5 Easy Tools for Making the Perfect Resume

Unless you’re a graphic designer, creating a resume that fits your accomplishments on one page with the proper formatting and a memorable, personal (but still professional) style can be daunting.

Don’t worry; you don’t need to go to design school to land your next job. Here are five tools that will essentially make an amazing resume for you.

RESUME MONK

Sure, a free resume template is nice, but how about a free resume template that will take all of the information from your LinkedIn page and turn it into a clean, organized resume for you? First step: Perfect your LinkedIn page to catch recruiters’ attention, making sure your profile is complete and engaging.

Once that’s done, Resume Monk will take care of the rest. You can pay a $29-per-month or one-time $79 fee to gain access to more resume templates, matching cover letter templates, additional design tools and a custom URL so you can share your resume digitally.

VISUALCV

If you’re tired of sending your resume off into the void, never knowing if anyone ever actually glanced at it, then try VisualCV. Their analytics let you know when your resume is viewed or downloaded. Select templates are available for free, and they offer a variety of templates that work for creative and corporate industries. Before you get started, check out their guide to writing a standout resume.

CEEV

Ceev couldn’t be easier to use. You pick a template, answer some prompts with your information and a perfectly polished resume is created for you. You can even make your own template with easy-to-use drag-and-drop design elements. And while Ceev offers some really great templates and features for free, for just $10 you can upgrade to even more options.

STANDARD RESUME

If you want to create multiple resumes (wise if you’re applying to a variety of positions or industries) and keep track of them all, Standard Resume may be the tool for you. Like Resume Monk, they’ll leverage your LinkedIn profile to create your resume and then charge a $5-per-month or $20-per-year subscription for access to analytics that tell you when each one of your resumes has been viewed or downloaded. That way, you can compare which version is resonating the most with employers.

RESUME ASSISTANT

Formatting your resume in Microsoft Word has become significantly easier thanks to Resume Assistant. All you need is the latest version of Office 365 and you’re ready to begin. Plus, Microsoft just so happens to own LinkedIn, which means not only can you use your LinkedIn profile to help build your resume, but it also takes the keywords from your profile to show you examples targeted toward your specific roles and industries.

Resume Assistant also searches LinkedIn for open job opportunities that might interest you — and utilizes the short job descriptions to help you tailor your resume for each one. Once you’ve finished your resume, you can check out the suggested jobs and apply. While you don't need a LinkedIn account to use Resume Assistant, it will streamline the process if you already have an account and completed profile.