If you want to be successful, studying the practices of successful people is a good strategy.

For the career-minded individual, having a quality resume is a top priority. Since creating a great resume can be such a challenge, many people find themselves relying on resume examples.

Basing your resume off someone else’s example isn’t necessarily a bad idea. While it can help you list your credentials in a better way and tighten things up, it can also lead to you emulating a style that isn’t fitting for your professional status. Here are the pros and cons of using resume examples.

The Pros: Speed, Efficiency, and Insight

Using resume examples means you have something to go off of. The first benefit of this choice is that it speeds things along. Starting out with a blank document is usually a path to hours of frustration unless you’re a seasoned expert at building resumes.

Examples can be used as guides or even as templates to help you learn how to organize your credentials in a professional-looking manner. If you get a high-quality resume to go off of, you’ll also see how achievements are prioritized to keep things concise and get to the important things quickly.

Learning how professionals organize their resumes helps you alter your practices in the future. With improved insight into this important aspect of the career search, it is easy to improve your status. However, adhering too closely to examples can cause you to pick up some bad habits.

The Cons: Not All Professionals Are Equal

For some people, the design of their resume is based in influenced by their credentials. For example, a person with multiple degrees would have a larger field for their educational achievements.  Their field of choice may also impact their choice to use a certain layout or template.

If you don’t have the same level of credentials as the example you’re going off of, or if the example is based on a different field, you may find a lot of things get lost or turn out questionable when you try to adapt your own resume based off the example.

This doesn’t mean you can’t use the example – it just means you may need to tweak it. Don’t be lured into thinking your resume must look exactly like that of someone else. Templates should serve only as guides, and to help you achieve your unique career aspirations and highlight your own skillset for employers.