AUTHOR: David M. Young – Managing Partner Search Technology
I review resumes daily. When I see a resume “stand out” it is most likely not for reasons that the owner would want. There is a subtle line between making your resume stand out like a sore thumb and making it stand out as a level above everyone else due to your polish, presentation and professionalism. People often forget that their resume is viewed on another computer that has default fonts, views, and other methods of seeing the resume that may not be consistent with their own. Additionally, people are often asked to past a resume into an employers website. As a recruiter, I often have to submit a resume through HR and must past in the resume. We may already have an interview and possibly an offer, but if the resume has pictures, crazy font, or other atypical components, it prevents the ability to get the resume submitted. Our policy is that we will never make a change to a resume but will instead have the owner of the resume make the change. I should not say “never” as there are always exceptions, but you get the idea. So to stay with my “list” theme, I thought it easiest to highlight for you how to format your resume with the following list.
Resume formatting
- Bold and enlarge your name at the top. Do not do this at the bottom, do not do this in a footer, do not run it down the side and take up valuable real estate on your resume. You are wanting someone to remember your name, lead with it. Include your name on each page of the resume. Also include a manner in which you can be contacted (email or phone) on each page.
- Do not include a head shot of yourself, other pictures, images, logos, or graphics in your resume. Yes, you may feel that graphics may help your resume stand out, but these will be lost and often times show up awkwardly depending on the end users base software capabilities. Many emails convert your resume to html for preview mode and these will appear as broken links.
- Do not use a unique and eye catching font. This may seem strange, but non-standard fonts are not installed on all business computers. As a result, if the user does not have the desired type of font, the resume will be translated into their base font poorly, and worst case, may become unreadable. Recommended standard fonts include: Arial, Times New Roman, Arial, Verdana, Century, and Courier.
- Font size should not be less than 10pt and not larger than 12pt, except for your name and headings. Less than 10 pt and the resume is hard to read. Larger than 12 pt and it will not look professional. Ideally you can use an 11pt font.
- Do not use a picture frame border and shading. This includes a simple line framing the entire resume (an outer square) or MS Words page borders. Borders and shading are often stripped from corporate readers and software versions and can result in your user not being able to read your resume.
- Keep the sections lined up and consistent. If you lead with a title in one section, do so in the other sections. If you spell out the state abbreviation in one section or your personal contact, do so throughout the resume.
- Place “Continued” at the bottom of each page, and your name and “Page #” at the top of the next page.
- Utilize Bolding and italics, but do not overuse.
- Readers eyes will read right to left and top to bottom. A users eyes will be drawn to numbers along with bold words.
- Do not use a series of underscores to represent a line break. Instead use the standard line break in Word.
- Use standard margins. The MS-Word Document to HTML conversion is optimized for the default margins a provided by word. The standard margins should be one-half to one inch. You need white space. If you have too little white space in the margins, readers will see less of the words in your resume when they “scan” it.
- Do not use tabs or spaces for spacing text. Use MS-Word alignment and indent features instead. Tabs and spaces can be lost when users open your resume and they do not have the same default formatting in Word.
- RUN SPELLCHECKER
- Proof, Proof, Proof
Once you have formatted your resume, step away. After a break, review it and make a quick glance to see what stands out to you and if your resume is easy to review. Ask someone who will give you honest feedback what they think. If your resume is hard to see (not read, but really see due to font size or layout) you may lose your reader before they even read a word. Remember, an employer is really screening you in, not screening you out.
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