The Sidebar resume template with an example resume
Example resume, US Letter. Every name and number is made up.

Sidebar Resume Template

Your skills and education sit in a tinted side column, beside your experience. The first thing a reader sees is what you can do, not only where you worked.

  • PDF and Word
  • US Letter or A4
  • No watermark

Good for

  • Career changers leading with transferable skills
  • Healthcare, trades and technical roles
  • Applicants whose certifications matter

Layout

  • Tinted side column for skills, education and certifications
  • Lato, a warm, friendly sans-serif
  • The Word version is single column, for systems that read columns out of order

In other colours

  • Sidebar template in OceanOcean
  • Sidebar template in BurgundyBurgundy
  • Sidebar template in ForestForest

Questions

About the templates

Before you send it, check your resume against the job description.

Are the templates really free?

Yes. All 8 templates and every design option (colour, font, size, spacing, paper, date format and section order) are on the Free plan, with PDF and Word downloads. There’s no watermark.

Will an applicant tracking system (ATS) read my resume?

The PDFs contain real text in reading order, and the Word files use real headings and lists. Single-column templates are the safest choice for any system. Two-column templates read well to people; some older systems read columns out of order, so the Word version of those is single column.

Can I switch templates later?

Yes. Your resume is stored as content, not as a design, so switching template changes the look without retyping anything. Colours and fonts you picked carry over.

US Letter or A4?

Both. New resumes start on the paper used where you are: Letter in the United States and Canada, A4 elsewhere. You can change it at any time.

Resume or CV?

Every template works for both. In New Zealand, Australia, the UK and Ireland, “CV” and “resume” usually mean the same two-to-three-page document; in the United States and Canada a resume is usually one or two pages.