Modern Resume Templates and Examples for 2024

Modern Resume Template Example

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A resume is an important document that summarizes your qualifications, work experience, and education to potential employers. Creating a well-crafted, modern resume can help you stand out from other candidates and land your dream job.

However, with the increasing competition in the job market, it is important to keep up with the latest trends and use a modern resume template to make your application stand out. Modern resume templates follow best practices to ensure that your resume makes it past applicant tracking systems (ATS) and impresses recruiters.

While creating a resume from scratch allows you to customize your resume to your liking, this isn’t always a good thing. If you don’t know what recruiters are looking for, your resume will likely be tossed aside in favor of other candidates whose resumes are more concise and easier to read.

Here’s a closer look at why you should use a modern resume template, and a few examples and tips for creating the perfect resume.

Why Should You Use a Modern Resume Template?

Using an outdated resume template can diminish your chances of landing a job interview. These templates often feature complex layouts and extraneous sections, making it difficult for recruiters to find what they’re looking for quickly.

Modern resume templates are simple, clean, and straightforward. These qualities increase your chances of moving on to the next step of the hiring process, as recruiters and hiring managers can more easily identify your strengths, skills, and experience.

Jobhunters often make the mistake of thinking a flashy, colorful resume will help them stand out. Though, in reality, all this does is make recruiters’ jobs harder as they have countless resumes to review, and they don’t have time to dig through your resume to find relevant information.

A modern and well-designed resume can catch the attention of potential employers and make them interested in your application without including unnecessary information or design details.

Using a modern resume template can also save you time and effort. Instead of spending hours designing and formatting your resume, you can use a pre-designed template and customize it to fit your needs. This can help you focus on the content of your resume rather than the design.

How To Write a Modern Resume

When crafting your resume, it’s important to follow modern resume-writing best practices to increase your chances of making it past applicant tracking systems and impressing potential employers.

Your resume should feature clearly labeled sections, concise descriptions of your professional history and goals, and your contact information. You don’t want to go overboard by including additional details that aren’t relevant to the job you’re applying for.

By keeping the following best practices in mind, you can optimize your resume for individual job descriptions and set yourself apart from other candidates.

Consider adding social media profiles

In today’s digital age, it’s becoming more and more common for individuals to include their social media profiles on their resumes. In particular, LinkedIn profiles allow employers to learn more about your professional history, areas of expertise, and the types of people you network with.

Depending on your profession, other social media profiles may also be appropriate. For example, Instagram can be a great platform for photographers, designers, and other creative professionals that need an online portfolio to showcase their work. If you have a personal website where you host your work, you can also add the URL for your website to your resume.

However, before linking any social media profiles, make sure to review them thoroughly to ensure there isn’t anything that reflects poorly on you. Review your posts, usernames, and other content to make sure there is nothing that potential employers may have an issue with.

Showcase your skills

In a modern resume, it is important to showcase your skills and accomplishments.

Review job descriptions to see what skills employers are looking for, and make sure to include these skills on your resume when applying. If you have experience with any emerging technologies relevant to your industry, include these to show employers that you are up-to-date with new industry trends.

A common way that a modern resume displays skills is to use a “progress bar” design element that depicts their level of proficiency with each skill. This can be a great way to demonstrate what your strongest skills are.

ATS optimization

According to the Columbia University Center for Career Education, 90% of Fortune 500 Companies use ATS to automate their hiring processes and manage large numbers of applications.

These systems scan your resume, assign you a score based on your qualifications, and rank your application. Most candidates are filtered out by these systems, meaning a real person is never reading these resumes before the candidates are rejected.

To ensure that your resume makes it past the ATS, it’s important to prioritize formatting and including the right content.

Regarding the content of your resume, you should make adjustments for each job that you apply to. You should use some of the exact keywords and phrases that are included in the job description. Use clear names for sections (e.g., ‘Experience,’ ‘Skills,’ ‘Work Experience’), and your professional objective statement should include keywords that you find in the job description.

You should stick to a clean, simple format so that your resume is easily readable. Avoid using too many or complicated design elements, including symbols, tables, borders, and lines. Also, make sure to submit your resume using the file type listed by the employer.

Avoid using images or fancy fonts that may not be readable by the ATS. Stick to a clean, simple format with standard fonts like Arial or Times New Roman.

Another way to optimize your resume for ATS is to use strong action verbs and specific language to describe your accomplishments and experience. Use words like “managed,” “developed,” “achieved,” and “implemented” to describe your accomplishments. It’s also important to explain exactly how you achieved your accomplishments in order to demonstrate your creativity and problem-solving skills. This can help your resume stand out and increase your chances of getting an interview.

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Andrew Stoner

Executive Resume Writer and Career Coach

A resume should be a forward-looking value proposition that showcases your most relevant accomplishments for a target role — not a rear view summary of your previous roles and responsibilities.