Professional Resume Template
Classic — Single column with a left-aligned header and ruled section titles. The safest all-purpose choice.
Available in multiple color accents
Click “Use this template” to customize colors, fonts, and section ordering.
- Ink Theme
- Navy Theme
- Teal Theme
- Burgundy Theme
- Bronze Theme
- Azure Theme
How the Classic template is built
- Structure
- One column, top to bottom
- Header
- Ranged left, like a typed letterhead
- Section headings
- Small caps over a hairline rule
- Spacing
- Balanced, the default
- Photo
- Not used
Who the Classic template suits
Everything, honestly. Accounting, administration, healthcare, government, education — anywhere the reader wants information rather than impression. If you cannot decide, start here.
What to watch out for
It is the most common resume layout in the world, so it will not distinguish you visually. In creative hiring that neutrality can read as a lack of effort.
How much fits on one page
Capacity is middle of the road: comfortable for five to ten years of experience on a single page. Beyond that, drop the text size a notch in the builder rather than cutting a role.
Classic and applicant tracking systems
Classic is a single column, which is the arrangement applicant tracking systems read most reliably. A parser walks the page top to bottom and gets your sections in the order you wrote them. Nothing about this template needs adjusting before you upload it to a job portal.
Where in the world to send the Classic template
The one layout with no regional caveat at all. It is the default shape of a resume in the US and Canada and of a CV in the UK, Ireland, Australia, New Zealand and South Africa, and it converts between the two with nothing more than a change of heading word. Prints identically in colour and monochrome.
Using this template
- Open “Use this template” above — the builder starts with Classic already selected.
- Type your details. Everything saves in your own browser and is never uploaded.
- Try the 20 colour themes and 21 font pairings from the Design panel — 420 combinations of this one layout.
- Download as PDF to keep this design, or as Word if you are applying through a job portal.
Classic template questions
Is a resume and a CV the same document?
Outside academia it is mostly a difference of name. The US and Canada say resume; the UK, Ireland, Australia, New Zealand, South Africa and much of Europe say CV for the same one-to-two-page career summary. The exception is academic and medical work, where a CV means a long publication-led document with no page limit.
Is Classic too ordinary?
It is the most common layout in the world, so it will not distinguish you visually — in creative hiring that neutrality can read as a lack of effort. Everywhere else it is an advantage: nothing competes with what you have written, and no reader or parser has to work out how to read it.
Is a classic layout too plain to stand out?
Standing out is not what a resume does — being read carefully is. In law, finance, government and academia a plain, precisely set document reads as competence, and decoration reads as noise. This is also the safest possible parse, which matters when the first reader is software rather than a person.