CV Footers: What to Include (And What to Leave Out)

## What Should You Put in a CV Footer? A CV footer should contain only essential identification information — your name and page number — and nothing more. Many candidates make the mistake of hiding contact details, LinkedIn URLs, or even personal statements in the footer, not realising that most ATS systems cannot read content placed in header and footer regions of Word and PDF documents. ## Why ATS Systems Ignore CV Footers Applicant Tracking Systems parse the main body of your document. Content placed in the Word "footer" field or the PDF footer region is treated as page furniture — similar to page numbers in a book. The ATS skips it entirely. If your phone number or email address lives only in the footer, the system may record you as having no contact information at all. This is not a theoretical risk. Recruiters regularly report candidates whose parsed profiles show blank contact fields because the information was locked inside a footer that the ATS could not reach. ## What Belongs in a CV Footer For a single-page CV, you do not need a footer at all. Everything fits in the main body. For a two-page CV, a minimal footer helps if the pages are ever separated: - [ ] Your full name (matching the header) - [ ] "Page 1 of 2" or "Page 2 of 2" - [ ] Nothing else That is the complete list. Everything else belongs in the main body of your CV. ## What Should Never Go in a CV Footer The following items are commonly placed in footers but should always be in your main CV header or body instead: - [ ] Phone number — place in your header section - [ ] Email address — place in your header section - [ ] LinkedIn URL — place in your header section - [ ] Home address or location — place in your header section - [ ] Portfolio or website links — place in your header section - [ ] "References available upon request" — remove entirely (it is assumed) - [ ] Legal disclaimers or confidentiality notices — unnecessary for CVs ## The ATS-Safe Approach to CV Contact Information Place all contact details in the first few lines of your CV's main body. This ensures both human readers and ATS systems can find them immediately: ```copy JANE SMITH London, UK | 07700 900123 | jane.smith@email.com | linkedin.com/in/jane-smith ``` This single-line format is clean, scannable, and fully ATS-compatible. No footer required. ## When a Footer Actually Helps The only scenario where a footer adds genuine value is when you are submitting a printed CV — at a career fair, networking event, or in-person interview. If physical pages could be separated, having your name and page number at the bottom ensures the reader can reassemble your CV correctly. For digital submissions (which account for the vast majority of applications), the footer is essentially invisible to the systems that process your CV first. ## Footer Formatting Tips If you do use a footer on a multi-page CV: - [ ] Use a smaller font size (8-9pt) so it does not compete with body content - [ ] Keep it centre-aligned or right-aligned for a clean look - [ ] Use a light grey colour rather than black to distinguish it from main content - [ ] Never use decorative borders or lines in the footer — they can confuse ATS parsers *For more formatting guidance, explore our [Format & Layout](/format-and-layout) insights.*