Traditional Resume Templates: A Safe Template Option for Job Seekers

Your resume is the most important tool you have for landing a job. A good resume conveys your competency, skills, social ability, and resilience. Chronological resumes are the most traditional, and they portray your accomplishments from most recent to oldest. For those who lack experience, they may use a functional resume that focuses on your skills. Combination resumes use elements from both chronological and traditional to make up for a lack of experience in an industry.

Chronological and combination resumes have their uses but should be seen as niche options. Traditional resumes are still the mainstream way of creating a resume. According to Zety, over 98% of recruiters like chronological resumes more than ones than functional resumes.

If you are trying to break into a new industry, obtain a promotion, or simply learn how to create a traditional resume, you can apply the tactics here to do so.

What is a Traditional Resume?

Traditional resumes are written in chronological order. The most recent job goes at the top of the resume, and the reader progresses deeper into the applicant’s past as they continue reading. 

Traditionally, resumes have four main sections.

• Objective: What is the applicant trying to accomplish in their career?
• Experience: The prior companies, job titles, and professional tasks an applicant has had.
• Education: Diplomas and focus of study that the applicant has earned.
• Skills: Specific talents that the applicant has shown proficiency in. 

These four sections are displayed in simple black-and-white text. Only a limited number of fonts are viable, mainly Times New Roman, Arial, and Calibri, at sizes 10-12. Traditional resumes have minimalist design elements that eliminate graphics and photos. This provides a simple, clear, professional ambiance.

Why opt for traditional resume templates?

1) Highlight Your Experience 

What makes traditional resumes work is that they focus on your work history. Less traditional resumes tend to highlight skills and attributes instead, which on average, is not as influential to recruiters.

In order for recruiters to get the most out of your work history, focus on describing your work experience utilizing 2-4 bullet points. To get the most out of bullet points, you need to use concise language. Consider that the person reading your resume has to read many resumes per day, and thus, you want to portray as much relevant information to them as efficiently as possible.

This is why structuring your resume in the traditional way is so important. When you use a more modified design for a resume, recruiters might not know where to skim for relevant information. Using familiar formatting makes it easier for the recruiter to digest the information in a quick amount of time. 

Traditional resume templates will structure your resume in chronological order. A skills section will take up a smaller portion of the resume, and usually be placed closer to the bottom. The most important information on a resume is typically placed at the top. A traditional resume adheres to this principle, ensuring that key details are prominently displayed in a clear and predictable manner.

2) There is Still Room for Customization 

Not every resume is exactly the same, even if they adhere to traditional formatting. Academia has changes in its variation due to what academia values. Academic resumes are longer and more comprehensive, similar to a CV (Curriculum Vitae). Experience in chronological order is valuable, but due to the nature of the industry, the information is demonstrated through research opposed to jobs. There is also a much larger emphasis on educational accomplishments, and the education section may go on top of the resume because of this. 

Other sections like the objective sections may be tweaked and replaced with a summary section. In this scenario, you may opt to add a summary if you have a lot of relevant experience and want to quickly demonstrate what you bring to the table. An objective may be more useful for those who are switching industries or are applying for an entry level job. 

More trendy resumes will have a strong emphasis on eye popping colors, sleek graphics, and attractive ways to categorize skills. However, these types of resumes can come off as unprofessional, especially when you are applying for jobs that are not associated with trendiness or innovation, like administrative work for a Mayor's office or joining the HR department of a hospital.

Who Should Use Traditional Resumes?

These industries you should stick to traditional choices when crafting your resume:

• Law
• Government
• Finance
• Healthcare
• Education

If you noticed, all of these fields have compliances and regulations in common. Due to how much bureaucracy is involved in these careers, it has made them more conservative in their  work culture and hiring processes. They strongly contrast with more dynamic and faster sectors like entertainment, e-commerce, tech, and digital media. 

Even if you have a job that is not typically associated with the field, you should lean toward using a traditional resume. For instance, if you are a graphic designer or social media manager but you are applying for a law firm's in-house marketing team, you should stick to a traditional resume even if you are not practicing law. 

Conversely, if you’re in a less traditional industry but you’re looking to apply for a higher position then a traditional resume will be more appropriate. Regardless if you are in entertainment or biotechnology, managerial and senior positions will value professionalism which is tied to the traditional resume’s familiar style. 

Playing it safe with a traditional resume is wise if you’re coming out of college. There is always a question if freshers have the maturity to work alongside others, and having a traditional resume protrudes that poise. Likewise, even internships will benefit from a traditional resume, especially in sectors like finance where they are highly competitive and entrenched in tradition. 

So while you’re transitioning from a sector that may be more on the creative side, like animation, design, or fashion, you should heavily consider modifying your resume. If your role is still creative, but you are breaking into a conservative industry, you can show your creative prowess with a link to your portfolio.

It may seem daunting and uncomfortable to modify your aesthetically pleasing resume for a dry one that lacks flair, but it is what employers are looking for for government jobs, medical companies, and law firms. 

Consider Regional Customs

Startup culture has greatly affected larger corporations, and in turn, regions that are influenced by the tech industry are more lenient on the type of resumes you create. A traditional resume will go further in Chicago, Boston, and New York City than San Francisco, Seattle, and Austin.

Furthermore, certain international companies may retain the work culture of their country of origin. It is common for a Japanese company to have more traditional values than a Canadian company, and thus, you should stick to using a traditional resume.

When applying for jobs abroad, make sure to research their work culture. Typically speaking, traditional resumes are expected in most of Asia. The biggest difference between traditional resumes in the West and the East is that it is considered socially acceptable to put a picture on your resume in Asia. More progressive companies in the East are phasing this out, and you should never use a picture on your resume when applying for a job in a Western company. 

Still confused about the differences between a traditional resume and another resume template? Here's a cheat sheet for you:

Examples of Resumes

Education Industry Traditional Resume Template

Financial Industry Traditional Resume Template

Legal Industry Traditional Resume Template

Watch Out for These Common Pitfalls When Writing a Traditional Resume Template

While structuring your resume is important and a key element to making a traditional resume, you can still mitigate its impact with other poor decisions.

• Writing Too Much: Do not make your resume an autobiography. While it is tempting to list every thing you’ve done, many recruiters are skimming your resume. This means that it is disadvantageous to put anything other than the most pivotal things you’ve accomplished.
• Not Adjusting Your Resume for your Application: Every job listing you encounter has its own set of unique words and phrases to describe what they are looking for. To make your resume seem like the best fit for the job, use the same keywords that the job listing has on your resume. Both recruiters and ATS systems will hone in on your resume, as you’re providing them exactly what they are looking for. You can use sites like Jobscan that will compare your resume with the job description and rate its compatibility for ATS systems. 
• Using Odd Fonts: While some industries and careers related to the arts may invite an opportunity for a flamboyant looking resume, it’s safer to go with the more traditional design choices. Eliminate any distracting graphics and stick to common fonts. Using traditional fonts will leave the focus on your work experience and reduce the chances of offending your employer by looking unprofessional. 
• Neglecting to Check for Mistakes: Forgetting to proofread your resume is undoing all the hard-work you put into creating your resume. Read your resume out loud to see how it flows. Keep an eye out for punctuation and grammar errors. Getting a second set of eyes for your resume can be helpful, have a friend read it. There are AI programs that can help spot errors like Grammarly, but they’re not perfect so you will still need to look over your resume yourself. Both CareerBuilder and TopResume have surveys that show over 75% of hiring managers consider typos and bad grammar to be unacceptable.

Key Takeaways

Ultimately, you will have to analyze whether traditional resumes are the right choice for you. You may lack relevant work experience, and may want to experiment with an alternative style of resume to stand out from the crowd. 

In industries characterized by strict bureaucracy and hierarchy, such as pharmaceuticals and law, adhering to a traditional resume format is generally advisable. These companies typically prioritize consistency and reliability over trendsetting or innovation when evaluating candidates. 

Following a clear, consistent, and predictable format that condenses your work experience into readable bullet points is the best way to break into many industries. You should analyze the vibe of the company you want to work for and determine how to fit in with their culture, and use that same level of observation to make your resume match with their job description.

— Originally written by Chris Grudge —