How to Choose a Professional Resume Template

Updating your resume is indeed the first step towards your dream job.

Not only the content you add to a resume is important but the design and resume format are crucial as well to impress the recruiter.

A template serves as a basic structure of a resume. You just need to add all your information to it. It helps in figuring out what information to put in a resume and in what order.

A pre-designed resume template arranges your information in a more presentable and ATS-friendly manner.

With advanced formats and ever-changing job scenarios, resumes have evolved into something more than just words and sentences arranged together to form a piece for application.

After the pandemic, the focus on resumes has intensified. With up-to-date skills, a candidate also needs an intriguing resume format and appealing design to grab the recruiter’s attention.

Times are gone when candidates used to design resume formats in word.

With the presence of numerous online resume builders, the above task has become convenient as you can pay for resume rewrite services and focus on skill development rather than banging your word on figuring how to create modern resume designs in Microsoft Word.

In this guide, we will discuss how to choose the right template for your resume in accordance with your job trajectory, believing that you have your professional experiences and other mandatory requirements up-to-date.

Or one can rely on Hiration for that purpose. Not only does it provides amazing resume templates but also can ramp-up your content to make your resume stand out and pass the 7-second test.

Here we are to help you out on how to choose a professional resume template.

1. Questions to Ask Yourself

Before going further on resume designs, start by answering these questions.

• What kind of company are you applying for?
• What is the company’s culture?
• What skills are they asking for?
• How to reflect your personality? And to what extent?

Answering these questions will help you to choose the right resume template. To initiate the resume updating process, you should know about the company and the job profile you are applying for.

1. Choosing the right resume template

Among thousands of options, you have to choose the format which best describes your professional career trajectory. Where a single-column resume serves fresh candidates, a two-column resume is an optimal choice for mid-senior candidates with a minimum of 5 years of experience. Among thousands of options available, from traditional to modern, it can become overwhelming to choose one.

2.1 Difference between a single-column and two-column resume

Single Column Resume

This is the most simple resume layout. These kinds of resumes give an ample amount of space to be used for inserting information. It gives a more traditional look to a resume. Also, these resumes are highly Automatic Tracking System (ATS) friendly.

Mid-level professionals i.e with an experience of 7 years and entry-level professionals are recommended to go for single-column resumes.

Two Column Resume

This type of resume is less wordy and to the point. It looks more attractive to the eye. But not all ATS systems can scan two-columned resumes correctly and the recruiters might need to spend a few seconds more on the resume.

High-level professionals who are focussing more on skills are recommended to go for two-column resumes. However, there are no strict rules regarding the choice of your resume.

But attention, your resume should not look like a painting anyway. You’ll have to keep it within professional limits.

1. The Order of Resume

With so many sections on a resume, it’s very important to choose the right order of sections to enhance its effectiveness. The order of your resumes completely depends on you. You can choose any one of these three:

3.1 Reverse-chronological

This is the most commonly used resume order. These are generally used by professionals who want a similar job, freshers, and students for their academic resumes. It may look like:

• Contact Information
• Career Objective/Summary
• Professional Experience
• Education
• Skills Section
• Additional Information

3.2 Functional or Skills-based

It puts more emphasis on the skills of the candidates. These are used by the professionals who are looking for creative jobs and the professionals who don’t want to look overqualified for the job. The order of a functional resume may look like this:

• Contact Information
• Career Objective/Summary
• Skills Section
• Professional Experience
• Education
• Additional Information

3.3 Combination or Hybrid or Chrono-functional

These are used by experienced professionals for a specific position or post, candidates who are looking for a career change, and people with quite a long employment gap. The order of the combination resume goes like this:

• Contact Information
• Skills Section
• Professional Experience
• Education
• Additional Information

1. Bonus Tips

Here are some tips for you to amplify the impact of your resume.

• Margins – Ensure that you have left enough margin on the sides so that the document gets perfectly printed
• Header – Add correct contact details in the header of the document
• Font Size – Don’t choose a very large font for the main body content, keep it 10-12 points
• Bubbles or Graphics – Don’t use bubble or graph or some graphics as it can make it difficult for the resume to pass the ATS scan
• Highlight – Embolden the words that highlight your skills, qualities, or some quantifying figure
• Bullet points – If you have a very large ‘Professional Experience’ section then instead of writing a paragraph try to write it in single-line bullet points to increase the readability of the content
• Order – Divide your resume into various sections in the correct order i.e Summary, Skills (including Technical Skills), Professional Experience, Achievements, Education, Volunteer Experiences, and Additional Information
• Apt Spacing – Include proper spacing between sections to avoid making them look clustered
• Photograph – Don’t put your photo on the resume, unless the job description asks for it or if you are a media personality like a news anchor or host
• Format – Always submit the PDF format of your resume unless stated otherwise, to avoid disruption of the format of the template

Key Takeaways

With this, we come to the end of this blog. Here are the key takeaways from it.

• Evaluate the job profile and the company to choose a resume template
• Go with the company’s websites to choose from traditional and modern designs
• Put the sections of your resume in an order that looks well-thought and tidy

You can definitely save a lot of time and effort if you choose a resume template from Hiration. All you need is to choose from many designs available and get it done quickly.