Resume Templates

What is a resume?

A resume is a job application document that provides potential employers with an overview of your most relevant career accomplishments and skills.

A good resume includes five essential sections: contact information, professional summary, work history, skills and education. You can learn how to create these sections in our How to Write a Resume article.

You can customize your resume with additional sections to showcase various achievements, but you must only present the most relevant information to the desired job.

How do I write a resume for a first job?

If you’re writing a resume for your first job, the work experience section will seem like the biggest challenge. Fortunately, recruiters understand that applicants for entry-level jobs won’t have much formal experience.

The best thing you can do is write a functional resume that shares skills and achievements from informal experiences like volunteering or extracurricular activities from school.

You can learn everything about writing a resume for a first job in our article: How to Write a Resume With No Experience.

How to write a resume summary?

A resume summary is a brief paragraph that aims to convince employers you’re the best candidate. Your resume summary should feature your most relevant and impressive qualifications.

A good formula to follow for writing a resume summary is:

[Soft skills to describe you as a professional] + [job title and years of experience] in [area of expertise as stated in the job description]. Adept at [two of your best, job-relevant skills]. [An impressive career accomplishment or other skills and qualifications.]

You can find more writing tips and resume summary examples in our How to Write a Resume Summary guide.

How to format a resume?

When it comes to formatting your resume, you should follow these essential formatting tips:

• Include the five main resume sections: contact information, summary, work history skills and education.
• Use a font size between 10-12, and opt for easy-to-read font types like Arial or Times New Roman.
• Your resume’s margins should be 1 inch on all four sides of the page.
• Ensure your line spacing is at 1.5.

In addition, you can also choose one of the three recruiter-approved resume formats. Depending on your experience level and the role you want, you’ll choose between the chronological, functional and combination formats.

How do you list skills on a resume?

Your resume should include at least one section with six to twelve skills.

You should also have a balanced mix of soft, and hard skills to showcase practical knowledge and interpersonal abilities.

You can browse over 250+ resume skills, for every job and industry and check out examples of skills sections for all resume formats.

How long should a resume be?

A resume’s ideal length is one page because it allows recruiters to scan your achievements. However, don’t try to force it.

A resume can extend beyond one page, and two-page resumes are standard for professionals with more than three years of experience.

A good rule is to include one page for every 10 years of experience.

How to list work experience on a resume?

When listing work experience on a resume, you must do so in reverse-chronological order. You first list your current or most recent job and work backward until your first relevant role.
Some details every listed job should include are:

• Job title
• Employer/company name
• Location (city and state)
• Dates of employment

When writing your work experience, you’ll want to focus on unique accomplishments instead of responsibilities to ensure you stand out from other applicants. Another way you can wow recruiters is by adding quantifiable achievements, which utilize numbers, percentages and dollar amounts to show your work’s impact.

Do you offer free resume templates?

Yes. Our resume templates are free to download when you use our Resume Builder’s free version. Just build your resume step-by-step and download it as a txt file.

You can also find free downloadable resume templates in our templates library. Our free resume templates have instructions in each section that tell you how to write a resume effectively.

We know the job search process can be overwhelming; however, our Builder simplifies resume writing by providing you with professionally designed resume templates and content suggestions tailored to your role.

With various payment options, you can download your resume in minutes across multiple file formats like doc, pdf and jpg.

How do I use resume templates? And how do I pick the right resume template?

A resume template simplifies the writing process by providing a pre-formatted document where all you have do is type in your information.

You can use a resume template on our Resume Builder and get personalized content for all your sections, effectively reducing the time and effort it takes to write a resume.

You can also download our resume templates in Google Docs or Microsoft Word.

However, not all resume templates out there are created by professionals. If you want to pick the right resume template for you, ensure it meets the following criteria:

• Includes all the five essential resume sections: contact information, summary, work experience, skills and education.
• Offers clean, visually appealing designs; this applies to both simple and creative templates.
• Has a healthy balance of text and white space; it shouldn’t look cramped.
• Simplifies the resume-writing process by being easy to customize.

All of our resume templates meet these requirements, so check them out in our resume templates library.

How to make a cover letter for a resume?

Pairing your resume with a cover letter is a great way to boost your chances of getting hired.

For example, 47% of employers said they wouldn’t hire a candidate who didn’t know about the company they were applying to.

A cover letter is the perfect place to show you’ve researched a company and how you would fit into it.

A cover letter can help you advance your career prospects in many ways:

• You can share additional skills and qualifications you couldn’t fit into the resume.
• You can provide context and details on how you achieved specific goals and accomplishments.
• It allows you to share your passion for your profession.
• It allows you to establish a personal connection to the role, i.e., if a current employee referred you to the job.

We can help you write a personalized cover letter you can easily edit with specific details in our Cover Letter Builder.

You can also learn how to write a perfect cover letter from scratch and check out some cover letter examples, in our How to Write Cover Letter guide.