Pretty Resume Trumps Ugly Resume - Resume Design Tips
All other things being equal, pretty trumps ugly. Tough truth, but I didn't make the rules. So when it comes to your resume, attractive certainly can't hurt. And while they say beauty is in the eye of the beholder, most pros would agree there are some common themes that make for a pretty resume.
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Is your resume a beast? Is it howling at the moon and dragging it's knuckles on the ground? More importantly, is it not doing its job? The job of any resume, of course, is generating interview invitations. If you're isn't doing that, it could be the fault of the writing, or it could be the design. Sometimes a single change or two in design can make a huge difference in both the readability of a resume, and the impression it makes on the reader. Here are 5 tips to ensure your resume is designed to be a pleasure to read.
The Making of a Pretty Resume - 5 Resume Design Tips
1 - Steer clear of unusual fonts and over-the-top graphics. You can incorporate two different fonts on your resume for visual appeal, but no more than two. And it's probably best to stick with the old standbys like New Times Roman (if you prefer lettering with a serif) or Arial, Helvetica or Verdana if you're looking for a clean, more modern look (sans serif). And about that watermark of Luke Skywalker and Darth Vader locking lightsabers that adorns your personal stationery? Let's keep it there, and not on your resume.
2 - Maintain a reasonable length. As a rule of thumb, the job seeker at grad-level to 5 years experience is best served by a 1-page resume. Mid-career professionals and executives likely have the work history to justify a 2-page resume.
3 - Employ indented text, bullet points, italics and bold headings to add interest and readability to the layout. And by the way, white space is your friend. Too many writers try to pack too much onto a page, resulting in a resume with gianormous blocks of text that are tough to read. Weed out what's not absolutely necessary, and use bulleted lists to organize your qualifications and accomplishments.
4 - Use a functional format only as a last resort. Many hiring managers have a predisposition against the functional resume because too many candidates over the years have used the format to try to hide some aspect of their background – gaps in their employment record, too many jobs in too short of time, etc. Yes, there is certainly a time and a place for the functional format. For example, it can be extremely useful to someone looking to change careers. But by and large, the chronological format – or a hybrid of the chronological and functional formats – is more commonly accepted.
5 - Spell check and check and check. This is critical. Many hiring officials will pitch any resume with even a single misspelling. Why? Fair or not, they probably assume that any candidate who doesn't care enough about the job hunt to get the resume language spot on and accurate will be likewise careless toward details as an employee. And who needs that? Certainly not a hiring manager whose own job depends on selecting only the best and the brightest. Getting your resume right is your job. Treat it like it's a job, because you're being evaluated like it's a job.
Resume Design - Helping Your Resume Get Read
Attractive design elements alone won't land you the job of your dreams. But when the stack of resumes on the recruiter's desk is two feet thick, they just might help your resume to get read. Beyond that, it's up to your qualifications, and the skill of the writer in communicating those qualifications.
Questions and Answers
Though writing a resume or a CV is not an interesting work to be done but it is essential for the job seekers in any field. Usually resumes are a brief representation of your qualifications and experiences but CV on the other hand can be an elaborated document explaining your potentials in your specific field and experiences which cannot be bounded in a fixed number of pages.
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