USA Resume Format (2026): US Resume Rules, Layout and Example

US employment law limits what employers should ask applicants, and resume norms follow from it. The U.S. Equal Employment Opportunity Commission (EEOC) says pre-employment requests for information should be limited to what's essential for deciding whether someone is qualified, and that information about race, sex, national origin, age and religion is irrelevant to that decision. It also says employers should not ask for a photograph of an applicant; if one is needed for identification, it can be obtained after an offer is made and accepted.

Because of this, US recruiters don't expect to see protected information, and some employers set aside resumes with photos or personal details to avoid any appearance of bias.

Leave these off a US resume

• Photo or headshot (except acting and modeling)
• Date of birth, age, or a graduation year from decades ago
• Marital status, children, pregnancy
• Religion, political affiliation, health or disability
• Height, weight or other physical details
• Social Security number, driver's license number or passport details
• Salary history (several states and cities restrict employers from asking for it)

What you can include

Your name, city and state, phone, email and professional links. If you speak languages, list them as skills. If you're a veteran, a line about your military service and transferable skills is welcome and common.

US career services teach a concise, skimmable resume. Harvard's career office, the Mignone Center for Career Success, tells students to keep it concise, use strong action verbs, quantify results, and leave out photos, age, personal pronouns and references. In practice:

• Students and early career (0 to about 7 years): one page.
• Experienced professionals: two pages are fine if every line earns its place.
• Executives and technical specialists: two pages is still the norm; put detail in a portfolio or LinkedIn.

US resumes are written in an implied first person with no "I": start bullets with a verb in the past tense for past jobs and the present tense for your current job.

Weak: I was in charge of social media for the company.

Strong: Grew Instagram followers from 8K to 41K in 14 months by launching a weekly creator series and testing 3 posting cadences.

Numbers carry a lot of weight with US hiring managers: revenue, cost, time saved, volume handled, team size, ranking. If you can't share exact figures, use ranges or percentages. For job-specific bullets you can adapt, browse our resume examples, such as the software engineer resume example.

Most US applications pass through an applicant tracking system (ATS), software that stores applications and lets recruiters search and filter them. Common platforms include Workday, Greenhouse, Lever, iCIMS and Oracle Taleo. Many large-company postings on LinkedIn and Indeed send you to one of these.

To get through an ATS cleanly:

1. Use a single-column layout with standard headings: "Experience", "Education", "Skills".
2. Avoid text boxes, tables, headers/footers for key details, and graphics; some parsers skip them.
3. Mirror the posting's language. If it says "customer success", don't only write "client care".
4. Submit the requested file type. A text-based PDF reads well in most modern systems; send .docx when asked.
5. Expect to retype. Many systems ask you to confirm work history in a form after parsing your resume; check it for errors.

Our guide to making your resume ATS-friendly goes deeper. EZProCV's templates are single-column and download as text-based PDFs, and you can import an existing PDF or DOCX resume to reformat it.

Federal government jobs

US federal jobs on USAJOBS use a federal resume with different requirements from private-sector resumes, and those requirements have changed recently. Read each job announcement and the USAJOBS Help Center before applying.

Often the posting marks it optional. Send one anyway when you're changing careers, relocating, applying to a small company or nonprofit, or when the role involves writing. Harvard's career office advises keeping cover letters to no more than one page.

US cover letter conventions:

• "Dear Ms. Chen," with a period after the title, or "Dear Hiring Manager," if you can't find a name.
• Three or four short paragraphs: the role and your hook, two pieces of evidence, why this company, and a confident close.
• "Sincerely," or "Best regards," before your name.

Opening that works: When your team posted the Operations Analyst role, the line about "cleaning up messy data before it reaches leadership" stood out, because that's what I've done for the last three years at a regional logistics firm in Memphis.

See how to write a cover letter that gets read for more, or start from a cover letter template.

Every US employer must complete Form I-9 for each new hire to verify identity and employment authorization. That check happens at hiring, not on the resume, so you don't need to list citizenship. What recruiters do want to know early is whether you'll need visa sponsorship, because many employers don't sponsor.

On your resume or application:

• If you're authorized to work, you can add "Authorized to work in the US" or "U.S. permanent resident" under your contact details. It's optional.
• If you hold a visa or work permit, a short factual line helps: "F-1 OPT, EAD valid through August 2027".
• If you'll need sponsorship, answer the application question honestly. Target employers with a history of sponsoring for your field.
• Convert your details: US phone format if you have a US number, city and state if you're already in the US, and plain-English descriptions of foreign degrees ("Bachelor of Technology, four-year degree, India").
• Remove international extras: photo, date of birth, nationality and marital status are common in the Gulf and parts of Asia but look out of place in the US.

US work visas, eligibility rules and fees change frequently. As of October 2026, check the official USCIS working in the United States pages before relying on any route. This page is general guidance, not legal advice.