Making a resume: why not just use Word or ChatGPT?

Reading time: 7 minutes

It's half past eleven at night. You're sitting behind your laptop with a Word document. You add one line to your work experience, and suddenly your photo jumps to the next page, your sidebar shifts, and the whole layout seems to take on a life of its own. You sigh. You click "undo." It gets worse.

Maybe you recognize this. And maybe you thought afterward: isn't there a smarter way? A chat, a resume site, something that takes the work off your hands?

There is. But every path has a catch, and those catches cost you time, control, or money. This blog shows them all, honestly, so you can choose what works for you.

Your resume is more than a document

A resume is the summary of years of work. Your pride, your choices, your progress. It's also what an employer scans in a few seconds to decide whether you deserve an interview. That deserves a good start, not a night of cursing at a text box.

Word: free, but you pay with your time

Word is familiar, and that's exactly the problem. In a formatted resume, everything shifts the moment you add one line. Columns and sidebars look nice, but applicant tracking systems (ATS) often read them incorrectly. That means you risk a human never seeing your resume, no matter how good you are.

That feels unfair, and it is. It's not your fault. A word processor simply wasn't built to design resumes.

ChatGPT: smart, fast, but it doesn't know you

We use language models ourselves, so this isn't an attack on the technology. It's an honest picture of what a chat does and doesn't do.

A chat writes text. A file that employers and ATS can read properly, and the control over what's in it, remains your job. And there are pitfalls you should know about beforehand:

• Generic phrases, inflated experience, and structures that screening software misreads are common. Recruiters notice.
• A model can make up details, so you need to double check dates, job titles, and company names yourself. One wrong year can cost you credibility.
• You paste your resume, with your name and address, into a general chat. Experts advise against putting personal details like your address or date of birth into it. Your resume is more than text, it's a piece of your life.

Resume sites with trial periods: the price comes later

This is the most painful one. You look for a resume for a few euros, you pay, you download. Weeks later you see a charge you don't recognize.

This didn't just happen to you. The Dutch Authority for Consumers and Markets (ACM) received dozens of complaints about CVmaker: a €1.99 trial subscription automatically continued after 14 days into a €21.99 monthly subscription. After intervention, CVmaker updated its information and committed to stop charging customers whose agreement wasn't established according to the rules.

At CVster, according to its own terms, a trial subscription automatically continues into a subscription billed every four weeks. The pricing page in October 2026 listed €14.95 per four weeks, after a €2.95 trial. Anyone who doesn't cancel in time keeps paying.

This isn't an accusation. It's a reason to always read the fine print. And a reason we do things differently.

Why did we start this?

We spent years sitting on the other side of the table: one of us as an HR business partner, the other as a manager. Every day we saw resumes come across our desks. And often the people were stronger than their paper. They used a generic template from a job board, and that hid who they really were. That kept bothering us.

So we built something different. No subscription to remember, no account to create. Just a resume that's correct, that gets read, and that you stay in control of.

What do we do differently?

• One-time payment. No subscription and no silent renewal, and that's stated in our terms. You can't accidentally get rolled into one.
• No account. You get a personal link after your order.
• Look first, pay later. You see your formatted resume in full on your screen and only pay to download.
• Start for free. A complete resume as a PDF, no account and no watermark.
• Templates that hold together. Of the 38 templates, 15 are ATS tested: we turn them into a PDF and read it the way an ATS would. Filter by the ATS-friendly label.
• Rewrites what you provide. The tool is built to rewrite your information, not to make things up. You remain ultimately responsible, so always proofread it.
• Privacy. Uploaded resumes are only processed temporarily and not stored permanently.

Dutch design: calm is also a message

Our templates are designed by a Dutch designer. Dutch design is all about calm, space, and function over decoration, and about leaving out what isn't necessary. You see that reflected in templates like Strak Mono, Bergpad, Kapitaal, and Zachte Zijbalk: clear, clean, and readable, for both a human and an applicant tracking system.

A resume that radiates calm radiates trust. That's why we also tested them against ATS.

It's also tailored to how things work here. A photo and your date of birth aren't required on a Dutch resume. You pay with iDEAL, we're based in the Netherlands, and it works in 7 languages for anyone applying abroad. And yes, there's also an alpaca roaming our site. He doesn't judge your resume.

When are Word or ChatGPT just fine?

Let's be honest. Do you have time, a simple resume, and enjoy writing? Then use Word with a single column and standard headings, and save it as a PDF. Use ChatGPT for ideas, not as your final editor.

Want it done in a few minutes, ATS-safe and without a subscription? Then we're here for you.

You deserve a resume that's as good as you are

You've worked hard for what you can do. Let your resume show that, without hassle and without an unexpected charge. Create a free resume, or upload what you have and let us refresh it. Pay once, no subscription.

Create your free resume →

Have your existing resume refreshed →

In short

• Word costs time and the layout shifts around. ChatGPT delivers text, not a verifiable resume.
• Trial subscriptions continue automatically if you don't cancel. Always read the fine print.
• At CV-Refresher you pay once, with no account, and you see the result before you pay.
• Dutch design: templates designed by a Dutch designer, clear for both humans and ATS.
• A photo and date of birth aren't required on a Dutch resume.