US Resume Format: How to Write a Resume for American Jobs

How US hiring works, and what a resume is for

In the US, a resume is the document for almost every job in business, technology, healthcare, retail and government. It is short, targeted and adjusted for each role. A CV means something else: a long academic record used for faculty, research and many medical posts. Our CV vs resume guide explains the difference.

Most applications reach employers in one of these ways:

• Company career sites: you upload a resume, and an applicant tracking system extracts the text and maps it to fields. Many sites add screening questions about work authorization, location and years of experience.
• Recruiters and staffing agencies: common in technology, finance, healthcare and light industrial work. Agency recruiters sometimes reformat your resume before sending it to their client.
• Referrals: many employers run employee referral programs, and a referral can get your resume read sooner.
• Government: federal jobs are posted on USAJOBS, which has its own resume rules (covered below). States, counties and cities run their own job portals, often with a detailed application form.

Because the first reader is often software, plain section headings and real, selectable text matter. Our guide to ATS-friendly resumes covers the details.

The US resume layout, section by section

This is the standard order for most US resumes. Students and recent graduates move Education up, straight after the summary.

1. Header: full name, phone, professional email, city and state ("Austin, TX"), and a LinkedIn URL. Add GitHub or a portfolio if your field uses one. A street address isn't needed.
2. Summary: two or three lines on your role, strengths and a headline result. A one-line objective is now rare; use it only if you're a student or changing careers and your target isn't obvious.
3. Skills: a short, grouped list of the tools and abilities the job posting names, such as "SQL, Python, Tableau; A/B testing; stakeholder reporting".
4. Experience: reverse-chronological. Job title, company, city and state, month and year dates, then three to five bullets that start with a verb and show a result.
5. Education: degree, major, school, and graduation month and year; GPA and honors if they help (see the GPA rules below).
6. Additional sections: certifications and licenses, projects, volunteer work, languages, security clearance. Use only the ones that strengthen this application.

References don't go on the resume. If an employer wants them, it will ask, usually late in the process, and you send a separate list with two or three names, titles and contact details.

Length, paper size and file format

Length: one page is the norm for students, new graduates and most people in their first several years of work. Two pages are common once you have a longer record of relevant experience, and senior candidates often need them. Move to a second page only when it holds material a recruiter would want. Our one-page vs two-page guide goes deeper.

Paper size: the US uses Letter paper (8.5 by 11 inches), not A4 (210 by 297 mm). A4 is slightly narrower and a little taller. A PDF set to A4 looks fine on screen, but if a recruiter prints it on Letter paper, the printer may shrink the page or clip the bottom lines. If you're applying from India, the UK or elsewhere, check your PDF's page size before you send it, and keep margins between half an inch and an inch.

Fonts and layout: a clean single column with a standard font at 10 to 12 points is the safe choice. A two-column design can work if the text still reads in a sensible order when it's copied out.

File format: PDF, unless the posting asks for Word. Name the file "Firstname-Lastname-Resume.pdf" so it's easy to find in a pile of downloads.

What to leave off a US resume

Federal and state equal-employment laws prohibit hiring decisions based on race, color, religion, sex, national origin, disability and age (40 and over, under federal law), among other traits. Most US employers would rather not see details that reveal them, so leave these out:

• A photo. Your LinkedIn profile can have one; the resume shouldn't.
• Date of birth or age, marital status, children, religion, gender, height and weight.
• Nationality or citizenship, unless the job requires it, as some government and defense roles do. Work authorization is a separate line (see below).
• Social Security number. Never put it on a resume; it's an identity theft risk, and employers collect it after hiring.
• Salary history. California, Massachusetts, New York and many other states and cities bar employers from asking for it, and there's no reason to volunteer it anywhere.
• "References available upon request" and a list of hobbies, unless a hobby is directly relevant to the job.
• Very old detail. Experienced candidates often drop graduation years and jobs from more than about 15 years ago, and that's perfectly acceptable.

If you're converting an Indian, Gulf or European CV, this list is where most of the editing happens: the photo, date of birth, father's name, marital status and declaration all come off.

GPA, honors and education rules

Education rules in the US are fairly settled, and recruiters notice when they're broken.

• When to include GPA: a common rule is to list it if it's 3.5 or higher on a 4.0 scale; some recruiters treat 3.0 as the cut-off. Below that, leave it off and let projects and experience speak.
• How to write it: "GPA: 3.7/4.0". If your major GPA is higher than your overall one, you can list it instead, labeled clearly: "Major GPA: 3.8/4.0".
• Don't round up. Write the number on your transcript. Turning a 3.46 into a 3.5 is exactly the kind of detail a transcript check catches.
• When a form asks for it: many consulting, finance and campus recruiting applications do. Give it honestly, even if it's lower than you'd like.
• When to drop it: after a year or two of full-time work, GPA usually comes off and education moves to the bottom.
• Honors: Latin honors (cum laude, magna cum laude, summa cum laude), Dean's List semesters and named scholarships go on the education line.
• Grades from outside the US: give the original scale, such as "CGPA 8.6/10" or "First Class (Indian scale)". Don't convert it to a 4.0 figure yourself; if an employer needs a US equivalent, a credential evaluation service can provide one.

High school details and SAT or ACT scores come off once you're in college, unless an internship application asks for them. For a student layout, see our internship resume template.

Work authorization and sponsorship: what to write

US application forms commonly ask two questions: are you legally authorized to work in the United States, and will you now or in the future require sponsorship for an employment visa? Answer both honestly. Every new hire's eligibility is checked on Form I-9 when they start, so there's nothing to gain from being vague.

The resume itself doesn't have to mention your status. A short line helps, though, when your education or recent jobs are outside the US and a recruiter might otherwise assume you need a visa. Put it at the end of the header or in an Additional section:

• "U.S. citizen" (most useful for roles that require citizenship or a security clearance)
• "U.S. permanent resident; authorized to work for any employer"
• "F-1 OPT, employment authorization through June 2027; eligible for STEM OPT extension"
• "Will require H-1B sponsorship"

Use the precise term and dates. Don't write "no sponsorship needed" if your current status will end and you'll need a visa later; the "now or in the future" question covers exactly that. For defense and some federal work, an active clearance is a real asset, so list it: "Active Secret clearance". Never include visa numbers, passport numbers or your Social Security number.

American spelling, dates and style

Write in American English, even if you learned British spelling at school. Set your spellchecker to English (US) and watch for these:

• -ize and -yze: organized, prioritized, analyzed.
• -or and -er: color, behavior, labor, center, meter.
• Program, for software and for training programs alike.
• License and practice, used as both noun and verb.
• Single l before an ending: traveled, modeling, canceled (but enrollment and fulfill take a double l).

Dates: month and year, such as "Jun 2023 to Present". Avoid all-number dates; 04/06/2024 means April 6 in the US and 4 June in most other countries.

Location: city plus the two-letter state code ("Columbus, OH"). For a remote job, write "Remote" or "Denver, CO (Remote)".

Style: no "I", "my" or "responsible for". Start each bullet with a strong verb, in the past tense for past jobs and the present tense for your current one, and show scale with numbers. Weak: "Responsible for customer onboarding." Stronger: "Onboarded 45 enterprise customers a quarter and cut setup time from 3 weeks to 9 days." Our list of resume action verbs has more to choose from.

Federal resumes on USAJOBS work differently

Federal government jobs are posted on USAJOBS, the official site run by the Office of Personnel Management (OPM), and a federal resume asks for details a private employer rarely would. For each relevant job, include:

• Employer, job title, and start and end dates by month and year.
• Hours worked per week. It affects how much qualifying experience you're credited with.
• For federal jobs you've held, the series and grade, such as "GS-0343-11".
• Duties and results written to match the announcement's specialized experience statement, in its own wording.

Federal resumes used to run to several pages. Since September 2025, OPM has limited resumes for most federal jobs to two pages, and USAJOBS won't accept a longer one where the limit applies, so all that detail has to be tight. A few agencies and positions outside the standard rules can allow more, and the job announcement says what it accepts. Read the announcement in full, answer the questionnaire honestly, and make sure your resume backs up every level of experience you claim. State and local governments run their own portals with their own forms. If you're aiming at public-sector work, keep a separate federal version rather than stretching your private-sector resume to fit.

Making a US resume with ResumeInk

If you have a CV from another country, you can turn it into a US-style resume without retyping it.

• Upload a PDF, Word file or photo of your current CV; the AI reads the content and lays it out in a designed template.
• Click any text to edit it: change British spellings, tighten bullets, or use the optional AI help to tailor your wording to a job posting.
• Hide sections a US employer doesn't expect, such as Personal Details or a Declaration, reorder the rest, or add a custom section for work authorization.
• Leave the photo off. Sidebar, Portrait, Compact header and Timeline can show one for markets that expect it, but every layout works without it; Classic is a clean single column, and Compact header is the densest if you're fitting everything on one page. You can switch among all 260 designs in one tap, and your words stay.
• Check the ATS score, or run your file through the ATS resume checker, then download a clean PDF.