Most templates or wizards provide you with standardized formats, namely chronological, functional or combination; so how are you going to know which format will suit your particular circumstances? The functional resume (which emphasizes job functions and is therefore skill based) is generally frowned upon by recruiters as they can raise potential screening factors with questions as to what the candidate is trying to hide? The chronological resume (or reverse chronological) is fine when your job target pertains directly to the previous five or so years of experience, but what happens in a situation such as career change? The combination adds a little more creativity in that it combines the functional and chorological formatting, however unless you know which pieces of information are crucial to your overall campaign you can either provide too much information, not enough, or dismally fail to portray your candidacy with style.
While there are no real hard and fast rules about the formatting of a resume, what is important to remember is to customize your resume to your specific career target, with experience, education and achievements provided focusing on that target. Unfortunately, if relying on a resume template, candidates can fail to achieve this, often providing irrelevant details or non-accomplishment driven data. Remember that the upper 1/3 section of the first page is the first thing people will read, so this section is vital. Don't be tempted to include a boring 'objective', which many templates include in that area. An objective concentrates on what you want, and candidates lose the opportunity of showcasing what you can offer the prospective employer by providing a professional overview, or profile.
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