Canva is a graphic design platform located at www.canva.com providing tools for creating all kinds of visually appealing elements. It’s very powerful and easy to use. I love working with it and I highly recommend it to others in general.
One of the reasons why Canva is so helpful is the vast number of templates it features for basically any possible goal. That includes countless templates for creating a professionally looking CV / résumé and the use of one of them for your job applications is obviously tempting.
Beware of them!
Unfortunately, most of these pretty templates have been created by designers who apparently know little about all the other requirements for such a document. If you’re not aware of what’s important here either and therefore pick one of their many badly flawed offers, you risk ending up with a CV / résumé that will not work in your favor.
In this article, I’ll discuss the reasons for it in detail to help you make the right decision about whether a particular template would be a wise choice. This analysis is not limited to Canva templates and can be used to evaluate such templates in general.
> Problem #1: Multiple columns
Presenting the content in more than one column in your CV / résumé creates not only one but two serious problems.
The first one is that the document may not be correctly readable by many search engines as you cannot rely on them having the functionality to analyze columns separately. You risk a mix-up of data located in the same line but belonging to different columns, which will only result in data garbage. Of course, modern systems featuring real artificial intelligence (AI) can handle such a task but many companies still have older applicant tracking systems (ATS) or other software in place without that functionality. In this case, your document may not show up in search results that should actually include it.
The other problem is the width of the columns. Most templates feature a wider main column and a narrow secondary one on the left or right side. While the narrow column easily takes up 30% of the page, its width is still too limited to present any meaningful information in it. In other words, you just lose valuable space with such a format. This is especially critical on the first page of your document as this is the most valuable “advertising” space you have to convince the reader at first glance.
Present your content only in a single column to make your document search-engine friendly and to utilize all the available space for making a meaningful impact in your favor.
> Problem #2: Meaningless graphical elements
The use of graphical rating elements featuring stars or points to present your knowledge and skills provides no meaningful information to the reader. Such a scoring system is far too vague for presenting the level of detail required in a CV / résumé. Without a real message, they just waste valuable space.
Instead, present your knowledge, skills, and experience by showing the positive results of your work for previous employers. Read this page to learn more about this successful approach.
> Problem #3: Use of colors
There are two types of potential problems when using colors in your application documents.
As nice and readable as all the different font colors in the document may look on screen, this may turn into the opposite when printed out in black and white. It’s safer and absolutely sufficient to use black font throughout your document only. If you want to use other colors anyway, check how the printed version looks before you send it off.
Moreover, the use of colors for the background or stylish graphical elements can be equally problematic when the document is printed out. This may waste a lot of the other side’s toner and make the recipients feel angry because of it. Again, it’s best not to use any colors for the background, etc. at all and just keep it all white. Otherwise, test your document in that regard before you send it.
> Problem #4: Wrong approach to presenting previous work experience
The text examples in the Canva templates for presenting previous work experience suffer from a widespread misconception many job seekers fall victim to.
They only mention previous roles, tasks, activities, and responsibilities but neglect the most important type of information needed to make hiring managers curious to learn more about the applicant and therefore invite him or her for a job interview.
This can only be achieved by presenting the relevant accomplishments in your previous roles and if you’re not fully aware of its importance and how to do it yet, read this page for further guidance on the matter.
> Conclusion
Many CV / résumé templates on Canva are badly flawed and should not be used. However, there are a few exceptions that don’t suffer from the problems described above (or can be fixed) and those may be of help to you.
Use my free CV / résumé checklist to play it safe
I offer a detailed checklist for evaluating the quality of a CV / résumé for free. You can also use this checklist to analyze if a particular template would be a good choice or not. If you would like to obtain it, send an empty email message to:
You will find an automated response with the download link for the checklist in your inbox a few minutes later.
Create a really convincing CV / résumé with my email course
I’ve also developed a special email course for people like you. Step by step, you will discover everything important to consider. And my concrete examples, specific instructions, and manageable tasks will help you put theory into practice. After a few days, your reward will be a convincing Power CV / Résumé.