Pick one of 71 free CV templates, fill it in online and download a PDF. Every design works on A4 or US Letter, with or without a photo, and costs nothing: no watermark, and you just need a free account to download.
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Filter by style, photo and layout, then open a template to see it full size and read who it suits. Every template can be switched on in the builder later without retyping your CV.
All 71 templates, free to use
What a CV should look like depends on where you apply. These are common practices, not rules: when a job advert asks for something specific, follow the advert.
Good templates to start with
Good templates to start with
Good templates to start with
Good templates to start with
Good templates to start with
This is general information, not legal advice.
The template should make your strongest material easy to find, not decorate it. Three questions narrow 71 designs down to two or three:
Large employers and recruitment agencies run CVs through applicant tracking software. For those, a single-column template such as Linden or Summit is the safe choice. When you email a CV to a small company or hand it over at a careers fair, a two-column design with a sidebar is fine.
If it is, pick a template designed around one so the photo looks deliberate, like Sable or Lumen. If it is not, a template without a photo slot avoids an empty-looking corner.
A graduate CV with one placement looks thin in a dense layout, so use a first-job template such as Pebble or Campus. Fifteen years of experience looks cramped in a roomy one, so use a compact template such as Tally or Quarry.
A full curriculum vitae for a PhD, research post or lectureship lists publications, grants, conferences and teaching, and can run to many pages. Vellum and Quill use serif type and quiet headings that stay readable over several pages. Add a Publications section in the builder and it is styled to match.
Yes. All 71 templates are free to use, edit and download as a PDF. There is no watermark, no paid tier for "premium" designs. Downloading just needs a free account.
They are the same thing. "CV" is short for curriculum vitae, the everyday word in the UK, Europe, Africa and India for the document Americans call a resume. In academia, a curriculum vitae can also mean a longer record of research and publications; the Vellum and Quill templates suit that style.
Leave it off in the UK, Ireland, the US and Canada unless the job advert asks for one. In much of mainland Europe, the Middle East and parts of Africa and Asia, a photo is common. 23 of our templates are designed around a photo, and every template lets you switch the photo on or off.
Choose a single-column template such as Linden, Summit or Atlas. 50 of our templates are marked ATS-friendly: one text column, standard headings and no tables. Two-column templates usually parse well too, but a single column is the safest choice for large online portals.
Yes. Your content is stored separately from the design, so you can try every template in the builder without retyping anything. Colours, font size, line spacing, page size (A4 or US Letter) and section order can all be changed too.
One A4 page for school leavers and most graduates, two pages for most experienced candidates, and longer only for academic CVs or very senior roles. Compact templates such as Tally, Quarry and Cobble help a long career fit on two pages.