10+ Canva CV Templates [+Alternatives to Canva CV Maker]

If you’re a fan of graphic design and creative content you’ve probably come across Canva. It’s a platform that lets users create everything from posters to videos to custom-designed social media posts. And if you’re searching for a job it even has its very own Canva CV maker.

CV builders are without a doubt one of the most useful tools created for job seekers. No more messing around with Word, desperately trying to get your formatting right. CV makers do all the hard work for you.

And Canva has certainly got some incredible looking templates in its builder, they’re colourful, creative and eye-catching. But are they the best choice for the UK job market?

To help you decide, we’ll show you 10 Canva CV template examples and give you an honest assessment of whether they make good CV templates for the UK job market. We’ll also show you some alternatives that are guaranteed to be fully optimised for all your job hunting needs.

So let’s get CANVAssing some CV template ideas.

Want to save time and have your CV ready in 5 minutes? Try our CV builder. It’s fast and easy to use. Plus, you’ll get ready-made content to add with one click. See 20+ CV templates and create your CV here.

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Use this cv template

Sample CV made with our builder—See more CV examples here.

And what’s a good CV without great content to fill it. Take a look at our writing guides.

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• Marketing CV Example & Writing Guide
• Sales CV Example & Writing Guide
• Recruitment Consultant CV Example & Writing Guide
• Model CV Example & Writing Guide

Example Contents of a Canva CV Template

Canva CV Templates

1. Black and Yellow Graphic Designer

Here’s the link to this Canva CV template.

2. Black and White Marketing Assistant

Here’s the link to this Canva CV template.

3. Orange and Black Acting

Here’s the link to this Canva CV template.

4. Yellow and Grey Creative

Here’s the link to this Canva CV template.

5. Cream and Brown Modern

Here’s the link to this Canva CV template.

6. Peach and Black Creative

Here’s the link to this Canva CV template.

7. Green and Blue Fashion Stylist

Find more of this style of CV templates on this page.

8. Yellow Grid Graphic Design

Here’s the link to this Canva CV template.

9. Peach and White Modern

Here’s the link to this Canva CV template.

10. Red and Dark Grey Graphic Designer

Here’s the link to this Canva CV template.

When making a CV in our builder, drag & drop bullet points, skills, and auto-fill the boring stuff. Spell check? Check. Start building your CV here.

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When you’re done, Zety’s CV builder will score your CV and tell you exactly how to make it better.

Are Canva CV Templates a Good Choice?

Let me start by saying I’m not criticising Canva, not by a long shot. It offers great options for creating striking visual content and its reputation in that market is well-deserved. I’ve even got a Canva account myself.

However, when it comes to UK CV templates specifically, I don’t think they’re the best. And there’s a few good reasons why. Let’s take a look at them.

1. Not UK Optimised

What you might notice straight away is that most of Canva’s templates refer to a ‘resume’ and they follow American resume formatting. Resume vs CV may seem trivial, but there are subtle differences between an American resume and a British CV. Choose a template that doesn’t follow British standards and you’re likely to put recruiters off.

The most visible example is the amount of templates featuring a photo alongside the personal details section. This is a real no-no for the British job market and is a good way to get your CV rejected out of hand.

2. Too Many Infographic Elements

An infographic CV uses images and graphics to convey information. They look good, but they come with pitfalls too. Many of Canva’s templates are rich in graphics and follow an unconventional CV structure. And yes, it looks striking, but the issue is that they may not be ATS compliant.

In plain English, I’m referring to the software that companies use to scan your CV when you apply for a job. It’s a bit picky and can’t read images properly. It doesn’t read unusual structures properly either. And if it can’t read it, it rejects it, meaning your CV has effectively disappeared before a human ever gets to see it.

3. Assumes a Certain Level of Expertise

Canva’s UI is very slick and simple to use overall, but it does assume a certain level of expertise. If you want to change or edit the templates you need an understanding of working with graphical elements and the ability to keep your CV layout intact when you make changes.

Also, when you start making changes to CV fonts or your CV length it tends to throw out the look of the template too, leaving you to try to fix it. It’s a bit like trying to format a Word CV template where you move one thing and all of a sudden your careful layout is left looking like a dog’s breakfast. Canva's choices look great, but they won't give you the best CV template for ease of use.

So it’s great if you have a bit of editing and layout knowledge, but not all of us do. Most people prefer to use a CV builder that’ll do all the hard work for them and guarantee perfect results every time. And that’s exactly what we do with Zety’s CV maker.

The fact is, choosing a free CV template isn't always the best. And to prove it, here are just a few examples of what you can achieve with our builder and templates.

Zety: The Alternative

1. Enfold

Create my CV now

Let me introduce you to our Enfold CV template. It’s just one of 18 examples in our modern CV template collection and a brilliant example of what you can expect if you create your CV in our builder. As you can see, it looks great with lots of colour in the sidebar featuring your personal details and CV skills. 

And you can get creative with your colour choices too, we’ve got 400 shades for you to choose from. But the brilliant thing about it is that any changes you make are both simple and foolproof. Change the font type and size, change the CV section order, write a one or two page CV. Whatever you do, our builder calmly whirs away in the background and delivers a perfectly set out end result. No photoshop knowledge required.

2. Diamond

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And as you can see, Zety’s CV templates have variety too. We’ve got a great range of looks so you’re sure of finding something that works for you. Diamond is pretty self-explanatory really. It’s packed with diamond-shaped CV design elements from the icons to the bullet points to the health bars. Those are the little rating features that show off your skill level. 

And a fun fact about health bars is that they’re a feature borrowed from gaming. It’s been shown to improve user engagement and the more engaged the hiring manager is with your CV the more likely you are to get an interview. Furthermore, you’ll see all the graphical elements we introduce are subtle. We don’t go overboard because we know it can mess with the ATS and damage your chances of success.

3. Modern

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Creativity is great in a CV, but we take it one step further and use creative CV elements to add practical functionality. See if you can spot the trick here. I’ll give you a minute.

Did you spot it? If you guessed the coloured bars to the top and bottom of the columns you’d be right. Yes, they look great and add balance to the layout, but they also help all of your content get read. When people read content on a screen they skim read and use f-shaped scanning. That means they tend to focus on the top of the page and barely brush over the rest. But this template solves that because the two coloured areas pull your eyes across the page, and the result means more attention being paid to your CV.

But this template is no one-trick pony, it’s practical too. The structure is lovely and compact, see how your CV summary fits nicely into such a small area. And despite that compactness there’s plenty of room for a full CV work experience section and CV education section. This is another area where Canva CV templates tend to go wrong. The graphics-heavy design doesn’t leave much space for the important stuff.

4. Simple

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Our Simple template’s strength lies in its minimalist layout. Canva CV templates don’t offer a lot of choice if you need something more plain. Let’s face it, a profusion of neon colours won’t go down too well at a major accounting firm for example. That’s why we offer a range of simple and basic CV templates too.

Simple it may be, but it contains all of the essentials needed to submit a successful job application. Another feature we have that Canva doesn’t is a wealth of expert advice to help you learn exactly how to write your CV. The Zety blog is full of guides for all your CV writing needs and we offer CV tips in the builder as you’re writing. So your CV won’t just look good, it’ll be perfectly written and ready to do its job of getting you a job.

5. Cubic

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This is the last of our CV templates that I’ll show you today, but don’t forget, there are much more where these came from. Our Cubic template has its own unique look, featuring a striking header bar that really emphasises your name and job title. This is then complemented by a light grey side column to fit in all of your hard skills and soft skills.

And like all of our examples, our CV builder ensures that it’s an easily editable CV template. All you have to do is type your content into the builder and that’s it. You end up with a perfect CV format without the stress of having to mess around moving graphics and hoping for the best. Again, this is something that you don’t get using the Canva CV maker.

Key Takeaways

The Canva CV maker offers an eye-catching array of options. It’s a great service for creating visual content but not so good when it comes to building CVs for British recruitment. There are too many elements that aren’t optimised and too much of a risk of your template getting rejected. And users without design experience will struggle to make changes and still maintain a good layout. Zety’s CV builder avoids all of those issues.

Plus, a great cover letter that matches your CV will give you an advantage over other candidates. You can write it in our cover letter builder here. Here's what it may look like:

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See more cover letter templates and start writing.

Thanks for reading, if you’ve got any questions about the Canva CV maker, the Zety CV builder or need any CV writing advice at all please do ask in the comments section. I’ll be happy to reply.

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Sources

• https://digitalscholarship.unlv.edu/cgi/viewcontent.cgi?article=3836&context=thesesdissertations
• https://doi.org/10.1145/1978942.1979114