Pick a clean, professional template that highlights leadership and school outcomes. Use a reverse-chronological layout so your recent principal roles appear first.
Keep length to one page if you have under 10 years in school leadership. Use two pages only if you have long, directly relevant leadership and curriculum history.
Choose ATS-friendly fonts like Calibri, Arial, Georgia, or Garamond. Set body text to 10–12pt and headers to 14–16pt. Keep line spacing at 1.0–1.15 and use clear margins for white space.
Use common headings such as Contact, Summary, Experience, Leadership Impact, Certifications, Education, and Skills. Put measurable results in bullet points, like enrollment growth or test score gains.
Avoid overly creative graphics, multiple columns, or heavy color. Those elements can break parsing and distract hiring teams. Favor simple bolding and clear section dividers instead.
Watch for frequent mistakes. Don’t use uncommon fonts or PDF features that ATS can’t read. Don’t cram text by shrinking fonts to fit. Don’t use vague bullets without metrics. Keep dates aligned and use consistent verb tense.