CV styles

[HumanityConfirmed]

I am looking for a job and have noticed that some CVs have a wide margin on the left hand side containing some information such as profile, skills, training, etc. and then the main bulk of the CV (work experience and education) in the main section. Is this the way it's done nowadays or is it an American thing? This is for a pastoral role in secondary education by the way. Many thanks.

I volunteer for a charity assisting people back to work and they would highly recommend against this way of formatting.

CVs should be on pink paper in comic sans serif and sprayed with your favourite perfume

I have mine with the date on the LH margin, then a block of text with job title in bold and a description of what the job entailed.

Similarly:
date. Alevels

Can I ask a question too? If you're in the middle of a beginners language course, would you add that on cv?

And do 35 year olds really need to list hobbies or that they captained a uni sports team?

The advice I've read is to keep CV formatting simple. Use a common font and avoid fancy layouts. This is because a lot of companies will scan your CV into a computer before it's ever read by a person, and flashy CVs just confuse the machine.

The exception is if your career is actually in design, art, or similar.