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Resume Templates

Seven free resume templates with real text that applicant tracking systems can read, each in five colors with a matching cover letter. Pick one, fill it in online, and download the PDF.

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Updated by Khokhar Sab

Which resume template should I use?

Pick the one that fits your field and how much you have to say. Harbor, a centered serif layout, suits law, finance and government. Meridian is a modern sans for tech and marketing, Datum fits the most on one page for engineers and students, and Monograph is built for senior roles that run to two pages.

Ledger hangs its headings in a left margin for a typeset look, Chronicle gives dates their own column for academic CVs, and Folio opens with a newspaper-style name for communications work. If you are unsure, start with Harbor in Ink: it prints in black alone.

What is an ATS-friendly resume template?

It is a layout that applicant tracking software can read in the right order. UC Berkeley advises standard formatting and section titles and says to avoid headers, footers, text boxes, tables, colors, pictures and graphics. These templates use none of those: real text, read in order, with titles such as Experience and Education.

Two-column designs and skill bars look striking but can come out scrambled when software reads them. Ledger and Chronicle set their headings or dates in a narrow column, yet each heading or date still comes right before its own text. For the strictest job portals, pick a template tagged Strict ATS: Harbor, Meridian or Datum.

Which resume format is best?

UC Berkeley says there is no best format for every resume, because it depends on what you have done and what you want. It suggests a chronological resume for conservative industries such as banking or a set career path, and a skills or functional resume for students with little work experience or people changing careers.

In the builder, the order of sections is yours to set: put Education first as a student, or Skills near the top for a career change.

Why use a builder instead of a Word template?

MIT's career office warns that resume templates become harder to edit over time. In the builder, your words and the layout are kept apart, so adding a job never breaks the spacing, and switching designs changes the look without retyping. The page count updates as you type, so you see when you spill onto a second page.

Need a Word file anyway? The builder also saves a Word (.docx) copy, or convert the PDF with PDF to Word.

Frequently asked questions

Are the templates free?

Yes, including the PDF download, with no account or watermark.

Can I change the color?

Yes. Each template has five colors to pick from, and the builder takes any other color too, printing it a little darker if it is too light to read.

Can I add a photo?

No. MIT notes that photos are generally not preferred on US resumes, so the templates leave them out.

Can I use A4 paper?

Yes. Pick A4 under Paper in the builder.

How this tool was built and tested