Resume themes and plugins provide simple ways to build personal websites designed to showcase candidates’ skills, accomplishments and best work. Employers, especially corporate employers, typically receive hundreds of resumes, and you’re probably not the only individual in your field that pops up when an employer searches for new candidates.
Core Features of Resume Themes
Think about what purpose resumes serve. They give employers insights into how qualified candidates are for positions. They allow employers to pre-qualify large pools of candidates and turn them into small ponds before beginning the interviewing process. So, what are the core features of resume themes? They’re not all that different from traditional resumes.
- About Me Blurb – This little introduction lets an employer know what your title is and what skills and expertise you have. It’s typically a few phrases or a short paragraph.
- Experience – A timeline detailing what jobs you’ve had in the past, what titles you’ve held and what responsibilities or projects you’ve had.
- Education – Another timeline that details any formal education you’ve received to earn the skills and qualifications you have.
- Portfolio – A general portfolio that gives a rundown on what projects you’ve worked on as well as any individual clients you’ve served.
- Contact Form – This call-to-action makes it easy for employers to contact you if they like what they see. It can also feature a Google Map if you have a professional office.
Additional Features
There are additional features you can add to your resume, if applicable. Social proof is one of the most powerful ways to convince a lead to take action. Make it a regular habit to ask past clients to write quick testimonials for you, and add those testimonials to your resume.
You can also add a blog to your site and add your latest posts to your resume page if you want to present yourself as an expert in your industry or niche.
Personage
Personage is a one-page resume theme that comes with most of the core features we talked about. It has a powerful control panel and includes a Print button employers can use to easily print your resume. It’s also easy to customize, and you can import demo content.
Katya
Katya is a minimalist resume theme. It has every core feature your personal resume website needs, and it hides all of this information until you click on an individual section. It also has a button employers can use to download your resume.
Get Katya
CeeVee
CeeVee is another resume theme that hides each section until you click on it. It hides all other pages on your site behind a hamburger menu. You can choose between a black or white theme, but both feature vibrant colors.
Get CeeVee
Flatoo
Flatoo is another one-page resume theme that comes with nearly all of the features we talked about, excluding testimonials. It comes with a number of different demos, each of which feature a different layout, giving you multiple styles to choose from while using a single theme.
Get Flatoo
Brando
Brando is a one-page, multipurpose business theme that comes with a variety of different demos. This includes the Personal demo, a one-page resume theme that comes with all of the core features you need to build a resume.
Briwfi
Briwfi is a one-page resume theme that features nearly ever section you need on your resume. It also features vertical timelines for your work experience and education sections. This theme is also easy to customize using the included page builder plugin Visual Composer and built-in theme options.
Get Briwfi
MD
MD is a powerful, multipurpose resume theme that comes with a variety of different demos, giving you a number of different options to choose from. It also comes with unique sections in addition to the typical sections that come with resume themes, including sections for services and accomplishments.
Get MD
Gentleman
Gentleman is a simple and minimalist resume theme. It comes with every feature your resume needs, including testimonials and a bonus section for services. You can import the demo content to make developing your own personal website as quick and simple as can be.
Empathy
Empathy is a resume theme that uses a flat design. It uses a sidebar menu and displays your content to the right. It also hides your content until you click on each individual section.
Bionick
Bionick is a one-page resume theme ideal for service-based workers, such as freelancers. It features sections for an About Me blurb, your services, your skills, testimonials and clients. It also comes with multiple homepage demos.
Tesla
Tesla is a one-page resume theme ideal for service-based freelancers, especially graphic designers and web developers. It features timelines for your experience and education, and it comes with a number of additional features that make it easy to customize, such as Visual Composer and theme options.
Get Tesla
VERSUS
VERSUS is a one-page, minimalist resume theme that features sections for a basic profile of yourself, your work experience, education, references, skills, portfolio and contact information. It also comes with Visual Composer and a number of different theme options.
Get VERSUS
Massive Dynamic
Massive Dynamic is a multipurpose theme that comes with a number of different demos, three of which are resume demos. Each of these demos features a unique style, but each comes with sections for an About Me paragraph, your education, experience, skills and contact information.
MongKok
MongKok is a simple, one-page resume theme that features everything an employer needs to determine whether or not you’re worthy of an interview. This includes highly-visual sections for an About Me paragraph, timelines for your work and experience, charts and graphs for your skills, and sections for your accomplishments and portfolio.
Get MongKok
Decent
Decent is a one-page resume theme inspired by Google’s Material Design. It features a simple style but comes with a number of different features built in. This includes typical sections, such as an About Me blurb, your experience, your skills and your education, but it also includes sections for your accomplishments and publications.
Get Decent
Xpert
Xpert is a simple resume theme that hides each section of your resume until you click on them. It has sections for your profile, experience, education and portfolio.
Get Xpert
Who I Am
Who I Am is a simple, one-page resume theme that uses a minimalist approach to resume designs. It features a large header, a section for an About Me paragraph and timelines for your work experience and education.
Get Who I Am
Flat
Flat is a multipurpose theme that uses a flat design. It comes with three portfolio layouts, but it’s also powered by the Themify Builder, Themify’s page builder plugin. This will allow you to add any type of resume section you need.
Freelancer
Freelancer is a one-page resume theme that uses a simple design. It features sections for an About Me paragraph, your portfolio, your skills and your services. As the name suggest, it’s ideal for freelancers.
Get Freelancer
Resume Builder
Resume Builder is a simple plugin that allows you to build a resume inside any WordPress theme. It includes sections for an About Me paragraph, your skills, your experience, your education and your contact information. It uses shortcodes, allowing you to insert your resume throughout your theme.
WP Resume Builder
WP Resume Builder is another plugin that allows you to build portfolios inside any WordPress theme. It comes with pre-defined fields for your education, experience, contact information, skills, awards and accomplishments, portfolio and more.
WP LinkedIn
WP LinkedIn isn’t a resume builder, but it does allow you to insert sections from your LinkedIn profile into your WordPress site. You can even insert your entire profile, if you please, as well as a rotating scroller of LinkedIn recommendations.
Final Thoughts
Deciding on a theme can be a daunting task, but it isn’t an impossible one. Start by narrowing down your options. If you’re creating this website for yourself, narrow down the list to themes that have one layout. Once you do that, determine what sections you need in your resume, and select a theme that features those sections in a style that suits you.
If you’re a developer creating a website for a client, narrow down the list to themes that use more than one homepage demo. Once you do that, go with the theme that has the most options and features styles you feel would suit your client best. This will give you something to reference when you need to build similar websites in the future.
Are you an employer or a freelancer who networks with other members of your niche? Check out this tutorial on how to add job listings to a WordPress site.
