Two Column Resume Templates with a Sidebar
A tinted or solid rail for contact details, skills and certifications, with your experience running beside it. The arrangement recruiters ask for by name, and the one that fits a dense skill list without crowding the story.
Frequently asked questions
What belongs in the sidebar and what belongs in the main column?
The rail carries facts a reader scans for: contact details, skills, certifications, languages. The main column carries the argument: summary, experience, projects, education. Putting a paragraph in the rail hides it, because nobody reads a sidebar left to right.
Do two column resumes survive applicant tracking systems?
A single column is the safest with a strict parser, so keep the rail free of anything essential and check the exported PDF by copying the text out of it. If the extraction reads in the order you expect, the layout is safe for that system.
Can I change the side the rail sits on?
Yes, and the group has both: a left rail for readers who scan facts first, and a right rail for readers who start on the story. Neither is better, which is why both are in the library rather than one being called correct.