The US Resume Format,
Built Free in 2026

One page for roughly every ten years of experience. A student or early career applicant should always fit on one page, a mid career professional can justify two, and almost nobody outside academia needs three. American recruiters skim fast and reward density: short bullets, strong verbs, numbers wherever they exist. If your resume runs long, the fix is nearly always cutting old detail rather than shrinking the font.

No, and this is the rule that surprises applicants from Europe, the Middle East, and Asia the most. US employers avoid photos because federal law bans hiring decisions based on race, age, sex, and appearance related traits, so a photo creates risk they do not want. Many recruiters set photo resumes aside entirely. FreeCV templates only show a photo if you choose to add one, so the American default is simply to not add it.

In America they are different documents. A resume is the short one or two page summary every normal job application wants. A CV is the long academic document listing publications, grants, and teaching history, and it is only used for academic, research, and some medical positions. If a US job ad says resume, send the short version. Sending a six page CV to a marketing role reads as not knowing the market.

If you are a citizen or green card holder, you do not need to say anything. If you need sponsorship or are on OPT, CPT, or another status, the honest play is one plain line near your contact details, such as authorized to work in the US, or F1 OPT valid through 2027. Employers ask early anyway, and surprising a recruiter after three interviews wastes everyone including you.

Month and year, written like May 2024 or 05/2024, always in month first order. Writing 12/05/2024 where you mean the 12th of May will be read as December 5th by every American who sees it. Safest is spelling the month out: June 2023 to Present.

US Letter, which is 8.5 by 11 inches and slightly shorter and wider than A4. Almost every other country uses A4, so PDFs built abroad often print oddly in the US. FreeCV lets you pick the page size in the design panel, so you can download this application in Letter and your next Sydney application in A4 from the same resume.

No. Skip the references section and skip the references available upon request line too, because recruiters know they can ask. The space is better spent on one more achievement bullet. Have a separate references list ready to send when someone requests it, usually after an interview.

An ATS is applicant tracking software, the system that stores and filters applications before a person reads them. In the US it is close to universal at scale: 97.8% of Fortune 500 companies used a detectable ATS in 2025 per Jobscan. That is why keyword matching matters. FreeCV includes a free checker that scores your resume against any job posting and lists the keywords you are missing.

Start from your existing CV and subtract. Remove the photo, date of birth, nationality, marital status, and any long personal statement. Cut to one or two pages, lead every bullet with a verb, add numbers, and switch to American spelling. Put your phone in international format with the country code. The conversion section on this page walks through exactly what to delete and what to keep.

Not required, but useful once you have a few years of experience. Two or three lines at the top stating what you are, your strongest proof, and what you are aiming at. Skip the objective statement that describes what you want from the employer; the summary is about what they get from you. Entry level applicants can drop the section entirely and let the education and projects speak.

A clean standard font at a readable size: Arial, Calibri, Helvetica, Georgia, or similar at 10 to 12 points. Nothing decorative, nothing below 10 points to force a page to fit. FreeCV templates ship with safe font pairings so this is one decision you do not have to make.

Yes, in almost every case. Most recent job first, working backwards. American recruiters and ATS software both expect it, and the functional format that hides dates tends to read as hiding something. If you have a gap, own it in one line rather than reorganizing the whole document around it.

No. Building, the AI assistant, templates, the ATS checker, and the PDF download are free with no signup and no watermark, rated 4.4 out of 5 by 1319 users. A one time $19 PRO upgrade adds premium templates, Word export, and higher AI limits, and it is genuinely optional.

No. Open the builder and start typing. Your work saves in your browser through local storage, and you can build, edit, and download the PDF without ever entering an email address. An account is optional and only needed if you want your resumes available across devices.

Yes, and in the US market you should. Paste the job posting into the ATS checker, see which keywords are missing, and let the AI rework the relevant bullets. Ten minutes per application, and tailored resumes match postings far better than one generic version sent everywhere. Keep one master resume and adjust a copy per role.