Modern · Two columns · ATS 4/5
Modern Compact CV template
Two working columns and tightened spacing to keep a long career on one page.
The design work here is in the spacing and the hierarchy rather than in ornament, which is why it reads as contemporary without dating the way a heavily styled CV does. A two-column page without a photo, which buys you room for a long skills or certification list without pushing your experience onto a third page.
Live preview of the Modern Compact template, rendered at full page size with an example CV. The preview is the same code that generates your PDF.
The design
About the Modern Compact layout
Who it’s for
The readers and situations this layout was drawn for.
- Experienced hires with ten or more roles to list
- Applicants held to a strict one-page limit
- Contractors listing many short engagements
Key features
What is actually different about this template on the page.
- Working 60/40 two-column body with no coloured panels
- Section spacing reduced to 60% of the slider value
- Condensed experience, education and project entries
- Skills rendered as compact tags in the side column
ATS score 4/5 · Strong
How this layout behaves in an applicant tracking system
Four out of five: the wide column keeps experience and education in a single reading order, and only the narrow column — skills, languages, certifications — is exposed to being re-ordered by a strict parser.
Two columns mean two reading orders, and the parser picks one. Modern systems handle it well, older ones read straight across the page and mix the side column into your experience.
A single column parses more reliably than two, in every system we have tested against. If the application goes through a portal you do not recognise, or the employer is large enough to screen automatically, send a one-column version instead — the ATS CV templates are built for that job, and your content moves across without being retyped.
- Reading order
- Two blocks
- Headings
- Real text
- Tables
- None
- Images
- None
- Selectable text
- Yes
Scores are our own assessment of how a parser handles the layout — never a guarantee about one specific employer’s system.
In practice
Three situations Modern Compact is the right answer to
A role where credentials are the qualifier
Licences, clearances and accreditations decide the first cut. Putting them in a column of their own makes them findable in seconds instead of buried three roles deep. The reader it was drawn for: Experienced hires with ten or more roles to list.
Three roles, one argument
Moving skills, tools and languages into the side column keeps the main narrative about outcomes, which is what you want when your experience is strong but your skills list is long enough to crowd it out.
An application where the work speaks
No photograph means the top third of the page belongs to your name, your title and your profile — the three things a reviewer uses to decide whether to keep reading past six seconds. Modern Compact has no photo slot to remove, so the same file works in every market you send it to.
Make it yours
Customising Modern Compact
Accent colour
Modern Compact ships with #dc2626 as its accent. The accent drives headings, rules and any highlighted detail. A deep navy, a slate or a saturated brand colour all hold up — the hierarchy does not depend on the hue, so choosing is a taste decision rather than a legibility one.
Fonts and heading style
A humanist or geometric sans throughout gives the intended look. Setting a serif for headings only is the one substitution that changes the personality without breaking the spacing. Heading case — uppercase, capitalised or as typed — is a separate switch, and it changes the character of the page more than most people expect.
Spacing and density
The column split is fixed, but everything inside it is not: type size, line height, section spacing and page margins all adjust, and on a divided page the margins are the setting that buys you the most room without crowding the rule between the columns.
Sections and order
Summary, experience, education and skills carry the weight. Projects and certifications drop in without upsetting the rhythm, and anything you are not using can be hidden rather than left empty. Every section can be renamed, reordered or hidden, and Pro adds custom sections for anything the standard set does not cover.
Paper size and export
A4 or US Letter, switched in one control, with the layout re-flowing to the new page rather than being scaled to fit. The PDF is generated from the same code you see in the preview, so what you approve on screen is what downloads.
Modern Compact: common questions
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Keep exploring
- All modern templatesEvery design in the Modern family, side by side.
- Two-column templatesEvery split-page layout, for CVs with a lot to fit in.
- CV templatesFormats, page counts and conventions by country and career stage.
- ATS CV templatesWhat a parser does with your file, and the layouts built to survive it.
- CV examplesWorked examples by role, with the wording and structure explained.
- Pricing and plansWhat Pro unlocks, and how the one-off Lifetime plan compares.
Start your CV with Modern Compact
Open it with the example content already in place, replace it with your own, and download a PDF when it reads the way you want. Switching to another template later keeps every word you have written.
Free to start. A Pro or Lifetime plan unlocks this design and every other one.