Should I Use a Resume Template? The Complete Guide to Template-Based Resume Writing

The blank page stares back at you, cursor blinking expectantly. You know you need a resume, but where do you even begin? For millions of job seekers, the answer to this question is simple: start with a template. But is this the right approach? Should you use a resume template, or should you create something entirely original from scratch?

This seemingly simple question generates surprisingly strong opinions in career circles. Some experts swear by templates as time-saving tools that ensure professional formatting. Others warn that templates make candidates look generic and unimaginative. The truth, as usual, lies somewhere in between—and depends heavily on your specific situation, industry, and goals.

This comprehensive guide examines the pros and cons of using resume templates, helps you determine whether templates are right for your situation, and provides guidance on using templates effectively if you choose to go that route.

Understanding Resume Templates: What They Actually Are

Before diving into whether you should use a template, let’s clarify what we’re discussing. Resume templates come in several forms, each with different characteristics.

Types of Resume Templates

Word Processing Templates

Microsoft Word, Google Docs, and other word processors include built-in resume templates. These range from simple text-based layouts to more designed formats with graphic elements. They’re free, accessible, and widely used.

Professional Template Services

Companies offer premium resume templates—often as downloadable files or through online builders. These typically feature more sophisticated designs and may include multiple variations for different purposes.

Resume Builder Platforms

Online platforms provide templates within a larger resume-building ecosystem. You input your information, and the platform formats it according to the selected template. Many offer both free and premium options.

Design Templates

Platforms like Canva offer resume templates oriented toward visual impact. These emphasize design elements like color, graphics, and creative layouts more than traditional word processing templates.

Industry-Specific Templates

Some templates are designed for specific fields—creative industries, healthcare, technology, academia—incorporating formatting conventions particular to those areas.

What Templates Provide

At their core, resume templates provide:

• Pre-defined structure and section organization
• Formatting decisions (fonts, spacing, alignment)
• Visual design elements (headers, lines, icons)
• Space allocation for different content types
• ATS-compatible (or not) formatting

What templates don’t provide is content. No template tells you what to write about your experience, how to frame your achievements, or which skills to emphasize. The words—the most important part of any resume—remain entirely your responsibility.

The Case for Using Resume Templates

Let’s examine the legitimate advantages of using resume templates.

Professional Formatting Without Design Skills

Most job seekers aren’t graphic designers. Creating a visually appealing, well-organized document from scratch requires skills that many people simply don’t have. Templates provide professional formatting without requiring design expertise.

Formatting details that seem minor—consistent spacing, proper alignment, balanced visual weight—actually matter significantly. Poorly formatted resumes look unprofessional, even when the content is strong. Templates eliminate formatting errors that can undermine otherwise strong candidates.

Time Savings and Efficiency

Creating a resume from scratch takes significant time, much of it devoted to formatting decisions rather than content development. Templates eliminate this time investment, allowing you to focus on what actually matters: describing your experience compellingly.

For job seekers applying to many positions, time efficiency matters. The hours saved by using a template can be redirected toward tailoring content for specific opportunities, networking, or other job search activities.

Structural Guidance

Templates don’t just provide formatting—they provide organizational structure. Seeing pre-defined sections helps you understand what information to include and how to organize it logically.

This structural guidance is particularly valuable for first-time resume writers or career changers who may not know conventional resume organization. The template provides a roadmap: contact information here, summary here, experience here, education here.

Consistency Across Applications

When applying to multiple positions, using a template ensures consistent presentation. Your resume for one company looks professionally similar to your resume for another—same fonts, same formatting, same overall appearance. This consistency projects professionalism.

Access to Tested Designs

Well-designed templates have been tested and refined. Professional template creators understand what works visually and what hiring managers respond to positively. Using their templates gives you access to design expertise you might not otherwise have.

ATS Compatibility (When Appropriate)

Many modern templates are designed with Applicant Tracking Systems in mind. They use ATS-friendly formatting—standard fonts, simple layouts, proper section headers—that ensures your resume parses correctly in automated systems. Creating ATS-compatible formatting from scratch requires knowledge that many job seekers lack.

The Case Against Resume Templates

Now let’s examine the legitimate concerns about using templates.

Generic Appearance

The most common criticism of templates is that they make resumes look generic. If thousands of other candidates are using the same template you chose, your resume may look virtually identical to countless others—hardly an ideal way to stand out.

This concern has merit. Popular free templates are used by enormous numbers of people. Hiring managers who review many resumes may recognize common templates, potentially creating a negative impression of lack of effort or creativity.

Potential ATS Problems

While some templates are ATS-friendly, many are not. Designed templates often include elements—tables, text boxes, headers/footers, columns, graphics—that ATS software struggles to parse correctly. Using an ATS-unfriendly template can result in your information being scrambled or missed entirely.

This is particularly problematic with visually elaborate templates. The features that make them attractive to human eyes often make them unreadable to machines.

Formatting Constraints

Templates constrain your content to fit pre-defined spaces. If you have extensive experience that doesn’t fit the template’s experience section, or unusual credentials that don’t match the template’s structure, you may find yourself awkwardly adapting your content to fit the format rather than having format serve content.

Great resumes are tailored to individual circumstances. Templates, by definition, are designed for generic circumstances.

Content Over Format

The most important element of any resume is its content—the actual words describing your experience and achievements. Templates address formatting, not content. Job seekers who invest significant time choosing and customizing templates may neglect the more important work of crafting compelling content.

A beautifully formatted resume with weak content will fail. A simply formatted resume with strong content will succeed. Templates can create a false sense of accomplishment that distracts from what actually matters.

Industry Expectations

Some industries have strong conventions about resume presentation. Creative fields often expect custom designs that demonstrate design sensibility. Conservative fields like law and finance may view designed templates as inappropriately flashy. Academic positions require CV formats that don’t match standard templates.

Using a template that doesn’t match industry expectations can signal that you don’t understand professional norms in your target field.

When Templates Are the Right Choice

Given these pros and cons, when should you use a template? Consider templates appropriate in these situations:

Entry-Level and Early-Career Applications

If you’re applying for entry-level positions, hiring managers don’t expect elaborate custom designs. Simple, professional formatting serves your needs perfectly. Templates provide this efficiently without overthinking.

Traditional Industries

Industries like accounting, finance, law, healthcare, and government typically value substance over style in resumes. A clean, professional template signals that you understand appropriate conventions.

High-Volume Job Searches

When applying to many positions, template efficiency makes sense. Creating custom designs for each application isn’t practical. A professional template applied consistently across applications is a reasonable approach.

ATS-Heavy Application Processes

When you know your resume will pass through ATS software, using an ATS-optimized template reduces parsing errors. Several template providers specifically design for ATS compatibility.

Limited Design Skills

If you genuinely lack design capabilities and attempting custom formatting would produce poor results, a template represents the safer choice. A professional template beats an amateurish custom design.

Time Constraints

When you need a resume quickly, templates deliver. If a sudden opportunity requires a polished resume within hours, starting with a template makes sense.

When Custom Designs Make More Sense

In these situations, templates may not serve you well:

Creative Industries

Design, advertising, marketing, media, and other creative fields often expect resumes that demonstrate creative ability. A standard template may suggest lack of creativity—exactly the wrong message for creative positions.

Senior-Level Positions

Executive and senior leadership candidates benefit from distinctive, polished presentation that templates rarely provide. At these levels, the investment in professional design is worthwhile.

Unique Backgrounds

If your experience doesn’t fit standard templates—extensive project work, portfolio-based careers, non-linear paths—custom formatting may serve your story better than template constraints.

Small Applicant Pools

When applying to positions where you’ll be one of few candidates (internal promotions, niche roles, referral-based applications), standing out matters less than presenting information clearly. But you also face less risk from distinctive presentation.

Personal Branding Focus

If you’re building a consistent personal brand across resume, LinkedIn, portfolio, and other materials, custom design that integrates with your brand may serve better than a generic template.

Using Templates Effectively

If you decide to use a template, following these guidelines maximizes effectiveness:

Choose Carefully

Don’t grab the first free template you find. Evaluate templates for:

• Professional appearance appropriate to your industry
• ATS compatibility (simple layouts, standard fonts, no tables or text boxes)
• Adequate space for your content
• Logical section organization
• Clean, readable design without excessive decoration

Spend time finding a template that truly fits your needs rather than settling for whatever appears first.

Customize Substantially

The worst template usage involves dropping your information into a template and considering the job done. Effective template use involves substantial customization:

• Adjust section sizes to match your content priorities
• Modify colors and fonts to suit your preferences
• Remove sections you don’t need
• Add sections the template doesn’t include
• Adapt formatting to highlight your strengths

Your goal is a resume that looks professional and purposeful—not one that looks obviously templated.

Focus on Content Quality

Templates solve formatting. They don’t solve content. Invest significant effort in:

• Crafting compelling achievement statements
• Quantifying results wherever possible
• Tailoring content to each specific opportunity
• Eliminating weak language and filler
• Ensuring every word earns its place

No template makes weak content look strong. Strong content looks strong in any professional format.

Test ATS Compatibility

Before using a template for applications, test its ATS compatibility. Several online tools allow you to upload your resume and see how ATS software parses it. Fix any parsing problems before applying.

Pay particular attention to:

• Contact information extraction
• Section header recognition
• Work history parsing
• Skills and keyword recognition

Avoid Obvious Templates

Some templates are so widely used that they’re immediately recognizable. Microsoft Word’s default resume templates fall into this category. Recognizable templates can create negative impressions.

Seek templates that are professional but less common. Smaller template providers, industry-specific options, or customized versions of standard templates reduce the “template look.”

Maintain Consistency

When customizing templates, maintain visual consistency. Don’t use four different fonts or six different heading styles. Ensure that any changes you make preserve the visual coherence that made the template professional in the first place.

Template Resources and Recommendations

If you decide to use templates, here are approaches to consider:

Free Options

Google Docs and Microsoft Word include adequate free templates for basic needs. They’re simple, ATS-friendly, and universally accessible. For entry-level positions in traditional industries, these may be sufficient.

Premium Templates

Services like those offered through 0portfolio.com provide professionally designed templates that balance visual appeal with ATS compatibility. Premium templates often include customization options and format variations that free options lack.

Resume Builders

Platforms that combine templates with guided content creation can be helpful, particularly for first-time resume writers. They provide both structural guidance and formatting, though they may produce recognizably similar outputs.

Industry-Specific Resources

Professional associations and industry publications often offer templates designed for specific fields. These incorporate conventions particular to those industries.

The Middle Path: Template-Inspired Custom Design

One effective approach combines template benefits with customization: use templates as inspiration rather than rigid frameworks.

Study several professional templates to understand effective formatting choices:

• How do they organize sections?
• What font combinations work well?
• How do they balance white space and content?
• What visual elements add professionalism without distraction?

Then create your own document incorporating these lessons. You get the benefit of professional formatting knowledge without the generic appearance of recognizable templates.

This approach requires more effort than simply using a template but produces more distinctive results. For candidates targeting competitive positions or creative industries, the investment often pays off.

Common Template Mistakes to Avoid

If using templates, avoid these common errors:

Choosing Style Over Substance

Elaborate, highly designed templates often sacrifice ATS compatibility and readability for visual impact. Unless you’re in a creative field where design matters, prioritize clean professionalism over flashy design.

Leaving Template Placeholder Text

It seems obvious, but regularly check that you’ve replaced all placeholder text. “Lorem ipsum” or “Insert achievement here” appearing in submitted resumes is more common than you’d think.

Forcing Content Into Template Structure

If your experience doesn’t fit a template’s structure, change the template—or choose a different one. Don’t awkwardly compress or expand content to match template spacing.

Using Multiple Templates

Your resume should look cohesive. Mixing elements from different templates typically produces visual inconsistency. Choose one template and customize it appropriately.

Neglecting Mobile Viewing

Many resumes are first viewed on mobile devices. Templates designed for desktop viewing may not translate well to small screens. Test your resume’s appearance on mobile.

Ignoring File Format

Templates may look different when exported to different formats. A Word template may look different as a PDF. Always review your final format before submitting.

Making Your Decision

So, should you use a resume template? Here’s a framework for deciding:

Use a Template If:

• You’re early in your career or applying to entry-level positions
• You’re targeting traditional industries that value substance over style
• You have limited design skills and limited time
• You’re applying through systems that use ATS software
• You need a professional result quickly

Create Custom Designs If:

• You’re in creative industries where design signals competence
• You’re at senior levels where distinctive presentation matters
• Your background doesn’t fit standard template structures
• You have design skills and time to apply them
• You’re building integrated personal branding across platforms

Either Approach Works If:

• You customize substantially rather than using templates blindly
• You focus primarily on content quality regardless of format choice
• You test ATS compatibility before submitting
• You choose formats appropriate to your industry and level

Conclusion: Content Trumps Format

The template debate ultimately matters less than many job seekers assume. Hiring managers care far more about what your resume says than how it’s formatted—as long as the formatting is professional and readable.

A brilliantly designed resume with mediocre content will fail. A simply formatted resume with compelling content will succeed. Templates versus custom design is a secondary decision compared to the primary work of crafting content that clearly communicates your value.

If templates help you efficiently produce a professional document so you can focus on content, use them. If custom design helps you stand out in fields where design matters, create something original. Either approach can work when executed thoughtfully.

What matters most is that your resume clearly communicates your qualifications, achievements, and potential value to employers. Whatever approach gets you there—template, custom design, or something in between—is the right approach for you.

Make your formatting decision, then move on to the more important work: filling whatever format you’ve chosen with content that compels hiring managers to call you for interviews.