You can get a free resume template anywhere on the Internet. Hell, they are a dime a dozen! In fact, it’s almost trendy for websites to offer you a free resume template when you roll up at the front door! And the bizarre fact is that people use them. They look for them, and without a second thought, they are happy to condense their life into this little free template and send their “new resume” off to apply for a job. And then they wonder why they didn’t get an interview!!

Is it really all that astounding that the cardboard cut out a piece of nonsense you sent to the employer didn’t float their boat? Would you be overly astounded by it if you saw it 30 times a day? Would you be able to distinguish one from the next?

Originality is what free resume templates lack!

Your resume should be your advanced guard when assaulting recruiters in the war against unemployment! It’s your most powerful weapon!

By using a free resume template, you considerably reduce the odds of an employer remembering you; even picking you from a crowd. How do marketers succeed? By doing what everyone else does or by being unique? Well, both, but the former tend to fade into obscurity while the latter enjoy success!

You have to be unique. You have to promote your potential to the employer. You have to rise above the rest. You will tell the employer that you are the kind of person who will make the extra effort. Remember, a free resume template is free for a reason!

So what use is a free resume template?

Knowledge!

So you are new to job seeking or haven’t applied for a job for a number of years That’s no problem – we’ve all been there – we all had trouble figuring out what our resume should contain. A free resume template can help you figure out the standard from which to launch yourself upward by creating your own unique resume.

Following up on the analogy of advertisers and marketeers it is common practice for advertisers to watch what their competitors are doing. It gives them a kind of benchmark for what they need to do to succeed themselves. In the same light, you can use free resume templates to find out what other job seekers are using.

Shouldn’t resumes be in a conventional format?

Yes and no. There is a mixed opinion where some employers have one thought and the rest argue!

There is a lot to be said for having a conventional format for your resume – you shouldn’t make employers dig for the content – it should be easy for them to find (they are after all busy people!). This is no reason to be unoriginal though!

You can go the easy route with creating your resume – use a free resume template. But in the eyes of many professionals (recruiters and employers), it will look lazy. And that’s not the impression you want to give with your resume.

Summary

Originality and creativeness don’t mean loss of conventional formatting. You have plenty of options to customise your resume (font, size, layout) while keeping it in a conventional format (ie, education, work experience, etc). It’s up to you to create a resume that successfully conveys your skills and abilities – through the information included and the format of the resume.

In our opinion, and in the opinion of many industry professionals, you will have trouble doing this with free resume templates.

Did you find success using a Free Resme Template?

Though we’re not saying it’s impossible to secure a job interview using a free resume template, we’d be interested to understand if we have had any successes amongst our readers. Were you able to secure a job interview using a free resume? Let us know in our comments below.