CV writing: why not just use Word or ChatGPT?

Reading time: 7 minutes

It's half past eleven at night. You're sat behind your laptop with a Word document open. 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 this sounds familiar. And maybe you then thought: surely there's a smarter way? A chat, a CV site, something that takes the work off your hands?

There is. But every route has a catch, and those catches cost you time, control or money. This blog lays them all out, honestly, so you can choose what suits you.

Your CV is more than a document

A CV 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 swearing at a text box.

Word: free, but you pay with your time

Word is familiar, and that's exactly the problem. In a formatted CV, everything else shifts the moment you add one line. Columns and sidebars look nice, but applicant tracking systems (ATS) often misread them. That means you risk a human never seeing your CV, however good you are.

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

ChatGPT: clever, 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 an employer and an ATS can read properly, and checking what's in it, remains your job. And there are pitfalls you should know about beforehand:

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

CV sites with a trial period: the price comes later

This is the most painful one. You look for a CV for a few pounds, you pay, you download. Weeks later you see a charge you don't recognise.

This didn't just happen to you. The Dutch consumer authority (ACM) received dozens of complaints about CVmaker: a trial subscription of €1.99 automatically continued after 14 days as a €21.99 per month subscription. After intervention, CVmaker amended its information and promised to stop collecting payments from customers whose agreement wasn't formed properly.

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 showed €14.95 per four weeks, after a €2.95 trial. If you don't cancel in time, you keep paying.

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

Why did we start this?

For years, we sat on the other side of the table: one of us as an HR business partner, the other as a manager. Every day we saw CVs 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 nagging at us.

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

What do we do differently?

• Pay once. No subscription and no silent renewal, and that's stated in our terms. You can't slip into one unnoticed.
• No account. You get a personal link after ordering.
• See it first, pay later. You see your formatted CV in full on your screen and only pay to download it.
• Start for free. A complete CV as a PDF, with no account and no watermark.
• Templates that stay intact. Of the 38 templates, 15 are ATS-tested: we turn them into a PDF and read it back the way an ATS would. Filter by the ATS-friendly label.
• Rewrites what you provide. The tool is built to rewrite your own information, not to invent anything. You remain ultimately responsible, so always read it over.
• Privacy. Uploaded CVs 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 needed. You see that in templates like Strak Mono, Bergpad, Kapitaal and Zachte Zijbalk: clear, tidy and readable, both for a human and for an applicant tracking system.

A CV that radiates calm radiates confidence. That's why we've also tested them for ATS.

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

When are Word or ChatGPT actually fine?

Let's be fair. Do you have time, a simple CV, and do you enjoy writing? Then use Word with a single column and standard headings, and save 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 CV that's as good as you are

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

Create your CV for free →

Have your existing CV refreshed →

In short

• Word costs time and the layout shifts about. ChatGPT gives you text, not a checkable CV.
• Trial subscriptions continue automatically if you don't cancel. Always read the small print.
• With 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 CV.