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Whether you're busy being creative in a studio or, it's always good to have an up-to-date resume. But crafting a creative resume from scratch can be a daunting task. How do you present yourself on paper, in a way that will make employers sit back and take note? Sometimes a good way to get some inspiration is to start out using a template that you can put your own stamp on. Here we've scoured the internet to find some free resume templates, each of which offers something a little different. All of them are customisable in the most common creative softwares, including Adobe Photoshop and Illustrator, so you can tweak to your heart's desire. Turn heads with a resume that has an irresistible dash of Material Design cool For a stand-out resume with an on-trend look, this template, inspired by Google's Material Design framework, is excellent.
It includes areas for professional profile, work experience, education, skill circles, skill bars, social media icons and images, and it's supplied in A4-size format for Adobe Illustrator, InDesign and Photoshop. It uses free fonts, and if you'd like a covering letter and portfolio template to go with your resume, there's a that also includes new colour options plus matching business card templates and custom icons.
Table of contents:. Which resume template is the right for you? We work differently here at Freesumes. We want to help you as much as we can so we have made it as simple as possible by dividing our free professionally crafted resume templates for personal use into four easy to understand categories; modern, professional, creative and simple.
You will not have to spend hours of your time scrolling through thousands of templates that can all look very similar – where is the fun in that? Freesumes have simplified the search task for you and narrowed down the choices we offer you to the best performing style of templates available.
Let’s take a look at each section and why they may be a good fit for you: Modern Resumes. In today’s highly competitive job market your resume needs to stand out.
Our modern resume selection has been crafted to offer stylish, crisp and fresh themes that are designed to be easily readable and highlight specific information that you want to get across to your prospective employer when they first skim over your resume. According to recent research by, hiring managers spend as little as six seconds skimming over resumes before making a decision about a candidate. This a very high performing set of templates that are working well for those seeking IT and tech based jobs that need to stand out from the crowd. The Internet has affected people’s reading behavior over the years. Instead of reading top to bottom like they used to, people are now constantly skimming for information. Our modern templates have been structured with this in mind and prevent any of your important information from being overlooked.
Feel free to take a closer look at our latest styles listed below. Each template can be fully personalized and will create a great first impression. The Urbane Woman Downloaded 3,482 times Elegant / Professional Resumes Our elegant range of free professional resume templates is an ideal choice for those of you with plenty of work experience already under your belt. These templates have been designed to be clean-cut and straight to the point. They are structured to guide the reader’s eye so you can impress recruiters without overwhelming them with too much information all at once. We understand that you want to get over to your prospective employer how much experience you have.
Our professional designs will help you to deliver that message and show how perfect you are for this position without any unnecessary flourish or distracting frills. A great tip here is to remember that hiring managers are busy people. To make it easier for them to reach you remember to hyperlink your email address so that you’re only one click away. Take a look at our elegant range of templates below.
Modish and Elegant Downloaded 4,327 times Creative Resumes When you are applying for a job that relies on the strengths of the individual, you need a resume template that you can inject a bit more personality into to make it ‘pop’. Many jobs that involve building one-to-one business relationships, a creative drive or flair for art and design need to attract people with a strong personality. Our creative templates allow you to stand out from the crowd. The sleek designs and layouts we present here will get your resume noticed. Adding some unique style to your resume will make your personality shine through and will easily separate you from your competitors that have submitted bland or harsh looking resumes.
Each one of our creative style templates offers a perfectly balanced mix of personality, professionalism and a touch of style. You can distinguish your resume from others by using our punchy designs, but remember that these work best for creatives who want to get themselves noticed. These templates are great for a graphic artist or designer for example, but if you are applying to become an accountant, you may want to go for an elegant or simple design instead.
Browse our range of Creative resume templates below. Simple resumes are also suitable for those who are looking at a. They want to tailor their resume to better reflect the skills and experiences they have that suit that particular job. Most hiring managers are only concerned with finding the right hire. At the end of the day, they want to read something easily to be able to pick out the relevant information they need.
When applying for a job in a large company you may find that they use specialized software to help weed out candidates. This means that your resume is first read by a robot before getting through to an actual human. Sometimes resumes can be too busy with text bunched together, use fancy fonts or distracting background colors that obscure text – these are more likely to be rejected by a robot. This can be avoided or significantly reduced by using a clean and simple resume layout that includes the correct keywords that the company is looking for. A basic resume template is also easy to customize.
You can include your work experience, qualifications and any special achievements you have gained that will catch the eye of your prospective employer. You can easily adapt the information on your resume to fit the requirements needed for each role and you will be confident that your resume will always look great! Take a look at our Simple style template selections below. Professional Clean Downloaded 4,961 times Essential Tips for Using Your Resume Template When you have decided on which resume template to use, you should download it and save a copy to your computer. You can then start to personalize the template content to make it your own.
Let’s take a look at some tips for personalizing your template so it becomes unique to you: 1. First things first, keep things simple Your resume template has been professionally designed for the right balance of style and content. All Freesumes’ templates are entirely and easily editable with MS Word so all you have to do is just type in your information in the sections provided for you. Don’t overload your resume Your resume isn’t a record of your whole life. You don’t need to add in absolutely everything you have ever done.
Remember that a recruiter will be skimming over your resume looking for their preferred keywords and your relevant information and work experience for the job at hand. Give them the information they are looking for as quickly and as easily as possible. Read our blog post about. Unique file name Our free resume templates are delivered with the generic (and frankly not so creative) name “resume.doc”. Before emailing or uploading your resume, take a second and give it a file name that is easily recognizable, such as your first name initial and your surname. This way it will be easy to spot and open by the recruiter.
Proofread and proofread again Proofreading your resume is so important. You want to create the right first impression so check over your resume again for errors or spelling mistakes. Get someone else to proofread it for you before you send it off or make use of a grammar and spelling checker. Convert it to PDF Chances are your resume makes use of custom fonts, has a special layout or design elements that may break or look bad once opened on a different computer because the custom fonts are missing, the Word version is older or whatever. So, once you have done editing your document and double checked that you haven’t missed any of the above points, we recommend saving your document as a PDF file to make sure that the recruiters will see the same thing as you do. Is it Cheating to Use a Resume Template?
Using a resume template is a fantastic tool to help you build your perfect resume. Don’t think of using a template to help you as cheating in any way. Think of it as more of a helpful check-list to make sure you don’t miss a single piece of crucial information off your resume. Remember, when a recruiter looks at your resume, they are going to be searching for all the relevant information that it contains to help them make their hiring decision. They are not in the least bit interested in whether you crafted your resume from scratch or used a professional template to build one. All they are concerned about is the layout and presentation being easy to read and the valuable content it contains. What will be seen as a good resume is one that displays a candidate’s information in a clear and well-defined way.
This is what professionally crafted Freesumes’ templates do for you. If you need ideas for how to make your resume stand out, read our blog post about The 3 Resume Formats To Choose From Before you go on with choosing one of the different resume templates, you should decide on the optimal resume format – the one that will highlight your strengths as a candidate and mellow the flaws in your job history.
The 3 most popular resume formats are:. Chronological resume organizes the information the way LinkedIn does – from the latest position to the first one, with education, interests and additional info listed later. Functional resume keeps the focus on your skills and experience, rather than employment history. It’s the go-to choice for candidates with employment gaps and those without much hands-on work experience. Combination resume takes the best of both worlds and allows you to spice up your “dry” employment history with some juicy details about your skill set and achievements. Each resume format suits better when applying for certain positions.
Chronological resumes tend to be the most preferable format with traditional employers, while startups and edgier companies will likely fall for a combination resume. To learn more about styling your resume, check out our detailed guide to with tips and detailed explanations. 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. Think of your cover letter as a bit of extra elbow room to allow you to explain how your skills and knowledge are a perfect fit for the role on offer and how they can be a bonus to the company. Your cover letter can act as an extra bit of leverage that helps you land the job should it come down to a decision between you and another candidate.
This is why it’s important to include some finer detail about your skills rather than just using it as an introduction to deliver your resume. Keep it brief though. Writing too much content on your cover letter can put a recruiter off reading the whole thing. Use the space as a teaser to make them want to go on to your resume for more information. For more information about when to use a cover letter and what to include within it, read our blog post about. Need further help?
Once you have chosen your perfect resume template from our selection, follow our free expert guidance about. We can help you to narrow down the elements that are essential for you to include on your resume – as well as what to avoid! Everyone hopes to gain a chance to impress potential new employer at a job interview, but there is no denying that interviews can be very stressful! We also offer sound advice about.