Chronological CV

This is the format most people picture when they think of a CV. After your contact details and a short summary, the experience section starts with your current or latest job, then the one before, and so on. Each entry has the employer, your title, the dates and a few bullet points of what you achieved. Education follows the same order, then skills, languages and extras.

It's one of three classic layouts, alongside the functional CV, which groups content by skill, and the combination CV, which blends the two.

Recruiters want to see your current level and recent experience first, and a reverse-chronological layout puts it right there. It's also the easiest structure for an ATS to parse, because each role is a clean block with a title, employer and dates. It suits most people with a steady work history in one field. If your history has long breaks or you're changing careers, the timeline can draw attention to that — but hiding it with a skills-only layout often raises more questions than it answers; see employment gap.

In Twin CV every experience and education entry carries its start and end year, so your timeline is always readable. Each of the 19 designs prints those dates clearly — the Chrono design even sets them in the margin — and in Options you can change the Section order, for example moving education above experience while you're still a student.