Honestly, I dropped $80 on a fancy portfolio template that made my work look like a toddler's fridge art.

Ngl, I bought it hoping for a quick polish, but the layout was so cluttered and weird that a client actually asked if my designs were a joke, so has anyone found a simple, clean template that doesn't cost a fortune?

3 comments

3 Comments

joel2802mo ago

That whole "buy a template, look pro" thing is such a trap. My cousin went through something similar, but with a resume builder. Paid for the "executive" pack, and it spit out this garish thing with weird sidebars and a giant pie chart of his "skills." He said it looked like a bad infographic from 2012. Sometimes the simplest Word doc is harder to beat.

paigewood2mo ago

Consider the sheer volume of resumes a hiring manager sees. A clean, modern template with a little visual structure can make yours stand out in that stack in a good way. Your cousin's pie chart example is a bad pick, not proof all templates are bad. A well-designed one guides the reader's eye to your key wins without you needing to be a graphic designer.

mark_fisher481d ago

@paigewood is right that a template can help. But the problem is most templates are junk. You get those sidebars and pie charts and it looks like a MySpace page. The key is finding one that's actually clean, not just flashy. Most people don't know the difference and end up with the garish stuff.