Resume Templates For Microsoft Word

Use A Template That Hiring Managers Are Used To

Plus, contrary to popular belief, hiring managers prefer simple resumes like the ones above. Hiring managers care about one thing your professional experience and fancy, overly creative designs make it harder for them to figure out if your experience is actually relevant to the role. Always use a format thats consistent with what theyre used to. This is why you should use one of the hundreds of available Word resume templates on our site.

Why Use A Resume Template

Resume templates are handy tools for job seekers for a number of reasons. Firstly, it allows you to spend more time polishing up the content instead of worrying about the layout and design.

Secondly, it gives first-time job applicants a better idea of how much to write and the sections to focus on. This also applies if youve been out of the job market for a while and havent had to edit your resume recently.

Before you sprint ahead to the templates, here are some resume dos and donts you should know.

Royal Blue Word Resume Template

Use your royal blue Word resume template to convey professionalism, confidence, and a sleek touch for a mid-career professional.

• The dark blue is particularly good at conveying a sense of knowledge, seriousness, and security, which are appealing qualities for hiring managers seeking an advanced professional like yourself. The light blue adds contrast and is associated with compassion, an essential characteristic of good management.
• Job titles that may be especially suitable for your Royal Blue Word resume template include account manager, team lead, regional manager, operations manager, and executive assistant.

Read Also: How To List Publications On Resume

Cv Templates For Every Job

If all jobs were the same, how boring the world would be! Thats why weve created CV templates that can work for every experience level, field and job title. All thats left to do is choose the one that speaks to you. A great CV template can help show off your personality and professional style, so make sure to pick a template that captures the message you want to send to the employer.

The first step is to take into account the employers image and branding. What tone do they use on their website? Is the logo full of fun, bright colors or does it reflect a more reserved approach? Once you have a better idea of the companys values and style, you can choose a template that aligns with their tone. Some companies will prefer a bolder approach whereas others appreciate a toned-down CV template.

When in doubt, its a good idea to go with a more subdued CV template. Thats because even a simple template can offer a great mix of style and functionality. If you havent quite gotten a feel for the company tone, a neutral template with strong lines or a bold font can help you find the balance a CV template thats professional but never boring!

Creative & Simple Resume Template For Word

If youre an artist or illustrator, this resume template will allow you to craft an amazing resume to showcase your work and talents. It includes a resume, cover letter, and portfolio page layouts. Each page layout is fully customizable and comes in multiple file formats.

A free one-page Word resume template for freelancers. With this resume, you can highlight your online portfolio and skills in a simple layout. Its perfect for applying for online and remote jobs.

Also Check: How To Submit A Resume

Email Marketing Resume Template

Download this template here.

Red color never fails to stick out on a sheet of paper, especially if it’s included in small amounts. The resume template for email marketers, below, captures that balance.

In addition to the professional title in the top-righthand corner, this template also stands out with a thin sans-serif font, helping make a lot of text easier for a recruiter to digest and read through.

Recommended for: Email Marketers

If you are an email marketer who wants to highlight successes in your previous campaigns without boring the viewer with the details, this resume template is perfect for displaying bite-sized information.

How To Use Word Resume Templates

There are two ways you can get your hands on a Word resume template.

You can either go with a pre-customized Word template that comes with the software, or you can use an external template made by designers and career experts for Word specifically.

Lets start with the resume templates that come with the software.

Don’t Miss: Build My Resume For Free

Urban Development Resume Template

Download this template here.

The illustration on the top-left of this template shows who the designers at Hloom had in mind for this resume: civil engineers. But because its a Word document, that graphic is easy to edit and replace with an image that represents your line of work. Are you an analytics buff? Design a clever bar or line graph icon and place it next to your name in blue .

Recommended for: Civil Engineers

If youre a civil engineer who wants to display your accomplishments, this is the template to use! Theres a section that lets you list all of your achievements and notable opportunities that made you grow as a civil engineer.

Know Exactly What To Include With Templates

If you are new to the game of writing resumes, then it can be an overwhelming experience. Using a resume template takes the stress out of creating your resume. Youll know the different sections to include, depending on your experience. Knowing what to put on your resume will make things go more smoothly when applying for jobs.

Read Also: How To Create A College Resume

Why Should I Use A Resume Template For My Job Application

A resume template simplifies the job-seeking process. The best template provides you an attractive, well-formatted resume layout that conforms to industry standards. Simply fill out your template and start sending it to employers.

Additionally, using a premade template guarantees that you have an applicant tracking system friendly resume, and that its easy to read.

Simple And Clean Resume Template

Who’s it for: Creative directors

Creator: ZokiDesign

Where to find it:ZokiDesign

This simple and minimalistic resume template has a clean aesthetic, is easy to format and covers a lot of sections.

You can show off your work experience as well as your background , education, skills, and even your hobbies.

Though you can change the color scheme, the format and the layout makes this resume ideal for creative roles.

When to Use This Template

With a clean and modern aesthetic, this resume is a great way to quickly sum up your qualifications and also stand out from other resumes with its design. It has a minimal look to it, and still contain a lot of information while staying under 1 page. If needed, it can also be converted into a cover letter.

In short, the above resume covers just about everything youll need in a template and more.

The best part about it, like with most Word templates, is its customizability.

So, if youre applying to a more conservative job, you can change the colors into a calmer tone – like black and white.

You May Like: How To Put Security Clearance On Resume

Free Resume Template By Fernando Bez

Who’s it for: Graphic and web designers

Creator: Fernando Báez

Where to find it:Behance

What could be better than a free resume template that has already been tried and tested?

After using and getting a few jobs with the very same template as a freelance UI/UX designer, Fernando is now giving away his secrets in the form of a free template.

When to Use This Template

In the resume pack, youll find your resume template in .ai format , all resume fonts used in the design, and a free icon set by Brankic. In it, you can customize the infographics to help represent your specialties, knowledge, language skills, or hobbies.

Whether or not youre a designer, you can customize the above template to truly represent you and make it uniquely yours.

Theres nothing wrong with using a template – its not plagiarism.

Its inside the resume what matters, which is going to be unique each time .

+ Premium Word Resume Templates

Now, the other side of the coin is actually paying for your resume template.

You might be thinking – the reason Im looking for a job in the first place is to make money, why would I pay for a resume template?

A couple of reasons.

First, most premium resume templates only go up to around $15-20 at most.

And if you do find one that too perfect to pass up on – $15 is a relatively small price to pay for investing in your future.

You can then customize and re-edit your template for any future jobs, too.

After all, if it worked once, its probably going to work again, right?

Another advantage premium resume templates offer is that they also tend to come with extra features and/or files within.

Lets take a look at what that might look like:

Read Also: How To Upload Resume To Indeed App

Maroon Sidebar Resume Template

Download this template here.

Pulling your more text-heavy information off to the side in an attractive color-blocked sidebar, this resume lets your experience stand for itself in white space at the top. It’s also easily customizable with no difficult-to-manipulate tables or formatting. The sidebars are in movable text boxes that can even be removed if you wish.

Recommended For: College Graduates

This template is best for young professionals starting their career. This adjustable resume template can give you full customization options for your first resume.

Planning Your Cover Letter

Your cover letter is another very useful tool that you can arm yourself with. It is used to introduce yourself to the reader and to highlight some, but not all of your skills. For this reason, your cover letter needs to be engaging and helps to reinforce your key skills that the recruiter will find the most desirable.

Be careful here not to make your cover letter sound like a cold, hard sales pitch. Your resume acts to deliver a list of your skills and accomplishments, but you can use your cover letter to expand a little on how you achieved your key accomplishments specially the ones that your recruiter is most interested in for the job.

A killer cover letter mirrors the language in the job posting. Try to speak the lingo of your new company to appear as an ideal culture fit. But dont go too corporate though. Your cover letter is the only mean of showing your unique personality before you are called in for the interview. Employers hire people based both on their qualifications and personality, so let it speak up a bit in your letter.

To get a better grip of this, check out some cover letter examples our team has prepared for you. Weve included compelling, professional, yet relatable examples for different career niches including education, marketing, engineering and more!

For more information about when to use a cover letter and what to include within it, read our blog post about The Optional Cover Letter Question.

Read Also: Where Do You Put Certifications On A Resume

Digital Marketing Resume Template

Download this template here.

The digital marketing resume below comes from our own collection of resume templates, all of which open directly in MS Word.

Coming with two pages total, this sheet holds a wealth of information and offers the perfect amount of style while maintaining professionalism. Mid-level marketers all the way up to CMOs can find this template valuable.

Recommended For: Mid-Level Marketers

In this resume template, mid-level marketers can effectively showcase a variety of their skills, as well as their portfolio and other media pieces.

Free Blank Resume Templates For Microsoft Word

Blank resume templates for Word are a great choice when youre in a hurry and dont want to spend too much time formatting the document.

• Teacher Resume

Each guide on the list above will show you, step-by-step, how to turn a blank document into a job-winning resume.

With this basic resume template for Microsoft Word, you can quickly draft a chronological resume. .

This classic free Word resume template can be quickly filled in with the relevant information. The sections are clearly separated from one another with horizontal lines. .

Modest but stylish. This free resume template for Word has everything a good resume needs. Use it to draft your resume quickly and hassle-free. .

Expert Hint: A good resume may not be good enough if youre up against 250+ other applicants. Learn how to write a perfect resume.

Also Check: How To Mention Soft Skills In Resume

When To Pick A Basic Or Simple Resume Template

Basic or Simple templates are best for situations where your experience needs to speak for itself. Candidates applying for positions in transportand logistics, maintenance and repair, retailor food service can all benefit from simple resume templates. A basic or simple template sends the message that youre a clean and organized candidate whos ready to get the job done.

While professions involving physical activity and labor can benefit from a simple layout, these templates are also great for students and those applying to entry-level positions. Before you go bold with loud colors and untraditional fonts, you may want to test the application pool waters with a simple template that keeps the focus on your experience.

To make the most out of your basic template, make sure to keep the writing clean and professional. Since you dont have many pictures or colors to catch a recruiters eye, youll want to use strong action verbs that accurately capture your accomplishments. As always, proofreading your resume for grammar and spelling errors is a must.

What Are The Key Features Of Great Word Resume Template

There are many Word resume templates available on the market today, such as those shown below. However, if you dont know what features to look for, choosing one can be challenging. So, lets look at a list of the key features that every great resume should have.

• Pre-made templates: Your resume must be 100% fully customizable with well-organized layers. You can change the templates format to your preferred structure.
• Resume sections: Your resume needs visible, easy-to-scan sections, including contact information, resume summary, skills, education, experience.
• ATS-friendly: Use a simple, professional ATS-friendly template. Certain design elements like headers, footers, graphs, and catchy graphics can cause an ATS to read out of order. Not all templates youll find online follow the best practices.
• Professional design: If you want to stand out from a sea of applicants, a great design is a must. A high-quality Word resume template should feature a design that doesnt distract the reader with flashy colors or extravagant fonts. Instead, it should complement your resume and highlight the sections.
• Easy to use: Make a resume and cover letter in minutes with pre-made templates. A4 & US Letter sizes.
• Print-ready: High-resolution files are easy to save as Docx, PDF, and print out.

You May Like: What To Write In Your Profile For A Resume

Quick Resume Design & Writing Tips For The Perfect Resume Format In 2022

Even if youve bought a professional resume template, you still need to know how to get the best from them. We’ve got some stellar tips on creating the perfect resume below, from how to write a great resume to how to customize it in Word.

Before jumping into them though, review this tutorial that covers the process of making a great CV. Whether you use resume templates for Word or start from scratch, it’ll be helpful:

Now for the quick-fire resume tips:

Ats Matters Our Word Resume Templates Can Help

Its important to use a resume that can be scanned by ATS, but what is it? ATS stands for Applicant Tracking System, and is used to scan for keywords set by the employer. Theyre also known as resume screeners the first stage of the employer screening process.The free Word templates above are optimized for automated resume screeners, which means your experience, skills and details can be read and understood by these resume screeners. This is important because not every resume template works well together with an ATS. In fact, many templates use creative section titles, fancy designs, or special characters while these may look modern and visually appealing, youll run into a serious problem if they are not read properly. If your skills or your experience arent read properly, its possible that you wont get past the resume screening stage.Using a design software like Photoshop might seem tempting, but wed recommend you avoid it design software converts your text into images, which makes them unreadable by most ATS. Your documents could end up being rejected before even reaching a recruiter.Thats where the biggest benefit of Word templates comes in. Theyre the most readable they are read by Applicant Tracking Systems and ensure your resume wont get misread.

Recommended Reading: How To Link A Resume

Cream And Green Resume Template

Download or edit the resume template here.

This resume is also downloadable and editable on Canva. It was created for account executives but could also be great for graphic designers or people working in visual fields due to its unique, but still professional, color scheme.

Recommended For: Graphic Designers and Other Creatives

This colorful template gives designers and creatives the opportunity to showcase their talents on their resume. Utilize the colors as a basic layout, but feel free to use the resumes design to showcase the way you would work on a future project. This would be a great reference point when you land an interview.

They Are Not Optimized For The Ats

What’s worse than blending into the crowd? Not making it to the party at all. Most of today’s employers use applicant tracking systems to sort and rank all of the resumes they receive. If your resume doesn’t hit the right notes for that system, it ends up in the reject pile, and the hiring manager probably won’t even see it. You can be the best candidate in the world for that job, but if your resume isn’t optimized for the ATS, prospective employers will never know.

Recommended Reading: Where Do References Go On A Resume