for each kind of application without retyping anything.

A worked example: rewriting the bullets

Most CVs list duties. Recruiters look for results. Compare:

• Weak: "Responsible for weekly sales reports."
• Better: "Automated the weekly sales report with Python, saving about a day of work each week."

• Weak: "Worked on inventory reporting."
• Better: "Rewrote the inventory report queries, cutting run time from 40 to 6 minutes."

The pattern is: a verb for what you did, the thing you did it to, and what changed, with a number when you honestly have one. Only use numbers you can explain in an interview. "About a day a week" is fine if that is what it was; an invented percentage is not.

How much fits on one page

With the builder's example (name, headline, contact line, a three-line summary, an education entry and a skills line), we generated PDFs with more and more jobs, each with three bullets of about the example's length. On A4 paper, the Classic and Modern templates fit 7 such jobs on one page and the Compact template fits 9. Most people do not need that many: three or four recent roles with real bullets beat seven roles with thin ones. If your PDF comes out at two pages, the tool says so; more than two and it warns you. Trim older jobs to one line each (title, employer, years) before you shrink the text.

What tracking systems read well, and what trips them up

An ATS reads the text inside your file, in the order the file stores it. What tends to work:

• One column. Two-column layouts can be read across the columns, mixing a date from the right with a job title from the left.
• Standard headings: Experience, Education, Skills. Creative headings ("Where I've been") may not be recognised as a section.
• Real text. A CV designed in an image editor and exported as a picture contains no text at all for the software to read.
• Dates in one format (Mar 2023 – present, or 03/2023 – now), placed next to the job they belong to.
• Contact details as plain text, not inside a header area, an icon or an image.
• The advert's own words where they truthfully describe you. If the advert says "stakeholder management", say that rather than a synonym.

No CV tool can guarantee how every system behaves, and some employers ask for a Word file. Follow the application instructions first.

Common mistakes

1. A photo, date of birth, marital status or ID number when nobody asked for them. Many international employers prefer you leave them out, and they take space from your experience. Some local employers do ask; include them then.
2. Duties instead of results, as in the examples above.
3. Inconsistent dates, such as "2021–2023" in one place and "Jan 2024 – now" in another. Pick one format.
4. Keyword stuffing, such as hidden white text or a block of every buzzword. People notice, and it reads badly when someone does open the file.
5. Three pages of everything. Cut what does not support the job you are applying for.
6. A file called cv-final-v3.pdf. Use your name; the builder names the file after you automatically.
7. Sending a CV with a typo in the e-mail address. Copy your contact line from the PDF into a new e-mail and send yourself a test.

Keeping it editable

A PDF is the version you send, not the one you edit. In the resume builder, Save as JSON downloads your CV as a small data file; open it next time and every section comes back. Nothing is uploaded at any point, which matters for a document that holds your phone number and work history. Build your CV in the resume builder, and if an application wants it merged with certificates, the PDF toolkit can combine the files.