ATS-friendly resume templates (free, tested in 2026)

An ATS-friendly resume template is not a design asset. It is a document structure — a specific arrangement of sections, headers, and line formats that Applicant Tracking Systems can parse reliably without garbling your experience or dropping your contact details.

Most resume templates available for download are designed to look impressive in PDF preview. They use multi-column layouts, custom fonts, text boxes for the header, and skill bars rendered as visual elements. These features look good in Canva or Figma. They fail ATS parsing in Workday, Greenhouse, Taleo, and iCIMS.

This page gives you four plain-text template structures — classic chronological, skills-forward, graduate entry-level, and career change — rendered as fenced code blocks you can copy directly into a Word document. Each one is built around the five rules that separate ATS-safe from ATS-risky.

What makes a template ATS-friendly

Five rules that every template on this page follows:

• Single-column layout only. Multi-column layouts cause parsers to read lines in the wrong order, mixing content across sections. A single column means the parser reads top to bottom, which is how it was designed to work.
• Standard section headers. Section boundary detection in most ATS platforms relies on a known vocabulary: "Work Experience," "Employment History," "Education," "Skills," "Professional Summary." Headers outside this vocabulary may cause the parser to skip the entire section.
• No text boxes or drawing objects. Text placed in Word drawing objects, shapes, or text boxes is invisible to most ATS parsers. This is the single most common cause of lost contact information — many templates put the name and email in a header text box.
• No headers or footers. Word's document header and footer regions are extracted separately and inconsistently across ATS platforms. Contact information in the document header is frequently lost.
• Plain bullet characters. Standard round bullets (•) and hyphens (-) are universally supported. Fancy Unicode characters — arrows, stars, diamonds — may be stripped or rendered as question marks.

These rules are covered in more depth in The ATS resume format that actually works in 2026. The short version: anything that makes a template look distinctive in a PDF viewer tends to make it harder for a parser to extract structured data.

Template 1 — Classic chronological

The most widely used structure and the safest choice for candidates with a continuous work history. Reverse-chronological experience is the section order that ATS platforms weight most heavily, and it matches recruiter reading patterns.

Use this template if you are applying to roles in the same sector or function you have been working in, have no significant employment gaps, and have three or more years of experience.

FULL NAME
email@example.com | +44 7xxx xxxxxx | linkedin.com/in/yourprofile | London, UK

PROFESSIONAL SUMMARY
Results-driven [Job Title] with [X] years of experience in [domain/sector].
Specialises in [core skill 1], [core skill 2], and [core skill 3].
Track record of [outcome type — e.g. "delivering products on time and within budget"
across [team size / company type].
Seeking a [target role] at [company type] where [value you bring].

WORK EXPERIENCE

[Job Title] | [Company Name] | [Month YYYY] – [Month YYYY / Present]
- [Outcome-led bullet: what you did, how, and the measurable result. Start with
  a strong verb. Example: Reduced deployment cycle time by 40% by introducing
  automated CI/CD pipelines across three backend services.]
- [Second bullet aligned to the target JD's key requirements. Quantify scope,
  team size, or budget where possible.]
- [Third bullet. One strong bullet beats three weak ones — cut if needed.]

[Job Title] | [Company Name] | [Month YYYY] – [Month YYYY]
- [Bullet]
- [Bullet]
- [Bullet]

[Job Title] | [Company Name] | [Month YYYY] – [Month YYYY]
- [Bullet]
- [Bullet]

SKILLS
[Group skills by category if helpful. Example:]
Languages & Frameworks: Python, TypeScript, React, FastAPI
Data & Infrastructure: PostgreSQL, Redis, AWS (EC2, S3, RDS), Terraform
Practices: CI/CD, code review, Agile/Scrum, technical roadmapping

EDUCATION
[Degree Title] | [Institution Name] | [Year] – [Year]
[Optional: dissertation title, classification, or relevant modules.]

CERTIFICATIONS
[Certification Name] | [Issuing Body] | [Year]

To use: copy this into a blank Word document. Set font to Calibri 11pt throughout. Bold the section headers at Calibri 12pt. Use standard round bullets for experience items. Save as .docx for ATS submissions, PDF for direct recruiter emails.

Template 2 — Skills-forward

Leads with a skills section before work experience. This structure is sometimes called a "hybrid" or "combination" resume. It is useful when your skills are more likely to match the job description's keyword list than your job titles are, or when your most relevant experience is not your most recent.

Note: ATS platforms weigh experience section content more heavily than skills sections in most scoring models. Leading with skills does not automatically improve your ATS score — it is a human readability choice. Ensure your work experience bullets still contain the keywords.

FULL NAME
email@example.com | +1 (xxx) xxx-xxxx | linkedin.com/in/yourprofile | New York, NY

PROFESSIONAL SUMMARY
[Three to four sentences. Lead with your professional identity, then your
two or three strongest differentiators. Close with what kind of role you
are targeting and why now.]

CORE SKILLS
[Skill Area 1]: [Skill], [Skill], [Skill], [Skill]
[Skill Area 2]: [Skill], [Skill], [Skill], [Skill]
[Skill Area 3]: [Skill], [Skill], [Skill]
[Skill Area 4]: [Skill], [Skill], [Skill]

[Example filled in:]
Product & Strategy: roadmap planning, OKR setting, go-to-market execution,
  competitive analysis, stakeholder alignment
Technical: SQL, Looker, Figma, JIRA, Notion, basic Python
Research: user interviews, usability testing, NPS surveys, A/B test design
Leadership: cross-functional team lead (up to 12 reports), hiring manager,
  mentor

WORK EXPERIENCE

[Job Title] | [Company Name] | [Month YYYY] – Present
- [Bullet: surface the skills listed above in context. Recruiters scan here
  to verify that the skills section reflects real experience.]
- [Bullet]
- [Bullet]

[Job Title] | [Company Name] | [Month YYYY] – [Month YYYY]
- [Bullet]
- [Bullet]

EDUCATION
[Degree Title] | [Institution Name] | [Year] – [Year]

CERTIFICATIONS & TRAINING
[Certification Name] | [Issuing Body] | [Year]

Template 3 — Graduate / entry-level

Designed for candidates with limited or no professional experience in the target field. Education moves above work experience, and non-work experience (projects, dissertations, volunteering, internships) is given its own section.

The challenge with graduate CVs and ATS is keyword coverage: without a substantial work history, your CV may not contain enough of the job description's required terms to score well. The graduate CV guide covers how to close that gap.

FULL NAME
email@example.com | +44 7xxx xxxxxx | linkedin.com/in/yourprofile | Manchester, UK

PROFESSIONAL SUMMARY
Recent [Degree Subject] graduate from [University] with hands-on experience in
[relevant area 1] and [relevant area 2] through [internships / projects / competitions].
Proficient in [key tool or skill]. Looking for a [target role] where I can [value].

EDUCATION
[Degree Title] | [University Name] | [Year] – [Year]
Classification: [e.g., First Class Honours / 2:1 / GPA 3.8]
Relevant modules: [Module 1], [Module 2], [Module 3]
Dissertation: "[Title]" — [One sentence describing the topic and method.]

PROJECTS & RELEVANT EXPERIENCE

[Project or Role Title] | [Organisation or "Personal Project"] | [Month YYYY]
- [What you built or did, what technologies or methods you used, and the
  outcome or impact — even if small scale. Quantify where possible.]
- [Bullet]

[Internship Title] | [Company Name] | [Month YYYY] – [Month YYYY]
- [Bullet: even a short internship should lead with the most concrete
  outcome you delivered.]
- [Bullet]

SKILLS
[Technical]: [List relevant hard skills, tools, languages, frameworks]
[Soft / transferable]: [Communication, team collaboration, presentation skills]
[Languages]: [Natural language skills if relevant to the role]

WORK EXPERIENCE (OTHER)
[Part-time or unrelated role title] | [Company] | [Month YYYY] – [Month YYYY]
- [One bullet on transferable skill: customer communication, time management,
  handling responsibility under pressure, etc.]

ACTIVITIES & AWARDS
[Society, sport, award, competition — keep only genuinely notable items.]

Template 4 — Career change

Built for candidates applying into a new function, sector, or seniority level. The structure prioritises transferable skills and reframes prior experience in the language of the target role. The summary does heavy lifting here.

The biggest ATS risk in a career change CV is keyword mismatch: your prior experience uses the vocabulary of your old sector, while the job description uses the vocabulary of the new one. The career change resume guide and RecastCV's tailoring feature both address this directly. See also how to tailor your CV to a job description for the step-by-step approach.

FULL NAME
email@example.com | +44 7xxx xxxxxx | linkedin.com/in/yourprofile | Bristol, UK

PROFESSIONAL SUMMARY
[Target role] professional transitioning from [previous field] with [X] years
of experience in [transferable area 1] and [transferable area 2].
In [previous role], [most relevant achievement — framed in the language of
the new field]. Now applying this background to [specific aspect of target role].

TRANSFERABLE SKILLS
[Group skills by how they map to the new role, not the old one.]
[New-role skill area 1]: [Skill], [Skill], [Skill]
[New-role skill area 2]: [Skill], [Skill]
[New-role skill area 3]: [Skill], [Skill], [Skill]
[Tools & systems relevant to target role]: [Tool], [Tool], [Tool]

RELEVANT EXPERIENCE

[Previous Job Title] | [Company Name] | [Month YYYY] – [Month YYYY]
- [Bullet reframed in new-field vocabulary. If you managed budgets in ops
  and you are targeting finance, use "P&L management" not "cost control"
  if the JD uses the former.]
- [Bullet that surfaces the transferable outcome, not the old-sector process.]
- [Bullet]

[Previous Job Title] | [Company Name] | [Month YYYY] – [Month YYYY]
- [Bullet]
- [Bullet]

EDUCATION & TRAINING
[Degree or certification most relevant to the new field listed first.]
[Degree Title] | [Institution] | [Year] – [Year]
[New-field certification or course] | [Provider] | [Year]

ADDITIONAL EXPERIENCE
[Earlier roles in old field — brief, one bullet each or omit if space is tight.]
[Job Title] | [Company] | [Year] – [Year]

How to use a template with RecastCV

These templates give you an ATS-safe starting structure. The limitation they cannot solve is per-application tailoring.

A single master CV — even one with a well-structured format — will score differently on different job descriptions depending on how well its language matches the specific keywords the employer's ATS is weighting. A software engineer applying to a Python-heavy data role and a TypeScript-heavy product role needs different keyword emphasis in the experience bullets even if the underlying work is the same.

The templates page will offer downloadable .docx files for each template above — coming soon.

RecastCV's tailoring feature takes your master CV and a job description URL and rewrites your experience bullets to match the JD's keywords — grounded in your real projects, not invented. The result is a tailored .docx that uses the ATS-safe structure of your chosen template with keywords and framing specific to each role.

The workflow:

1. Choose the template that fits your situation from the structures above.
2. Fill it in with your actual experience — do not tailor it yet.
3. Save the filled template as your master CV in RecastCV.
4. For each application, paste the job description URL into RecastCV and let it produce a tailored version.

This separates the one-time structural work (choosing and filling a template) from the per-application work (tailoring the content), which is where most candidates lose hours they do not need to spend.