The Harvard College Bullet Point Resume Template is widely recommended by career services for its clean, professional, and ATS-friendly single-column format. For users seeking variety, Microsoft Word offers built-in free templates, while platforms like Resume Worded, Resumegenius, and CVOnline provide hundreds of downloadable DOCX files ranging from classic to modern two-column designs.
ATS Compatibility: Experts advise using simple, single-column layouts in Microsoft Word or Google Docs to ensure Applicant Tracking Systems can parse the document correctly; avoid complex graphics, columns, or unusual fonts unless applying for a creative role.
Professional Endorsement: Templates from top university career centers (such as Cambridge and Harvard) and HR-approved sites like CVOnline are considered reliable choices for standard professional roles.
Format Advice: While templates can be downloaded as .docx, it is crucial to save the final version as a PDF before submission to preserve formatting, unless a Word document is explicitly requested.
Design Trends: Modern templates often feature a header with a photo (for some regions) or a sidebar for skills, but the most effective designs prioritize concise bullet points and white space over decorative elements.
Where can i find the best resume templates
I'm an ex-recruiter for some of the top companies in the world. I've screened tens of thousands of resumes, and today I published my preferred resume format, free to download as a Word doc, along with some general resume advice.
CV Templates
Best resume template.
What is the best CV template?
How do I download a CV template in Word?
What is a CV template?
Videos
I took a look at Canva but all of their templates fit the “don’t use this format” style
August 2025 edit: As always, for those searching for resume help, you can download my famous free resume template used by millions, or hit the easy button with my AI resume builder.
After over 7 years (wow!), new comments on this post are finally locked, so please ask me any further resume / job hunt questions as a new post on my personal resume help subreddit, on the official /r/jobs discord, via PM, or on LinkedIn (mention Reddit!). I know it's a bloodbath out there in the job market right now, so if I can do anything to help, please let me know. Good luck and take care!
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August 2024 edit: every 2 years like clockwork! OP here, checking in once again for my "I have something new and useful for readers of this thread" 2-year update. I am proud to share that I have just released an AI resume builder (trained by yours truly), a passion project I've been putting together on nights and weekends to complement my classic and continually mega popular free resume template used by millions of people around the world.
My AI Builder doesn't require you to format your resume yourself (saves a ton of time and extra helpful for people without MS Word), and you can start from scratch, upload an existing resume, or pull from your LinkedIn. The AI will also edit your content in live time for you based on my advice and training (and not based on that awful overly formal AI writing style everyone hates), and give you multiple suggestions to choose from for better phrasing for each bullet point. It'll also automatically fix a ton of common problems: trimming long bullet points to one line, fitting 2+ page resumes onto one page (and suggesting which less-relevant content to cut), and small stuff like autocorrecting typos. I'm really happy with how this came out. Good luck to everyone currently on a job hunt, and I hope my new resume builder helps you!
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December 2022 edit: OP (Colin) here. By popular demand, I made a Google Doc version of my resume template for people without MS Word. As layoffs mount (yet again), I also wanted to highlight Part 2 of this post (my 10 best job hunting FAQs / advice), which I've further built out into dozens of Resume Advice and FAQ articles in my spare time.
I can't believe it's been almost 5 years since I wrote this! My free resume template has now been downloaded millions of times, and tens of thousands of people have messaged me to let me know it helped them find jobs and change career trajectories, which I'm just so so happy about. I've somehow found the spare time (usually before bed!) to answer thousands of resume questions, and I'm so glad I can continue to utilize my past experience as a recruiter like this. If you have questions, I still try to answer PMs and new comments as often as I can, and feel free to connect with me on LinkedIn (mention Reddit!). Happy holidays, and see you again in 2 years when I inevitably make another edit! Much love to you all.
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April 5, 2020 edit: I've been getting more PMs and messages about this post lately, possibly due to the historic layoffs in the US due to COVID–19. Whether or not that's the case for you, I sincerely hope this resume format helps you find a better job than you had going into this mess. I'm going to do my best to answer all the PMs that come in re: job hunting during April as people face this crisis. (Please at least reformat your resume into my tried-and-true resume template before asking me for a critique.) All my best to you and yours, and I hope you're all staying safe out there.
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Original Post, Feb. 2018:
There was a recent post on Reddit where someone was lamenting that they had sent out dozens of applications, but hadn't heard back from anyone. I commented and told them they probably had a bad resume format and to PM me with it so I could review it for them, and about 50 other redditors ended up sending me their resumes to review. I don't have time to do all of them, so I decided to write this post and share a downloadable resume template (available in both Google Docs and MS Word) in the hope that it fulfills my personal obligations.
I'll keep it short and sweet, and hopefully many of you find this useful.
Note: I'm a former Fortune 100 recruiter, which is why I know so much about hiring.
General resume advice:
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Use a professional-looking gmail, outlook, or personal domain email address. Delete your hotmail with extreme prejudice.
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Don't put an objective section or summary. It'll be skipped, and it's space that can be used better.
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Unless you have 20+ years' experience, make it 1 page. You can do it.
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Don't put your full address. "City, State" is enough.
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Name your resume "FirstName LastName Resume" and that's it. Never submit it with "(Project Management)" or "Final" or "2018" or literally anything else in the file name.
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If emailing your resume, always submit it as a PDF, never as a Word doc. You never know how wonky a Word doc will look on someone else's machine. If uploading to an online application that uses resume parsing software, you can upload the Word doc as well or if it's required to do so.
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Try to read it in 10 seconds or less and see what you take away from it. That's about the initial screen time before someone makes an initial up/down decision, so you'll want to examine it from that perspective.
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Interests are important because it gives the interviewer something to connect with you on, and it makes you more than just a faceless resume. If you put Seinfeld, I promise someone will ask you what your favorite episode of Seinfeld is (mine's the Puffy Shirt).
That's the most important stuff. Here's that resume template download link again. If you have more questions about job hunting, resumes, or career advice in general, just PM me and I'll try to get back to you before long.
Edit: damn, thanks for the gold! Super glad this advice is helping so many people; the comments have totally made my day.
Edit 2: out and about so trying to respond to everyone on mobile, but it's slow going. I'll get back to all questions in comments asap.
Edit 3: my inbox is ruined, but having a blast helping everyone with their specific questions. Keep firing away.
Sunday edit: coming on 24 hours and the questions are still rolling in! I'm slammed today, I'll jump back in when I can later. Lots of PMs to sort through too!
Monday night edit: still answering PMs and comments :)! Hit me up anytime with your job hunting questions.
Wednesday edit: over the last few days, I've responded to probably 500+ combined questions in the comments and PMs. PMs still rolling in. I think I'm going to make a "resume and job hunting FAQ" post based on these questions!
02/27/2018 edit: PMs and comments still coming in, and I'm not even kidding when I say that I've had at least 10 people message me telling me they've gotten a slew of interviews since they switched their format, and two people have now told me they found jobs after switching to this format in the week and a half since I posted this. Unbelievable, makes me so happy.
03/28/18 edit: Still owe a couple dozen more PM responses, bear with me. Also just got a few more messages from people describing how they found a job after switching to this template! Makes my day every time I get that message.
04/30/2018 edit: I'll be posting something soon that answers all the resume and job hunting FAQs I've gotten from about 1,000 PMs! Have tried to help everyone, but my apologies if I haven't had time to get back to your particular message / question. Will link it here in one last edit when it's live on this sub!
05.07.2018 edit: Part Deux is live! Click here for resume FAQs and job hunting advice.
05/19/2018 edit: About 10 20 dozens hundreds thousands of people have now messaged me saying they've gotten a job thanks to this post after previously spending months looking to no avail. Can't describe how happy that makes me.
07/03/2018 edit: I'm sorry if I don't respond to your PM; it's just too much volume to handle. I've tried to help as many people as I can, and I'll respond to PMs as often as I can!
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If you have more questions, please see this follow-up thread with FAQs I did, or my huge off-Reddit repository of resume templates, builder, advice, FAQs, guides, and other tools I maintain as a passion project. Good luck everyone!
- Colin