The format in one glance
| Element | Irish convention |
|---|---|
| Paper | A4 portrait. Not US Letter: a Letter PDF prints with a cropped bottom margin on Irish office printers. |
| Length | Two pages maximum. One page is normal for students and first jobs. |
| Order | Reverse-chronological: newest job and newest qualification first. |
| Photo | None. |
| Personal data | Name, town and county, mobile, email, LinkedIn if it is current. No date of birth, nationality, marital status or PPS number. |
| Font | One plain font, 10.5 to 12 pt body, name at 18 to 22 pt, bold section headings. Calibri, Arial, Georgia and Garamond all read well. |
| Margins | About 2 cm all round. Narrower than 1.5 cm looks crammed when printed. |
| File | PDF named Firstname-Surname-CV.pdf. Word only if the ad asks. |
| Referees | One line: “References available on request”. |
Section order, top to bottom
- Header. Your name as the largest text on the page, then one line of contact details: town and county (a full postal address is not needed), mobile number, a sensible email, LinkedIn URL if the profile matches the CV. Do not put the word “CV” or “Curriculum Vitae” as a title. The recruiter knows what it is.
- Personal profile. Two to four sentences directly under the header: who you are, your strongest measurable result, and the role you are going for. This is the only paragraph of prose on the whole CV.
- Work experience. Newest role first. Each entry: job title in bold, employer, town, dates (month and year). Three to five bullets for recent roles, one line for anything older than ten years. Bullets start with a verb and end with a number wherever one exists.
- Education. Newest first. Degree or award, institution, year. For the Leaving Cert, the year and the school are enough once you have a further qualification; list subjects and grades only while it is your highest award.
- Skills. A short list, grouped (software, languages, licences, certifications). Match it to the job ad. Leave out “Microsoft Word” unless the job is about Word.
- Optional extras. Certifications with dates (Manual Handling, Safe Pass, HACCP, Garda vetting where relevant), volunteering, interests if they say something specific. Each one line.
- References. “References available on request.” Names and numbers go to the employer only when asked.
The order is fixed for experienced applicants. If you are a student or changing career, education can move above experience, and a “Relevant experience” block can sit above “Other experience”. The first-job CV and Leaving Cert CV pages show that variant.
A full sample in the Irish format
Below is a complete two-page CV reduced to text. The builder produces exactly this layout as a Word or PDF file; the examples page has more roles.
Aoife Murphy
Maynooth, Co. Kildare · 087 123 4567 · aoife.murphy@email.ie · linkedin.com/in/aoifemurphy
Profile
Retail supervisor with five years’ experience leading teams of up to 12 in a high-volume grocery store. Cut stock loss 15% and top of the region for add-on sales two quarters running. Looking to move into assistant management.
Work experience
Retail Supervisor · Grocery superstore, Maynooth · Mar 2022 to present
- Plan weekly rosters for a 12-person team, cutting overtime spend 8%
- Ran the stock-loss action plan that took shrink from 2.1% to 1.8% in a year
- Trained 8 new starters on tills, service standards and manual handling
- One of three keyholders; open and close the store four days a week
Sales Assistant · Grocery superstore, Maynooth · Sep 2020 to Mar 2022
- Top of the region for add-on sales in Q3 and Q4 2021
- Resolved 20+ customer complaints a week with a 90% same-day close rate
Waitress · Café, Maynooth · 2018 to 2020 (part-time, during college)
Education
BA in Business and Management · Maynooth University · 2020 (2.1)
Leaving Certificate · Maynooth Post Primary School · 2017
Skills and certifications
Rostering and labour budgeting · Stock control (SAP Retail) · Cash handling and banking · Manual Handling (2025) · Full clean driving licence
References
Available on request.
Irish, UK, US and Europass: what changes
| Irish CV | UK CV | US resume | Europass | |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Length | 1 to 2 pages | 1 to 2 pages | 1 page | Often 3 or more |
| Photo | No | No | No | Optional field |
| Personal data | Contact details only | Contact details only | Contact details only | Date of birth, nationality fields |
| Paper | A4 | A4 | US Letter | A4 |
| School leaving | Leaving Certificate | A-levels, GCSEs | Usually omitted | Free text |
| Referees | On request | On request | Separate sheet | Not included |
If you are arriving from outside Ireland, the two things to change are the photo and the personal data. Many European CVs carry both, and an Irish recruiter will quietly set the CV aside rather than risk a discrimination complaint over information they never asked for.
Layout mistakes that cost interviews
- Two columns. A sidebar with skills or a coloured band looks modern on screen and scrambles when an applicant tracking system reads it. Single column, top to bottom.
- Text in tables or text boxes. Same problem: the parser reads the box last or not at all. Use ordinary paragraphs and bullets.
- Skill bars and star ratings. They cannot be read by software and mean nothing to a person. “Fluent French” beats four out of five stars.
- A third page. Cut roles older than ten years to one line each before the CV ever runs long.
- Dates in the margin only. Keep the dates on the same line as the job title so they survive copy and paste.
- Headers and footers with your contact details. Some systems drop headers entirely. Put the details in the body of page one.
What to do with the format
The format is the easy part; the words are the work. The how-to-write guide covers the profile and the achievement bullets, and the cover letter guide the page that goes with it. The free builder holds the layout above fixed so you only have to fill it in.
Frequently asked questions
What is the standard CV format in Ireland?
A4, one or two pages, reverse-chronological. Contact details at the top, a short personal profile, work experience newest first with achievement bullets, education, skills, then "References available on request". No photo, no date of birth, no PPS number.
Is an Irish CV different from a UK CV?
Barely. Both are two-page, photo-free, reverse-chronological documents. The differences are local: Irish CVs list the Leaving Cert rather than A-levels, use the county in the address, and referees are "on request" rather than named.
Should I use the Europass CV format in Ireland?
Not for Irish employers. Europass is long, form-like and includes fields Irish recruiters do not want (nationality, date of birth). Use it only if a European institution specifically asks for it.
Should I send my CV as Word or PDF?
PDF unless the ad asks for Word. PDF keeps the layout identical on every screen. Recruitment agencies sometimes ask for Word so they can strip your contact details before sending it to a client.
What font and size should an Irish CV use?
A plain, widely installed font at 10.5 to 12 point: Calibri, Arial, Georgia or Garamond. One font for the whole document, name slightly larger, headings bold. Margins of 2 cm or so.