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Should I Use CV Templates?
Read Our Advice Before You Decide

There's an abundance of free Resume and CV Templates on the Internet. A lot of people search for them and many end up using them. They fill in the required boxes and excitedly send them off to potential employers.

Often they are disappointed when they get a negative response and sometimes no response at all!

Why is this? For us, as recruiters, there are two reasons:

2 Reasons Why CV Templates Fail

Standard or template CVs are too often just plain bland

When we get 40 CVs or resumes for each job vacancy (which is not uncommon), seeing one bland CV or resume after another does nothing to engage our interest. When we come to the 10th and it's different and interesting we sit up and take note. It's human nature.
And often template CVs or resumes are just not relevant
CV and resume templates don't address the specifics of what we're after in an applicant. Why send us 3 pages of A4 describing your experience, qualifications and skills when only about 1 page of the text is relevant to the job we've advertised?

Here's an example:

One of us recently advertised a Team Leader position for a technical support team. One CV was 4 sides of A4, listing all the applicant's non-supervisory technical jobs and qualifications spanning 20+ years. It was in a familar and uninspiring format. But the one supervisory position he had held, and held for over 5 years, was relegated to two lines of text!

Had he revised his resume to fit the job for which he was applying and shortened it to 2 pages, he might have won a job interview. In his case, using a CV template did not work.

CVs and resumes need to be original and relevant to get noticed and unfortunately free resume templates usually aren't!

Remember, just like job application forms, your CV or resume is the first impression you make on an employer. Make it count. Show the employer that you are professional, serious and better than the other 29 average applicants whose template CVs he's just waded through.

How Do I Make An Impression?

One way is to ask a professional to write a resume for you.

But if you'd rather not do this, check out our resume resources where you can find lots of information and advice to help you write a CV or resume that wins you interviews.