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Traditional Resume Styles
A traditional resume follows long-accepted standards of resume writing. These don’t need fancy formats or new technology to impress a potential employer. With a traditional resume template, you can use tried-and-true methods to make a resume that will fit well in a conservative industry like finance, or for any employer you think will value a more traditional style.
Colored Resume
Many modern resume styles use color to be more visually appealing. Using color in the right ways shows that you know good design, and can even signal to an employer that you’re a great fit for their work environment.
Many companies use color in their logos or offices. If you find out the color scheme of your ideal job, you can reflect that in your resume by choosing similar colors. This is a good way to show subtly that you’re the perfect candidate.
Although you’ll want to avoid using too many colors or those that are hard to read, strategically adding color to your resume design is a great way to stand out among other job seekers.
Try one of our free resume templates with color – you can use the colors provided or customize it with your own. If you want to take it a step further, use a free Photoshop PSD template to add your own icons or logo to your resume, too.
have done in previous jobs.
This is also a great choice if you’re changing industries and your prior employment history is in an unrelated field. However, a resume that highlights your skills can be good even if you have lots of experience in your area.
With a skills-based resume, potential employers can easily find out what you’re capable of without getting bogged down by irrelevant duties you had at prior jobs. This resume style puts the information many employers want in the spotlight.
Two-Page Resume
Two-page resumes were long considered unacceptable in traditional fields, but a modern resume can make good use of two pages to impress a hiring manager.
If you have a long list of work history and don’t want to leave anything out, two pages can be your best choice. Instead of using a tiny font and tricky formatting to fit everything on one page, make your resume nicely spaced out and easy to read across both pages.
If your employer is likely to be reading your resume online, keeping it to one page is also less important, since there’s no question of printing costs or keeping track of extra pages. If everything on your resume is essential and it still takes up more than one page, using two pages can be a great modern strategy.
Skills-Based Resume
A skills-based resume is a modern alternative to a reverse-chronological resume that focuses on prior jobs and duties. With a skills-based resume, you put the focus on what you can do, not just what you have done in previous jobs.
This is also a great choice if you’re changing industries and your prior employment history is in an unrelated field. However, a resume that highlights your skills can be good even if you have lots of experience in your area.
With a skills-based resume, potential employers can easily find out what you’re capable of without getting bogged down by irrelevant duties you had at prior jobs. This resume style puts the information many employers want in the spotlight.
One-Page Resume
A traditional, one-page resume is a great choice in many situations. Those situations include if you’re applying to work in a conservative field, if you have limited work experience, or if you’re applying for an entry-level job or part-time work.
Often, employers will specifically request a one-page resume in the job description. It’s important to read a prospective employer’s resume guidelines closely so you give them exactly what they want.
However, even when the length isn’t specified, a one-page resume is often the right choice. Busy hiring managers don’t want to read any more information than necessary. A one-page resume ensures that only the essentials are there. Presenting information in concise ways, like with bullet points, can help ensure your resume stays on one page.
Simple Resume
A simple resume uses a clean, minimalist style to catch the attention of a potential employer.
Fancy formats can be an impediment to your job search if they don’t add anything important to your resume. So, unless you’re applying in a very creative field, a simple resume is often the way to go.
Simple resumes typically use sans-serif fonts (instead of serif fonts, like Times New Roman), great organization, and balanced white space. An attractively designed simple resume lets your work experience and skills shine, with no distractions.
From traditional work to creative modern startups, simple resumes are a good fit in many fields. Hiring managers have to read many resumes very quickly, so they appreciate simple formats that let the critical information stand out.
Executive Resume
An executive resume is the traditional resume style for someone applying to an executive or senior-level position.
Although standard resumes are just one page, an executive resume will often be two pages long. This is because more than one page is usually necessary to reflect the years of work history it takes to qualify for an executive position.
However, most executive resumes should still stick to traditional style. If you’re applying for a senior or executive position at a company, don’t obscure your professional experience with elaborate or creative formatting. Sticking to the usual resume style guidelines shows you’ll take the position seriously and respect long-standing company traditions.
Modern Resume Styles
When you write a modern resume, you’ll need to take into consideration machine readability, social media accounts, and other modern ways of presenting information.