Build your ATS-friendly CV
Pick a template and fill in your details below — your resume preview updates live and appears further down the page as you type. Every template uses a single-column, text-based layout that applicant tracking systems can read cleanly.
↓ Jump to previewPersonal Details
This becomes the header of your resume.
Professional Summary
2–3 sentences summarizing your experience and strengths.
Work Experience
List your most recent role first. Use one bullet per line.
Education
Skills
Separate each skill with a comma. Keep it to plain text — no icons or graphics — so ATS software can parse it.
Certifications (optional)
Projects (optional)
What Is a CV Builder, and Why Use One?
A CV builder is a tool that walks you through creating a resume section by section — personal details, summary, work experience, education, and skills — and formats everything into a clean, professional layout automatically. Instead of wrestling with margins, spacing, and alignment in a word processor, you focus on the content while the tool handles the design.
The builder on this page goes a step further by keeping every template ATS-friendly by design: single-column layouts, standard section headings, and no tables, images, or graphics that could confuse the software many employers use to screen applications before a human ever sees them. You get a resume that looks professionally designed and is also built to actually reach a recruiter.
How to Write a Resume That Gets Noticed
Strong resumes share a common structure. Here's how to approach each section as you fill in the builder above.
1. Contact Details
Keep this simple and complete: full name, phone number, professional email address, city and state, and optionally a LinkedIn profile or portfolio link. Skip anything unnecessary — full street address, date of birth, and marital status are outdated conventions that add no value and, in some regions, can even invite bias into the screening process.
2. Professional Summary
Two to three sentences that summarize your experience level, area of expertise, and a standout achievement or strength. This section gets read first — and often weighted heavily by both recruiters and applicant tracking software — so it's worth writing last, after you've drafted the rest of your resume and know exactly what to highlight.
3. Work Experience
List roles in reverse-chronological order (most recent first). For each one, include your job title, company, location, and dates, followed by 3–5 bullet points describing what you actually accomplished — not just your day-to-day duties. Lead each bullet with a strong action verb and, wherever possible, a number that shows scale or impact.
Stronger: "Grew Instagram following by 34% in six months by launching a weekly content calendar and paid promotion strategy."
4. Education
Degree, institution, location, and graduation date. Include GPA only if it's a strong asset (generally 3.5+) and you're early in your career — it typically matters less the further along you are professionally.
5. Skills
List relevant hard skills and tools as a plain, comma-separated line — not a graphic with star ratings or progress bars, which most ATS software can't read. Include both the full name and common abbreviation for technical terms (e.g., "Search Engine Optimization (SEO)").
6. Optional Sections
Certifications and projects are worth adding when they're directly relevant to the role you're targeting — a certification that matches a job requirement, or a project that demonstrates a skill your work history doesn't fully show. Leave these out if they don't add something the rest of your resume hasn't already covered.
Resume Formats: Which One Should You Use?
There are three standard resume formats, each suited to a different career situation.
| Format | Best For | Structure |
|---|---|---|
| Chronological | Steady career history in one field | Work experience listed in reverse date order — the most common and most ATS-friendly format |
| Functional | Career changers or employment gaps | Organized by skill category rather than job history — used sparingly, as some recruiters view it with suspicion |
| Combination | Experienced professionals with a strong, varied skill set | Leads with a skills summary, followed by a condensed chronological work history |
For most job seekers — and for ATS compatibility specifically — the chronological format is the safest, clearest choice, which is why every template in this builder follows that structure.
Choosing a Template
All four templates in this builder use the same underlying ATS-safe structure — single column, standard headings, no tables or graphics. What changes between them is typography, spacing, and accent color, so you can match the tone of your industry without sacrificing compatibility.
Classic
Serif typeface, centered header, black and white. A safe, traditional choice for law, finance, government, and academia.
Modern
Clean sans-serif with a teal accent. Works well for tech, marketing, startups, and most corporate roles.
Executive
Serif with a bold centered header block. Suited to senior and leadership-level applications.
Compact
Dense sans-serif layout that fits more content on one page — useful for candidates with extensive experience.
What to Include (and What to Leave Out)
| Include | Generally Leave Out |
|---|---|
| Relevant work experience with quantified achievements | A photo, unless standard practice in your country/industry |
| Skills and tools that match the job posting | Date of birth, marital status, or nationality |
| Education and relevant certifications | "References available upon request" — assumed by default |
| A concise, targeted professional summary | Full street address (city/state is enough) |
| Relevant projects, if they add real value | Unrelated hobbies or outdated skills (e.g., "Typing 60 WPM") |
Common Resume Mistakes to Avoid
Most weak resumes don't fail because of one dramatic error — it's usually a handful of smaller issues that add up and make an otherwise qualified candidate look less polished than they actually are. Watch for these:
- Using the same generic resume for every application instead of tailoring keywords to each job
- Listing duties instead of achievements ("Responsible for..." instead of "Increased... by...")
- Typos and inconsistent formatting — proofread carefully, and read it backwards to catch errors your eyes tend to skip
- Burying your most relevant experience below less relevant older roles
- Using vague, unquantified language when a specific number would be far more convincing
- Overly long resumes padded with irrelevant detail instead of a focused one-to-two pages
- Graphics, tables, or columns that risk confusing ATS software during screening
- Inconsistent verb tense — use past tense for previous roles and present tense only for your current role
- Starting every bullet point with the same word, which reads as repetitive and lazy to a human reviewer
- Leaving unexplained employment gaps without a brief, honest note in the summary or a cover letter
A useful test before submitting: read each bullet point and ask "so what?" If a bullet doesn't answer that question with a result or outcome, it's describing a duty rather than an achievement — and it's worth rewriting.
Strong Action Verbs to Start Your Bullet Points
The verb that opens a bullet point sets the tone for the entire line. Vague openers like "worked on" or "helped with" undersell your role in an achievement, while a precise, active verb immediately signals ownership and impact. Vary your verbs across the resume rather than repeating the same one for every bullet.
| Category | Strong Verbs to Use |
|---|---|
| Leadership | Led, directed, managed, supervised, mentored, coordinated, spearheaded |
| Growth & Results | Increased, grew, boosted, expanded, generated, maximized, accelerated |
| Efficiency & Process | Streamlined, automated, optimized, simplified, consolidated, standardized |
| Creation & Building | Built, designed, developed, launched, established, architected, created |
| Problem-Solving | Resolved, diagnosed, identified, restructured, overhauled, troubleshot |
| Analysis | Analyzed, forecasted, evaluated, researched, assessed, audited |
Pair each verb with a specific, measurable result wherever you can. "Streamlined the onboarding process" is a reasonable bullet; "Streamlined the onboarding process, cutting new-hire ramp-up time from three weeks to eight days" is a considerably stronger one, because it gives a reviewer a concrete before-and-after picture.
Tailoring Your Resume by Industry
While the core structure of a strong resume stays consistent, what you emphasize — and which template tone fits best — shifts depending on the field you're applying to.
| Industry | What to Emphasize | Suggested Template |
|---|---|---|
| Corporate / Finance / Law | Formal tone, quantified results, credentials and certifications | Classic or Executive |
| Tech / Startups | Specific tools, technical skills, measurable product or growth impact | Modern |
| Marketing / Creative | Campaign results, growth metrics, portfolio or website link | Modern |
| Healthcare / Education | Certifications, licenses, and direct outcomes (patient/student impact) | Classic |
| Senior / Executive Roles | Strategic scope, team size managed, organization-wide results | Executive |
| Extensive Experience (15+ yrs) | Condensed early career, focus on the last 10-15 years | Compact |
Regardless of industry, the underlying rule stays the same: every template in this builder keeps the same ATS-safe single-column structure, so tailoring your template choice is about tone and density, not about risking compatibility.
After You Build It: Check Your ATS Score
Building your resume in an ATS-safe template solves half the problem — the other half is making sure your actual wording, keywords, and structure are strong enough to rank well once submitted. Before you send your finished resume out, it's worth running it through our free ATS Resume Checker to catch anything the builder alone can't verify, like missing keywords for a specific job posting or weak, unquantified bullet points.
If you have a specific job description in hand, paste both your resume and the posting into the ATS Resume Checker — it will show you exactly which of the employer's key terms are missing from your resume, so you can add them before you apply. This two-step workflow — build, then check — is the fastest way to go from a blank page to a submission-ready resume.
Frequently Asked Questions About Building a CV
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