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If you’re looking to make your resume stand out, you’ll already know that emailing a Word document isn’t going to help your application rise to the top of the pile.

There are lots of tools to help you put forward a really good resume; one that goes beyond the list-style of previous jobs. Online resume tools make it easy to summarize your experience in a reader-friendly way, highlighting your key skills and taking the stress out of the design. You can quickly build an awesome resume by using professionally-designed templates and importing much of your work history from LinkedIn or your existing resume.

Here’s our pick of the top 7 online tools for creating a fantastic resume.

1. LinkedIn

LinkedIn is the granddaddy of online tools for presenting your professional experience. You can add media like photos and videos easily, show off the groups you belong to, and track your work history in lots of details along with testimonials from the people you have worked with.

But it’s not written in a particularly employer-friendly way. If someone sent you a link to their LinkedIn profile instead of a resume, what would you think? The interface is cluttered with news and ads – it’s not an easy reading experience.

Many employers use LinkedIn as a way to gather more information about prospective candidates, and you can always include your LinkedIn profile link on your resume. However, it’s not the first place employers would go to. Most still prefer a resume in a more traditional format with less scrolling, even if they would be happy to see that online.

Make sure your LinkedIn profile is up to date and accurately representative of your work, but remember to create a resume in another format too.

That’s where these other tools come in…

2. Easel.ly

Easel.ly is an infographic maker, but it includes templates for resumes as well. If you work in the creative industries, turning your resume into an infographic and presenting your experience visually like this could go down well with prospective employers.

The free account gives you limited access to graphic templates, and you can’t download your document as a PDF. The paid account gives you that and more, so you’ll have to weigh up whether it’s worth the subscription.

3. Kickresume

Kickresume turns out a highly professional looking resume, and it gives you access to samples so you can be inspired by what other people have done. The templates are produced by designers, and the company claims that they give you a 60% higher chance of landing a job.

Kickresume will also help you put together your cover letters. There is a free plan, but for more features, you’ll want to upgrade to the paid plan (it’s a lot cheaper to sign up for an annual subscription).

4. CVMaker

CVMaker has a selection of templates available free, with premium templates on offer if you pay to upgrade. The free ones are perfectly OK, but the options for editing are quite limited. There isn’t a lot of customization you can to in terms of fonts or colors unless you upgrade.

It’s available in 37 languages, so it’s got support for all kinds of characters. You can download your resume as a PDF or in HTML, and you can share the link to it as well.

5. ConnectCV

ConnectCV is more than just a resume builder. You can store multiple resumes, track your job applications, collect and manage references, store cover letters and more.

You can quickly create a resume for free by importing the contents of your LinkedIn profile (but you can only do this the very first time you set up your account, so don’t miss this step). Then you can edit and review, add more information and share your profile. You can share it online, or download as a Word document or a PDF.

6. SlashCV

At the time of writing this tool is currently in beta, which means it’s not fully launched and developed; it’s still in the iterative design stage. You might find a few bugs, but it’s perfectly OK to use now. The text input options are still quite basic, so if you have long lists of data to include you’ll want to think through how best to make them appear.

There are 28 pre-designed templates to create a professional looking PDF resume. The system saves your resume to your Dropbox account, so you can pick it up from there or share the Dropbox link with recruiters.

7. VisualCV

VisualCV has built in tracking so you can see who has downloaded your resume (on the paid plan). It also gives you the option of creating multiple resumes, which is great for when you want to personalize your application for a particular company or role. You can include more than just text: add video clips, charts, and photographs for an interactive and informative resume.

The user reviews of this product are really good, so it’s worth checking out. They do have premium templates on offer although there is a free account that gives you limited access so you can review the app before you upgrade.

How to Choose an Online Resume Tool

There are a lot of online tools available, as you can see. When you’re making a decision about which one to use, look for a product that allows you to export your resume in a number of formats so that you always have a file that your prospective employer can open.

You’ll also want to be careful about free online resume tools that talk about ‘creating a resume for free’. You may have to pay to download or print your resume, so read the terms and conditions of the site before investing too much time in creating your resume if you are certain you don’t want to pay to access it in other formats.

We can get your resume in front of the employers who are looking for people just like you. Contact Triumph Strategic Consulting today and find out how we can help you secure the perfect job.