How long should a CV be?

One page in the US, and one page anywhere if you have less than about five years of experience. Two pages is the norm in the UK and most of Europe for experienced candidates. Three pages almost always means you have included things nobody asked about.

Do I need a photo on my CV?

Not in the UK, US, Ireland, Canada or Australia, where a photo can get the application set aside. In Germany, France, Italy, Spain and Poland a photo is common and often expected. When in doubt, leave it out.

What is the difference between a CV and a resume?

In the US a resume is the short, one-page document you send with a job application, and a CV is a long academic record. In the UK and Europe the short document is simply called a CV. Same purpose, different name and length conventions.

Should the CV template be colourful?

It does not need to be. One accent colour for headings is enough to structure the page. Colour never compensates for vague content, and heavy backgrounds can confuse parsing software and printers.

Are these CV templates free?

Yes. All templates and all download formats (PDF, an ATS-friendly PDF, DOCX and plain text) are free, with no account, no watermark and no paid tier.

CV templates: which layout to choose and how to fill it in

A template will not get you the job, but the wrong one can take you out of the running before anyone reads a word. This is what actually separates a useful CV template from one that works against you.

Three kinds of CV template

Every CV template you will find online belongs to one of three families. Choosing between them is not a matter of taste. It depends on who reads the document first: a person or a piece of parsing software.

Single-column, classic. The safest choice. Applicant tracking systems read it in the right order, it prints cleanly and nothing distracts from the content. Use it when applying to large companies, the public sector, finance, law or anywhere the application goes through an online form.
Two-column. Fits more on one page and works well when you have a long list of technical skills. The trade-off: some ATS software reads both columns as a single block and mixes your skills into your work history. Fine when you are emailing a human directly, riskier when uploading to a portal.
Creative, with colour and graphics. Makes sense in design, marketing, advertising and other fields where the document itself is a sample of your work. Everywhere else it tends to get in the way, and a recruiter who has to hunt for your last job title will not hunt for long.

What every CV template needs

Whatever the layout, recruiters look for the same things in roughly the same order. If they cannot find one of them within about ten seconds, they move on to the next application.

Contact details: name, phone number, email, city and country. A full postal address is unnecessary. A LinkedIn URL helps if the profile is up to date.
A personal statement (UK) or summary (US): three or four sentences on who you are professionally, how much experience you have and what you are looking for. It is the only part every reader gets through.
Work experience, most recent first. For each role: what you did and what it led to, not a list of duties copied from the contract.
Education. The longer your career, the shorter this section and the further down it goes.
Skills: specific tools, technologies, languages and certifications. Not "team player" or "good communicator".

UK, US or continental Europe: the differences that matter

The same document has different rules depending on where you send it. Most of the differences are small, but a few of them get applications binned.

United States: the document is called a resume, not a CV (an American "CV" is an academic document that runs to many pages). One page for most candidates, US Letter paper size, no photo, no date of birth, no nationality. Skills and results over job descriptions.
United Kingdom: a CV, two pages is standard, A4 paper. It opens with a short personal statement. No photo, no date of birth, no marital status; UK employers avoid anything that could ground a discrimination claim. References are usually "available on request" or left out entirely.
Continental Europe: A4, one to two pages. In Germany, France, Italy, Spain, Poland and much of central Europe a photo is still common and often expected. Some countries expect a data-processing consent clause at the bottom, a GDPR formality that Italian, Spanish and Polish employers in particular look for. Language levels are given on the CEFR scale (A1 to C2).

Pick the target market before you pick the template

The layout is the smaller decision. Paper size, section names, whether to include a photo and whether to add a consent clause all follow from the country you are applying in, and a two-page UK CV on Letter paper looks as odd to a London recruiter as a one-page photo resume does in New York.

This is why the free builder asks for your target market in the first step. Choose UK, US, EU or Poland and it switches page size, renames the sections (personal statement versus summary, employment history versus experience), hides or shows the photo and adds or removes the consent clause. The same content can be exported for a different market later without retyping anything.

What to avoid

A few things do more damage than a plain template ever could. A photo on an application to a British or American employer. Contact details set as an image, so the ATS never sees them. A university-era email address. A file named "cv_final_v3_FINAL.pdf". Coloured text boxes that print as grey blocks.

And the most common one of all: the same CV sent to every job without a single word changed for the advert in front of you. How to fix that is the subject of the guide on writing a CV step by step.

Pick a template and build your CV

Free, no account needed. Download as PDF, DOCX and TXT.

Frequently asked questions

How long should a CV be?: One page in the US, and one page anywhere if you have less than about five years of experience. Two pages is the norm in the UK and most of Europe for experienced candidates. Three pages almost always means you have included things nobody asked about.
Do I need a photo on my CV?: Not in the UK, US, Ireland, Canada or Australia, where a photo can get the application set aside. In Germany, France, Italy, Spain and Poland a photo is common and often expected. When in doubt, leave it out.
What is the difference between a CV and a resume?: In the US a resume is the short, one-page document you send with a job application, and a CV is a long academic record. In the UK and Europe the short document is simply called a CV. Same purpose, different name and length conventions.
Should the CV template be colourful?: It does not need to be. One accent colour for headings is enough to structure the page. Colour never compensates for vague content, and heavy backgrounds can confuse parsing software and printers.
Are these CV templates free?: Yes. All templates and all download formats (PDF, an ATS-friendly PDF, DOCX and plain text) are free, with no account, no watermark and no paid tier.