Template 07 of 59
Two column with sidebar
The first two-column preset in the set, and one the builder is candid about: a narrow tinted sidebar carries the things a reader looks up, and the wider column carries the things a reader reads. It is a good page on A4 and a bad one to send to a parser.
The numbers
Every figure below is a value in the template registry the builder ships (assets/js/render/templates.js), or a size derived from it by the same multipliers the document stylesheet uses. Body text is not the preset’s nominal point size: it is that figure corrected for the face’s optical size, which is why a 10 pt Helvetica preset renders at 11.73 pt here. Nothing on this page is a measured pass rate or a hiring outcome, because neither exists.
- Builder id
- sidebar
- Sheet
- A4, 8.27 × 11.69 in
- Margins
- 0.5 in on all four sides
- Body
- 10.50 pt, 1.36 line height
- Face
- System UI, web-safe. The reference face, at its own point size.
- Line length
- The full sheet. Two columns halve it, so the split does the measuring.
- Name
- 20.47 pt
- Section headings
- Title case, 14.36 pt, no rule
- Section gap
- 13 pt. Entry gap 6 pt.
- Bullets
- Filled disc, 1.68 pt between them
- Columns
- Two. A 32% rail carrying summary, skills, languages, interests, certifications, references.
- Arrangement
- The plain stack. Nothing arranged, nothing drawn.
- Photo
- Slot in the header, empty until you add a picture.
- Accent
- #0550ae, changeable in Design
- Colour
- Colour allowed. A mono printer greys the accent; the rules still carry the structure.
What it is for
Good at
- On screen, on A4, in a PDF sent to a person. This is a page that looks considered.
- A lot of short factual items. Contact, skills, languages and certifications are reference material, and a column is the right shape for reference material.
- Portfolio-adjacent roles where a little colour and a little structure are part of the pitch.
- A conversation rather than an application: emailing a resume to a founder who asked for it.
Bad at
- Applicant tracking systems. A columned layout is named on the published failure lists, and the sidebar is where a parser most often loses the contact block.
- Print in the United States. The preset is A4 by default, and Letter is a different shape with a different amount of room.
- Anywhere the document has to be pasted into a form, which flattens columns and reorders sections.
- A long career. The main column is narrow and the sidebar is not, so the roles have the least room of any preset here.
ATS profile
Visual only
Not recommended for a parsed application. Greenhouse names a columned layout directly, and the reason is mechanical: a parser walking the document top to bottom reads the sidebar first and the roles second, so the section it thinks is the summary is the one with your email address in it.
The Taleo notes make the narrower version of the same point. A column is fine on screen and ambiguous in a text extraction order.
Use it when a person is the reader. If you do not know, assume a parser is somewhere in the chain and pick a one-column preset: classic or print-safe both stay one column.
Still yours to get right
A clean layout with a placeholder employer named “Company 1” is still a document a parser discards. No template can fix a sentence that describes effort instead of effect. Start with the resume basics guide and the one on quantifying impact.
Marcus Bell
Product Designer
- marcus.bell@example.com
- +1 312 555 0176
- Chicago, Illinois
Skills
- Research
- Interviews, usability testing, diary studies
- Tools
- Figma, Maze, Dovetail
- Delivery
- Design systems, WCAG 2.2
Education
School of the Art Institute of Chicago
2011 – 2015
B.F.A. Design
Languages
- English (native)
- Spanish (professional)
Awards
- Core77 Interaction, shortlist 2019
- AIGA 50 Books / 50 Covers, 2018
Speaking
- UX in Health, Chicago, 2023
- IxDA Chicago, 2021
Profile
Product designer, ten years on internal tools nobody asked for. Comfortable in the part of the job where the requirement is wrong and the evidence is thin.
Experience
Meridian Health Systems
2021 – Present
Lead Product Designer · Chicago, IL
- Redesigned nurse charting; documentation time fell 31%.
- Built the first design system at the company, now on 40 screens.
Fenwick Insurance
2017 – 2021
Product Designer · Chicago, IL
- Shipped the claims triage queue used by 900 adjusters.
Tenby Health, Chicago, IL
2015 – 2017
Product Designer
- Designed the clinician mobile charting app.
- Ran two usability rounds a month.
Use this template
Opens the builder on Two column with sidebar with the build dialog in front of you. The document on the page is the document that exports; there is no separate form to keep in sync with it.
Open Two column with sidebar in the builder
The draft is written to this browser and nowhere else. No account, no upload, no analytics.
Opens the builder at #template=sidebar