When faced with the cost of employing a Professional CV writer, against the virtually free cost in creating their own, many candidates choose to use one of the many free CV Examples and Resume Templates on the internet. So many and diverse are the free and paid CV templates, it seems at times like everybody and anybody is offering free CV templates on the web.

People who look for these free CV Templates and Resume Examples then simply copy what ever the template or simple instructions tell them to insert, and hurriedly fire them off to various job boards, recruiters as part of their job search; and to HR professionals as part of a job application. And then they seem disappointed when they get no response.

Why, what did they expect? Free CV templates take no effort, you just follow the instructions - did you expect results when you didn't learn the key lessons?

Why the results of using CV Templates should not surprise you:
As a recruiter and professional CV writer, I can tell you that you should not be surprised at the lack of a result that a paid or free CV templates brings:

Even if you had written a customised CV around a bespoke job, then your chances of getting a phone call are around one in three
"Your" CV template probably looks like the other one third I have just rejected. If you had to read through that many documents that looked exactly the same, would you remember one over the next?

Focus on that job, engagement with the reader and originality are key:
If you don't read the job advert, from which the job specification was written, then that is your first point of failure. Secondly, your CV must engage the reader.

Thirdly, anyone can copy a format. Now, it is not that every CV is totally original, but it must be original around and reflect you. Your CV is the first point of contact with you have with your potential employer. Do you want to give the impression that you are average or just the same as everyone else? Or do you want to stand out from the crowd?

By simply using and filling out one of these free CV templates, you substantially lower your chances that the HR Professional or recruiter will remember you.

Good Luck!

Ian R McAllister is the founder of Ajiri, a UK group focused recruitment and employment in skills-short professional sectors, presently covering IT, telecoms and project management. Ajiri also provides professional candidate information and services via a series of online resources, including The Professional CV from www.CV4.biz