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.
As the unemployment rate stays below 4%, it’s important to be aware of competition within the job market. To keep up with the latest trends, use a modern resume template to make your application stand out. Modern resume templates follow best practices to ensure your resume makes it past ATS and impresses recruiters.
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.
Using an outdated resume template can diminish your chances of landing a job interview. These templates often feature complex layouts, distracting design choices, 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. Below, we’ll explore the main themes of a modern resume.
Top 10 parts of a modern resume template
A modern and well-created resume can catch the attention of potential employers and interest them in your application without including unnecessary information or design details. You can use a pre-designed template and customize it to fit your needs and those of the employer. This can help you focus on the content of your resume rather than the design.
Top five reasons to choose a modern resume layout
When crafting your resume, it’s important to follow modern resume-writing best practices to increase your chances of making it past ATS and impress potential employers.
By keeping the following best practices in mind, you can maximize your resume for individual job descriptions and set yourself apart from other candidates:
Looking for a different resume template? Check out this list:
The best format for a modern resume template will depend on your career, experience level, and industry. However, a combination format is a solid choice for most occupations and works well in this template style. Merging the strengths of the functional and chronological resume formats, a combination resume provides the best of both layouts.
You can start with a skills list at the top of your resume or have it follow a reverse-chronological overview of your employment history. The main idea of this format is to provide space for a comprehensive overview of your most relevant technical abilities and soft skills.
Most resumes shouldn’t exceed one page, and this same best practice applies to modern resumes. Unless you’re applying for a government job, leadership role, or academic position, one page is generally sufficient. Any more than that, and there’s no guarantee hiring managers will even take a look at page two.
As we mentioned above, modern resumes are known for their simplicity. The idea is to create a concise document that has just enough information, no more, no less. If you’d like to include more details about projects or publications, you can accomplish that with a cover letter.
All the essential structural elements should be included in a modern resume template. The only difference is how they’re organized within the document. With a modern spin on the classic resume, designers have used their creativity to piece together resumes in new and interesting ways. In fact, some modern designs may include additional sections for awards, affiliations, and projects.
At the very least, ensure your modern resume template includes the following sections:
Most modern resume templates have space at the top of the document for a profile, sometimes called a professional summary. This is similar to an objective but serves a different purpose. Instead of describing your career goals, you provide a simple summary of who you are as a professional.
While you could use an objective statement on a modern resume template, it’s important to note that it’s generally best utilized for entry-level professionals. If you plan to use an objective, tell the hiring manager more than what you hope to gain from employment by describing what you have to offer them.
ResumeTemplates offers free, HR approved resume templates to help you create a professional resume in minutes. Choose from several template options and even pre-populate a resume from your profile.
