Today I’m sharing with you some of the best online resume builders I have used. Recently I was applying for some jobs. I wanted to make my resume look a little slicker. Up until now I had been using Microsoft Word to build a resume. Although Word is competent enough, the end result looks boring, and doesn’t stand out at all. The formatting in Word is also highly frustrating, and essentially it wasn’t built for designing beautiful CVs. I also had a crack at Publisher, but again the process was frustrating and the results lackluster - although a little better than Word.
In desperation, I turned to Google - I looked up online CV builders. I wanted something that could give me a nice slick resume and save me time and effort. I ended up using VisualCV, which produced a really fantastic resume for me. Today I’m going to share what I’ve found out about making a resume online as we look at the best online resume builders.
VisualCV
I’m starting this list of the best online resume builders with VisualCV. After trying out a number of different resume builders I was most impressed with the results from VisualCV, and used it to make my resume.
Simply put, VisualCV is the most user friendly resume builder. To begin, you can upload your old resume. They glean the relevant information from this and put it in to their template. You can then edit what results, and add or sub-tract information as you see fit. At the end, you download the resulting file as a PDF.
I chose to remain with the free option, which allows you to use two very clean and professional looking templates. They do push the premium option a bit, but I was happy with the quality of the free option.
One slight issue. When you export your CV it is branded. A little branding appears on the bottom of the page, but it’s easy enough to get rid of. I uploaded my PDF to PDF Zoro and used their free online PDF editor to erase this branding from the bottom. I then had a nice, well laid out PDF resume without branding that I could use to apply for jobs. Excellent!
Pros:
- Examples of resumes for different industries.
- Clean user design. Intuitive editor.
- Beautiful results.
- LinkedIn login.
- Import your existing resume.
- Have someone build a resume for you with the premium option.
Cons:
- Only two templates in the free option.
- Branding for free accounts. This is easily removed with an online PDF editor.
Overall I was really satisfied with the resume builder from VisualCV. I would recommend it to anyone, and might consider using a premium option in future for a really crucial application.
SlashCV
Here is another excellent free online resume builder. SlashCV is simple and intuitive. One advantage here is that you don’t even have to sign up or submit your email in order to begin building the resume you want. It generates a lovely clean PDF at the end for you. In terms of free options, SlashCV is certainly one of the best online resume makers.
If you do choose to sign up with an email address, you can unlock additional features, including a range of lovely templates and the ability to save your resume for later. Another neat feature is the ability to link your Dropbox account to SlashCV to save your work for easy sharing.
Unfortunately the text editor they have is pretty basic. You can set up ordered and unordered lists and bold text etc but you can’t set up multiple columns. The end result can end up looking as awkward as a Microsoft Word CV. It lacks the slickness of VisualCV. For that reason I didn’t use SlashCV in the end.
Pros:
- Save to Dropbox
- Free
- No signup required
- Save your CV for later
Cons:
- Basic test editing only
- Limited options for file export.Watch Anime Online
ResumeGenius
I was really impressed with the beautifully designed resumes available at ResumeGenius. In terms of fantastic CV design Resume design is one of the best online resume builders. You can choose from a lovely and comprehensive set of pre-written resumes for almost any job type.
However, I was disappointed with their bait and switch tactics. They promise to offer a free resume but don’t deliver. Instead you have to sign up for a $1.95 14 day free trial. Admittedly that isn’t very expensive, however I dislike the tactic of promising one thing and then later when you have made your resume then letting you know that you’ll have to pay to download what you have made. I prefer for companies to be upfront about their service.
Pros:
- Very simple to use.
- Beautiful selection of templates that will impress.
- Nice user interface.
Cons:
- Downloading your resume at the end is a pain and will cost money.
- For free users you will only be able to download a text export with none of the visual aspects you want.
Uptowork
There are two options with Uptowork. The free plan includes 4 resume templates with Uptowork branding. The premium version gives you a month’s access for $9.99. Here you get to use 20 unbranded templates to build your CV.
I have to say, Uptowork is definitely one of the best online resume builders. They have clean, nice-looking resumes that will impress prospective employers.
Pros:
- Beautiful professional quality resumes.
- Easy to use editor.
Cons:
- Branding on the free service.
- The free version doesn’t have the full range of resume templates available.
Verdict
All of the best online resume builders have their plus sides and drawbacks. This is especially true if like me you are trying not to pay for the service. Out of these 4 resume builders, I decided to go for VisualCV. The resume it produced looked really nice and the branding was very simple to remove. I think their free trial is the best one on offer.
One service to watch out for is My Perfect Resume. There are a range of reports online claiming this company to be fraudulent. I didn’t include them in today’s list so as not to draw extra attention to this company, however if you see this website, don’t use it.
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