You’ve built a career on your unique talents and abilities. Now it’s time to prepare properly. The best resume helps perfectly express your professional personality. A great resume takes the words you’ve carefully crafted and highlights them with eye-catching pieces that represent your style. But what exactly makes a good resume? The answer is simple: polished and professional, not boring.
But where is the line between professionalism and boring, and how do you differentiate yourself from rigid frameworks?
The ideas and explanations below break down all the important parts of a good resume and give you advice on how to use them in your layout.
In this blog we will cover:
Why visuals matter
Image projection correction
Best fonts for headings, section headings and text
Determining margin size
How to leave enough space
Should I add color?
Do you use photos or graphics?
Why visuals matter
Why spend time on the appearance of your resume instead of focusing on the content? The way your resume looks influences the message it conveys to recruiters. Making good use of the visual elements of your document will improve the overall quality of your application.
Think about the first thing you see when you open a new webpage or meet a new person. Long before you even learn a language, you’re already making decisions based on your appearance. Recruiters are no different. All that carefully crafted list of skills is useless if recruiters can’t find it in seconds. Creating a consistent and memorable image on your resume is even more important if you’re in a creative or related field. Let’s start with the basics of appearance in summary format.
Choose the right format
The format of your summary will determine how you arrange the elements and where the focus is. There is no “right” format, but the format you choose will work best for you depending on where you are in your career and where you want to move.
The most commonly used format is a reverse chronological one with an emphasis on career development for those with a relatively direct career path and a functional emphasis on skills and education over work history. A hybrid balances skills and work history. Project the Right Image: The look of your resume depends on the image you’re trying to project. It should certainly be professional, but more than that, the look of your resume should be compatible with the personality traits you’ve highlighted in your resume, work history, and skills.
For example, a resume for an accountant focuses on details, reliability, and organization. This document should be visually understated. The accountant book example uses a monochromatic Amsterdam pattern from the Modern category.
However, a graphic designer resume should reflect creativity and original thinking. Our graphic designer resume uses a Dublin template to make full use of color.
Dublin Template
Here are some questions to consider when making your design choices:
What is the main message of my resume?
Which can be described with three adjectives? My work style?
What are three job attributes that should be included on a resume?
Color is just one of many options available to you when creating the look of your resume. The information below and the design decisions you make based on it will affect the overall look of your resume.
Best fonts for titles, section headings and text
Fonts and typefaces are the backbone of your design. At every step and design decision, the first thing to consider is legibility. The best resume fonts have clean lines, no curls and are not too stylized.
Fonts are design elements, but they also shape perception. Consumer brands, corporate logos, informational materials, advertisements, marketing campaigns, and anywhere words and letters are used, careful consideration is given to which fonts to use and how to best combine bold, italic, and light versions of a font family.
The first decision to make is whether to choose a serif or sans serif typeface. You can even combine the two, one for the name and section headings and one for the text, but make sure you choose the right font.
A classic example of a serif font is Times New Roman, which was originally designed for newspapers. Some people avoid this old font because it is the default font for many, but others prefer it for its strong feel and readability. Garamond is a serif alternative. Among sans-serif fonts, the Microsoft default Caliber is a pure choice. Helvetica is widely used and is considered a font that does not shrink content.
Serif Sans Serif
Authoritative
Old School
Small but easy to read
Modern
Top class
Fits into smaller spaces
Your name should be the largest type on the page, about 20-24 point, then section titles at 11-14 point, then contact information and body text at 10-12 point. We recommend no smaller than 10 point to make sure the text is easy to read and doesn’t come across as stuffy.
Determining margin size
It may be difficult to fit all of your career accomplishments onto one page, but skimping on margins is not a good idea. Word documents default to all margins at 1 inch, but since you’re not creating a Word document, you have some wiggle room.
Depending on the design of your resume, these white spaces may not be very meaningful. Take a look at our modern Toronto resume template. We use accent boxes to separate sections and narrow white space to create a visually spacious feel.
While we don’t recommend pushing text to the edge of the page, a visually striking resume doesn’t require the standard 1-inch margins. However, if you use a resume template, your design shouldn’t extend beyond 1/4 inch on any edge, or you risk losing white space that reduces readability and aesthetics.
Rethink the image you want to project. You want the recruiter to know that you have a lot of skills and experience to share, but you also know how to communicate in an organized and effective way. Consider how you spend your time to get your message across.
Toronto Model
How to leave enough space
White space gives the reader breathing space. Large blocks of type in the margins are difficult to read, strain the eyes, and create the impression of clutter, like a pile of unfinished work on a desk.
Separating sections with white or negative space makes them easier for recruiters to find when they’re skimming through them. They’ll want to look at your skills and recent accomplishments first. Leaving white space around each piece puts the focus right where it needs to be.
To create the impression of organized and clear communication, follow these design principles:
Use spaces between paragraphs, indentations, and lines.
Line spacing should be at least 130% larger than the font size.
Creates a “closed” area that mimics a shape. Draws attention.
Be consistent, that is, use the same spacing between elements of the same type.
Vary the line lengths to create negative space in sections, especially the work experience block, to condense all of your accomplishments.
Expert
Follow with your eyes
In text-heavy documents like resumes, the reader’s eyes tend to follow an F pattern.
First, readers scroll from left to right. Then, they scan the left side. Once they find what they’re looking for, like a section heading, they read left to right and repeat the process to find the next piece of information that interests them.
Save this template as you draw.
Want to add some color?
Should you add color to your overview layout? The short answer is, maybe you do. There is no perfect lifestyle or perfect answer to this question. Why? Many factors influence your decision, the most important of which is the impression you are trying to give.
Let’s go back to our comparison of accountants and graphic designers. Accountants spend their days working with spreadsheets and numbers. They aren’t paid to be creative with money. Sticking to a white background and black font shows that your accountant takes their responsibility to protect your money seriously. Graphic designers, on the other hand, are paid to use color (and all the other elements we’ve discussed in this blog) that serves their project. A lack of color will leave recruiters scratching their heads.
Another consideration is how your document will appear. It is very rare to mail a paper resume, but you can print one and take it to an interview. If you have a great resume, you are sure to get an interview. If you can control how the colors look to the reader, keep it that way. But make sure there is enough contrast between the color of the text and the background.
Finally, your resume should reflect the company culture: is it a traditional industry standard-holder or a gritty upstart?
Choose the right colors for your resume
Which color is right for your resume? In other words, choose a shade that suits your professional style.
Colors evoke different emotions and convey different messages. In general, most experts agree that these colors correspond to the following meanings:
Colors that convey a message
Red: Energy, determination, passion
Orange: Ambition, vitality
Yellow: optimism
Green: Growth
Blue: Calmness, trust, loyalty
Purple: Creativity, concentration
Brown: strength, stability
Expert advice
If you want to add color but aren’t sure about the right choice, here are some ideas to help you: The colors of your company’s logo reflect the image of the company, so when in doubt, copy those colors.
Do you use photos or graphics?
The final question about resume layout is whether or not to include an image. There’s one pretty definitive answer: Don’t use a photo, especially of yourself, unless you’re an actor or other visual performer. Hiring managers frown on this because it can come across as biased.
Graphic elements are another matter: small icons representing different categories can add flair to a traditional small-part resume if used correctly. Choose your icons carefully, otherwise they may convey immaturity and frivolity, undermining professionalism.
Our New York templates include small icons to help you identify each resume at a glance. If you go this route, we recommend avoiding the use of color as well, as too many design elements can be confusing and make your resume look cluttered.
One last piece of advice: while graphic resumes seem like a great way to grab attention, keep in mind that they are not ATS-friendly (check out our ATS Resume Optimization blog for more information on applicant tracking systems). They are hard to scan into a standard web format in an ATS and can be hard for readers to read. You need to stand out, but you don’t want to create a barrier that recruiters won’t try to overcome.
Resume Basics
What does the perfect resume look like? It all depends on the job you want, the image you want to convey and the culture of the company you want to work for. A well-written resume is eye-catching and makes a compelling first impression. Keep these principles in mind:
Clarity, visuals and readability will help you create a great resume that will land you your next job.
Get started with our resumes and one of our many customizable resume templates.
