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I'm in the process of making a new resume and I'm getting some conflicting info on what a resume is supposed to look like design wise. My husband claims that a resume should be simple with just the text and no frills. But many of the sample resumes on the internet does have designs like borders and lines and other designs that makes it look less plain. So, what's correct, or best? Should a resume be plain or should it have some design frills? What do you guys think?
The key is to make it readable. No fancy fonts, plenty of white space. I have seen some really nice ones with a line to separate the name/heading at the top from the rest of it. I probably wouldn't do too much more than that. I think borders are too much.
Incidentally, I have seen the plain text resumes with no formatting. Those I find really hard to read for some reason. Everything blurs together.
But don't worry too much about the formatting. It's obviously more important what the words actually say.
I'm in the process of making a new resume and I'm getting some conflicting info on what a resume is supposed to look like design wise. My husband claims that a resume should be simple with just the text and no frills. But many of the sample resumes on the internet does have designs like borders and lines and other designs that makes it look less plain. So, what's correct, or best? Should a resume be plain or should it have some design frills? What do you guys think?
I use "Arial style Font" size 11 and has been very effective.
I think plain and to the point is best. Don't waste their time with too much to read...
However I can think of some exceptions to the above. Say if you were applying for a job using Microsoft Word, you might want to show you know your stuff. Maybe use different fonts, different size text, italics, bold, underline, a small table with a border, etc.
Or if for a job where you might need to type things in outline form, do that.
Or maybe for a graphic design artsy type job, maybe add some graphics and style.
Sometimes creativity can be good! Other times maybe not so good.
I am not an HR person but I just reviewed a bunch of resumes for an open position so I will say:
Don't worry about the one page rule, but don't inflate your responsibilities to fill up 3 pages either.
Make sure you include contact information. One resume didn't have an address, just a name and phone number.
If you are applying somewhere corporate and your background isn't, don't go overboard with corporate speak to describe your experience. We know "supervised ingress and egress of clients during prime vending hours in compliance with company issued regulations regarding patron communication to boost customer gross quarterly sales" means you were a greeter at the GAP. No shame. It's a job, but keep it real.
Beware of self starter syndrome. If you are the type who starts a new venture every few months or has friends/relatives that start new ventures every month and bring you aboard and you've held the title of VP, CEO, CFO in each of them, edit. Wearing so many hats and participating in so many endeavors looks odd and sounds random and even suspicious.
Play up your skills that apply to the job. Don't send out a stock resume for each position. Even if the titles are the same chances are the responsibilities will probably differ.
I'm not big on borders and doodles, open bullets, flowery hard to read or oversized fonts. etc. If you are doing something with graphic arts maybe, but it detracts from the content which is all I care about.
Unless you have more than 10-15 years experience, don't have more than a one page resume. Have bolded bullet points that highlight skills that you bring to the table. When someone first glances at your resume, you have 10-15 seconds for them to find your 3-4 main skills, and if they cannot find them/do not like them, they move on to the next one. If they can easily find the main points in 10 seconds, then maybe they will actually read it.
Look and feel of resume does not matters the most, recruiter just search for the keyword that matches his criteria. In some extent look and feel can attract recruiters, but clarity in resume is also important.
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Effective?
