Modern resume templates, clean and ready to customize

What makes a resume modern today

Resumes overloaded with rating bars, icons and colored columns had their moment. Today, a modern resume stands out for its clarity: an obvious hierarchy between name, headings and text, a single well-placed color, generous margins and concrete information. The recruiter finds the essentials in seconds, and applicant tracking systems read all of the content.

Our four US templates

• Harvard: the classic US format, with a centered name, underlined section headings and dates on the right.
• Boston: a modern single column with a color bar on the left and your skills on one line.
• Chicago: two columns with no photo, skills and certifications on the right.
• Austin: dense and technical, with section headings in a narrow column, for tech roles and students.

Color, used well

One accent color is enough: on your name, section headings and a few rules. Body text stays black or very dark gray for maximum contrast. Our six suggested shades (forest green, navy blue, brick, plum, teal and graphite) stay readable on screen and when printed in black and white.

Careful typography

Four fonts are available: two serif fonts, Source Serif and Lora, for a more classic tone, and two sans-serif fonts, IBM Plex Sans and Work Sans, for a more contemporary look. All are designed for reading on screen and on paper.

Modern and readable by software

Many “design” resumes are actually images, or place text inside shapes that applicant tracking systems can’t read. CVZeno templates generate a PDF with real text, in a logical order. You keep a modern look without the risk of being filtered out automatically.

What to avoid

• Several bright colors on the same page.
• Rating bars without the skill name written out.
• Light text on a colored background for long paragraphs.
• Icons instead of section headings.

A modern resume that stays professional

The risk of a “modern” resume is putting effect before content. A recruiter never picks a candidate for their graphics, but they may stop reading a confusing resume. Our templates follow three rules: your name and target job come first, your experience stays at the center of the page, and color structures the page rather than decorating it.

The result works just as well for a startup as for a small business or a large corporation. For the most traditional industries, choose a discreet color such as graphite or navy blue, and a single-column template. For creative roles, go for a stronger color with Boston or Chicago, without ever sacrificing readability.

And if you’re unsure, try it out: switching templates takes one click, your content stays in place, and the preview shows you the result immediately.