Sometimes, when you have two or more candidates with the same qualifications applying for the same job, the only thing that can determine who eventually gets the job is the resume. Having an impressive resume can go a long way in influencing the decisions of prospective employers since this is the first contact you are making with them and- as they say- first impressions can last forever. You want to impress your prospective employer right from the word go and presenting a great resume is the best way to do that. But writing a perfect resume on your own can be tedious and time consuming- and there is no guarantee that you are even going to get it right in the end. This is where resume templates.

Resume templates are professionally organized documents that make the job of writing your resume easy, convenient and professional. Naturally, this is the best option to go for if you don't want to spend hours working on a resume that may still end up looking worse than average. But here's the problem- there are literally hundreds of thousands of resume templates out there ranging from free templates to expensive ones so how do you know which ones to use? Here are some pointers that should help you along.

Most people fear using resume template because they fear that it will reflect negatively on their resourcefulness. Think about the free resume templates on Word that everyone knows about. They may be easy to use but they could make prospective employers think that you are too lazy to write your own resume and they might dismiss you for it. The only way to avoid this is by looking for something unique and in order to do so you will have to go beyond these templates and look for something special.

Even if you are able to find an out of the way resume template that most people do not use, there is still no way to be sure that your prospective employer will not know about it. As such, look for resume templates that are fully customizable so that you can tweak and change them to make them as unique as possible and to make them stand out.

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While you want your resume to be unique, you do not want it to look weird so you should avoid overdoing it. Indeed a bright red resume with pictures of cute kittens dotting the corners will definitely stand out but I don't think it will pass the message that you want your prospective employers to get. Stick to neutral colours and professional fonts unless, of course, you are applying for a position as an art designer. Which brings up another point to consider when looking for resume templates- always look for templates that are industry specific and which are relevant to your specific field. There are many such templates that are available out there and finding them should not be too difficult with a little bit of good research.

For most people, writing a good resume is tough, and it takes time. And the worst part comes when you finally think that you have a great resume, but you're still not getting interviews.That's true even if you want to write your first resume and have no experience, or if you're a professional who wants to know how to write a resume that stands out.