Best ATS-Friendly Resume Template
Resume template overview
Designing a well-structured, readable, and compelling resume can help you get noticed by employers, recruiters, and hiring teams. We’ve designed a free resume template on Miro for you to easily build a professional, eye-catching resume with step-by-step instructions and best practices from Indeed Career Coaches.
The template is intentionally created to look simple, clean, and straightforward instead of being overly designed, formatted, or visual. This is because recruiters often have under a minute to scan your resume. As such, it's important that the information they’re seeking is as easy to find. Simple resumes are also more scannable by Applicant Tracking Systems (ATSs), and therefore less likely to be thrown out early on in the process.
You can easily design and export your resume from the Miro template. Then, upload your completed resume to Indeed to easily apply to jobs in seconds.
If you need to write or update your cover letter, check out our cover letter template.
What to include in your resume
In your resume, you should include the following sections:
Full name and contact information
Professional summary
Skills
Professional experience
Education
Awards and achievements (optional)
How to write a resume
Your resume should quickly express to employers the relevant details of your background that make you an excellent candidate, from most to least relevant. As you create your resume, refer back to the job description and add keywords from the roles and responsibilities, qualities, and qualifications sections. The job description should paint a detailed picture of the exact kind of candidate they’re looking for, so the picture your resume paints of you should match.
Here’s a quick summary of how to write your resume:
Start with your full name and contact information including your email, phone number, and address. Only include your city and state to protect your privacy.
Next, write a brief, two to three-sentence professional summary that explains your area(s) of expertise, major accomplishments, skills, and qualifications, and what you’re seeking in your next role.
Follow with your skills section. Remember to only add the soft and hard skills relevant to the job and use language from the job description.
Then, add your professional experience. Start with your most recent or current role and work backward in time. Your most recent or current role should have the most bullet points — four to six — and any previous roles should have fewer. Include keywords from the job description, numbers to quantify your impact, and accomplishments instead of responsibilities. Use this space wisely, and remove any irrelevant roles or those older than 15 years.
Include your education. Add your institution’s name, your degree or areas of study, and any awards or honors. Include your GPA only if it’s above 3.5, and avoid including the years you studied, unless you’re fewer than three years out from graduation.
(Optional) Add awards and achievements. If you have space and relevant awards or other achievements that didn’t belong in the professional experience section, you can add those here.
Resume tips & advice
Consider the following formatting best practices to ensure your resume appears professional and readable:
Resume font
Use a font that’s easy to read, like Arial, Calibri, Verdana, or Times New Roman. Font size should be readable at nine to 11 points. Your name and section headers can be slightly larger. Match the font on your cover letter so the two documents are consistent and appear as a neat, professional package when you send them.
Resume spacing
Use single or 1.15-point line spacing, and add a line break between each of the sections. If you have too much white space, consider including more information about non-professional experiences related to the job, such as volunteering, leadership, and extracurricular roles, or personal hobbies and interests.
Resume length
Your resume should one page in length. Two pages is acceptable if you’re senior in your career and all experience included is relevant to the job to which you’re applying.
Resume margins
Resume margins should be .75” - 1” to make your document look professional and readable.
How to send a cover letter
Download or export your resume as a PDF to retain its formatting. Use a professional and specific convention to name your document, for example:
First Name-Last Name-Resume (e.g., Jade-Young-resume.pdf)
Again, you might match your document’s naming convention to your cover letter so they appear as a consistent package.
Resume FAQs
What is the best template for a resume?
The best template for you to use depends on your level of experience, industry, and job title. You can use the Miroverse Resume Template above to get started, and customize it to fit your needs based on the job description.
Where can I make a resume template for free?
You can use Indeed’s free Miroverse Resume Template above, created by expert Career Coaches with tips and best practices. For more resume templates and inspiration, you can visit Indeed’s free Resume Builder.
How can I make my perfect resume for free?
Use Indeed's free Automated Resume Scan to get actionable suggestions to improve your resume in only a few minutes. Make impactful updates to your resume yourself with the comprehensive, data-driven feedback you receive.
How far back should a resume go?
You should include information no older than 10-15 years on your resume, depending on its relevance. If the experience is highly relevant to the job, it’s more acceptable to include it.
Do employers like resume templates?
As long as your resume is clean, professional, relevant, and easy to read, employers typically don’t care if you use a template.
Categories
