The most common reason a good CV gets no reply is that the software reading it could not. Two-column layouts, icons for the phone number, skills in a table and a name inside a graphic all parse into scrambled text long before a person sees them. This produces the opposite: one column, ordinary section headings, real text, nothing decorative. The readiness check flags the mechanical problems a recruiter notices in ten seconds — no numbers in the achievements, missing dates, a summary too short to be worth reading — and your draft can be saved on this device or exported as data to reuse.
Features
Single-column layout with ordinary headings, which parsers read reliably
Readiness score flagging missing dates, absent numbers and a thin summary
Repeatable role and education entries you can add and remove
One achievement per line becomes one bullet
Page size, margins, text size and typeface under your control
Save the draft in this browser, or export the data as JSON to reuse
Live PDF preview before you download
How to use the Resume Builder
Fill in your contact details and a short summary
Add each role, with one achievement per line
Add education and skills, then read the readiness suggestions
Build the PDF and download it
Example
Input
Two roles, four achievements, five skills, one degree
Output
ada-lovelace-cv.pdf — 1 page, readiness 100%
The readiness check asks for a number in at least one achievement.
Common errors & troubleshooting
The readiness score will not go above 88%. — Read the remaining suggestions — they are specific. The usual gaps are fewer than three bullets across all roles, or no figure in any of them.
Some characters were left out of the PDF. — The built-in PDF typefaces cover Latin scripts. Names in other scripts are counted and reported rather than silently dropped; a note appears when it happens.
It runs onto a second page. — Reduce the text size and the margin. Two pages is normal past about ten years of experience, so only fight it if a specific application asks for one.
My saved draft disappeared. — It is stored in this browser only, so clearing site data or switching browsers loses it. Export the JSON for anything you want to keep.
Frequently asked questions
Why is there no two-column template?
Because two columns are the single most common cause of a CV arriving as scrambled text. Parsers read a page left to right, so a sidebar interleaves itself into the main content line by line.
What does the readiness score measure?
Mechanical completeness, not quality. It checks for the things that get a CV filtered out before anyone reads it: no contact address, undated roles, achievements with no numbers, a skills list too short for keyword matching.
Where is my draft stored?
In this browser, on this device, when you press Save. It is never sent anywhere, which also means it does not follow you to another machine — export the JSON for that.
Can I import a resume I already have?
You can import JSON exported from here. Importing an existing PDF is not supported; extracting a CV back into fields reliably is a much harder problem than it looks.
Should I include a photograph?
The layout has no place for one, deliberately. Photographs are expected in parts of Europe and discouraged in the UK and North America, and they confuse parsers everywhere.
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