Are you looking to apply for a job? A resume is the first thing that speaks on behalf of you about your qualification and abilities. You need to take excessive care to build it right so it catches the eye of the employer and you also get selected for your dream job. One common mistake that job seekers make is creating a resume format on their own without consulting the resources available online.
There are many problems with it such as missing essential details, lack of attractiveness, lack of genuineness and missing alignment and what not. So, never risk your career by creating a format on your own. Instead, go for a predefined template that has appropriate placeholders and also tells you how a resume format should look like to increase the chances of winning.
In this post, we present you a range of winning formats to succeed in your career.
Simple Resume Templates
Are you a fresher? Or is your company demanding you to produce only essential information in brief? Then you need to go for these resumes.
This is a brief format where you can fill personal contact, educational qualification, areas of interest, professional experience and references and all these together can allow your employer to decide if you are the right fit. The advantage of this resume template is it saves the time of the employer as it defines you in a nutshell. 
These resumes are directly fillable. Just edit the name and college and you are good to go. The margins are set and the placeholders are clearly highlighted so you can fill appropriate information to display to the employer.
In these resumes, you can notice that employment history and education history are never missed. They are detailed and at the same time, unnecessary info is curtailed.
How to use a simple resume efficiently?
We have listed about 15 free resume templates in the previous section and they would have given you enough understanding on what company employers need.
Being a fresher or someone with limited experience, you may not have enough info to add under professional experience. Instead, use that section to explain about internship experience and introduce a section to list the projects you have handled. This will inform your employer about your caliber.
If you are someone who has about 2-3 years of experience and have so much to list, identify the most important points among them that will be suitable for the new position and list them in minimum words.
These resume formats are applicable to find all jobs. To make yours appear distinct, it is always a good idea not to omit the references section. Limit to one or two at the maximum and do not forget to inform their designations and roles in your career.
When you begin a new section, make sure you find and highlight it and add the supporting text in column format layout. This will allow the reader to take a quick glance at your work.
Use reverse chronological order for education and experience column. Do not change it.
Because this format saves time, it doesn’t mean that you can use it for all the employers. Some may demand you to create one that is specialized for the designation. Just alter the skills and work goals sections to align with your employer’s need.
Professional resume templates
Nothing works better than showing your professionalism right from the resume. A professional one is usually detailed and is used by people with years of experience and looking for a job change.
Some people give importance to design over quantity of contents and restrict to one page. That is again a good idea as long as the intended information is conveyed to the employer.
You can look at this one where suitable icons are added to denote the section and the skills are added on the side.
In all these pictorials, the font faces are used extremely well to differentiate between the sections and text. Similarly, the work experience is quite detailed and has all the essential points explaining the roles and duties already taken care of.
Need some editable examples? Here you go.
The key to creating a good template is to use the keywords effectively to score an instant YES from your employer.
How to use professional resumes effectively?
Even if you download and add your basic data, it is not going to be as effective as you want it to be. The reason is that the design can be attractive but the text isn’t. Here are a few tips to use it effectively:
- Give more importance to past experiences and online achievements. Before you create yours, do basic research on the commonly used keywords in the resume for the designation you are applying. Apply them to your document and proofread. An error-free sentence is what anyone would like to read.
- Even if your resume looks traditional and you have not followed a color scheme, it is still fine as long as the alignment does not get hampered while printing it.
- Include achievements that will blow their mind and ensure it is a recent event.
- Avoid mentioning outdated experiences as they only lengthen the resume but do not attract the reader.
- Always highlight the essential points in the first section. For example, you can state your career goals on the first section and this will tell them what you are looking for.
- When you are applying for an MNC hiring, it is a good idea to add professional words under skills section like time management, decision making, adaptability, communication, and leadership. All these are action words that keep your hirer aware of your ability and sometimes, the career growth is fast for people with such efficiencies.
- Now that the resume looks good, do a lookout if it is print ready.
A professional resume writing is what is needed to scale your career globally. Though there are specific formats followed in certain industries, the printables you have gone through are worth using on the go. Just take care of the words before you enter the field of professionalism just like they would want in an employee write up form!
Modern resume templates for job
If you compare the look, feel and writing of your resume with that of your parents, you can notice a vast change and yours might look modern. Thanks to the changing industry requirements and skills, the looks of the resume are also getting trendy. As a result, it is important for you to make yours look refreshing too.
Some of the modern formats are listed here for you to create your document top notch.
You can notice a few things in common in these:
- The job applicant tries to increase the credibility by adding a professional picture on the top which will also increase visibility.
- There are no histories of your educational qualification. Just the recently completed degree is added here.
- Skills are listed in the form of measures so they can understand your strengths and weaknesses.
- There is a color scheme followed throughout the document.
- The professional sources to reach out the candidate are listed just under the picture so they can make a decision accordingly and keep the contact details handy.
In fact, they look attractive and do not want them to turn pages and pages to know who you are.
This template is ideal to tell you what you should feel in each of the placeholders.
Adding a timeline of your career is extremely attractive and has more chances for you to get a job at the desired workplace. Similarly, using circular bullets under each skill look easy to understand.
If you are good at editing using Photoshop or Illustrator, here is a ZIP file comprising of formats along with the font style used.
Even when you have so much information to cover or more sections to list due to your vast experience, you can still add more pages like the format recently added. Your resume is your brand, so make sure your branding has the potential to reach anyone instantly.
The best part about this format is the correct choice of icons on the top that tells that you have the right knowledge on the subject. The addition of these statements helps you to connect with them better.
Instead of adding the usual sections, it has three sections under competencies and this technique works extremely well. The listing of transferable skills once again has an excellent choice of keywords and this is definitely a successful resume.
How to convert regular resumes to modern resume?
If you already have your conventional resume in hand, it is the right time to start and convert it into a modern one in simple steps so that it looks good to hiring managers.
- Add a color scheme to your resumes and make sure they are not bright.
- Divide your resume into different columns and sections. Let one part of the column share your personal information and the remaining detail your accomplishments and references. The main sections can be divided into goals, qualification, and competencies.
- Add graphics or icons to convey your message instead of long sentences.
- Never forget to include your picture.
- Clearly highlight who you are – for example, graphic designer or software tester and use relevant icons.
- When you list the contact details, do not add facebook or twitter. They do not help you. Instead, add professional networks like LinkedIn, Behance or Skype through which people connect and study the achievements in the past.
- Make it printable and properly aligned. Don’t use more than 2 colors in your scheme and this will create a uniformity to your resume.
Share your resume with kith and kin to take their opinions on it’s create design and then start altering it accordingly.
Creative Resume / Cover letters with resume
It is rather professional when you accompany your resume along with a creative cover letter. Often, candidates lose chances of securing a job because the cover letter is missing. There are certain things to keep in mind when you create a cover letter.
- Use the same color scheme as in the resume.
- Make sure you sign at the end of the letter.
- Highlight the designation you are applying for along with 2 top competencies along with work experience and this will increase the chances of getting selected.
- Include contact information to your cover letter in the same format as in resume. Sometimes, recruiters get clean bowled just with the cover letter that they shortlist the candidate for the next round.
Before we share more tips, here are some creative onces to explain how it looks like.
- Address the recipient of the letter.
- Mention work experience.
- Break the content of letter into multiple paragraphs – introduction, industry knowledge, appropriateness to designation, strengths, and conclusion. If you are a fresher, you can even combine the sections but have continuity between the paragraphs.
- Use action words as in resume and this will ensure consistency and inform them that you are aware of the industry and the demands of the firm.
When you send the resume, include the work experience cover letter as well.
Checklist before sending the resume
Winning chances are high if you follow certain steps:
- Do not send your resume in the form of an image. Instead, convert to PDF.
- Use a subject line that is really strong.
- Apply some personal branding right in the opening statement of your email.
- Don’t copy paste the contents of the letter in an email. Instead, address the recruiter and explain the purpose of application and call to action.
The final thing to ensure is to proofread once before you send.
Conclusion
The advantage of using these is they guide you based on the industry needs and are already equipped with relevant keywords and formatting so you just have to replace certain areas with your personal info. There are also perfect printables based on designation or industry. Choose them wisely and customize them as per the job specification. This will increase the overall accuracy of your document.
Whether you use a simple or professional or modern template, do not miss to add the default sections – contact details, qualification, experience, and competencies.
That’s it, happy job searching!
