Résumé Design Tips

 

Most resumes end up in the trash. While you spend hours looking over every detail of your CV, the recruiter on the other end only gives it around 7 seconds  before deciding if you’re a good fit or not.

To get the job, you need to stand out. Here is how:

Divide your information into columns

One of the clearest ways to present information, and ensure that employers can easily read it, is by organizing it into columns. Columns let you clearly separate things like contact information, education and skills from work and professional experience. 

Create a Clear Visual Hierarchy of Information and a clean layout

When potential employers receive your resume, there’s a chance that they won’t do more than glance at it. To avoid getting overlooked, make sure that you put the most relevant and recent experiences higher up and in a more visible spot than the less important information. In doing this, you’ll prevent a potential employer from missing something that could have ultimately landed you the job.

Also keep in mind the following elements:

  • Think about alignment when filling in your job duties. All your headers and bullet points should line up, otherwise it creates a very confusing visual experience.
  • Try using text boxes, which you’ll be able to easily drag and drop around your resume page – making layout creation a lot easier.
  • Keep your audience in mind while thinking outside of the box if possible. While traditional roles will expect a fairly standard resume, jobs in creative fields will allow you to roll up your sleeves a bit more.
  • Never go over 2-3 lines of text.

Keep the fonts clean and professional

You may be tempted to express your personality by using fun or ornamental fonts. Don’t. You want to use clean and easy-to-read fonts on your resume, not only so your potential employer can easily read it, but also to communicate your professionalism. Consistency is key. Make sure that you set rules for the layout of your resume, whether it’s in font choice, text sizing, and alignment.

  • Keep your font sizes between 11 and 13 points. You want a happy balance between being able to fit enough items into your resume, while it still being legible.
  • Keep font sizes consistent – headers should be all the same size for example.
  • Serif fonts work well for digital fields or roles that involve creative work, while sans serif fonts are a better fit for more conservative industries. This is because serif fonts generally have an extra design and stroke embellishment at the end of letters, while serif fonts keep it simple.
  • Safe fonts are Arial, Time New Roman, Garamond for example.

Give it a nice, consistent color scheme

Similarly, it may be tempting to get creative with colors on your resume. Again, just don’t. Keeping a consistent color scheme, with two, or at the most three colors that go together well lets you show a little personality without being distracting or unprofessional. m

Match your resume’s color scheme to the industry that you’re looking to be a part of. For instance, if you are applying for a role in more conservative industries such as banking or law, you might want to go with black or darker tones to show you mean business.

If you’re applying to a creative agency or a tech startup, you’ll have a lot more flexibility in terms of the color schemes you can use.

Don’t be afraid to go bright to attract eyeballs. using graphic lines to add personality.

Make sure that your skills section is prominent

Today, employers are looking for candidates with certain skills, so this is arguably the most important part of the resume. You should feature all of your skills in a legible format.

Personalize it, and invest in a professional photo

Yes, you want your resume to be professional and clean. However, you don’t want it to be stale or generic. Make sure that a bit of your individuality comes through in your resume by using fonts, colors or words that speak to you. Another great way to personalize a resume is by using a photo. Invest in a professional photo that looks sleek and appropriate for a work setting.

Insert the logos of any prominent companies you’ve worked with for a quick and impressive visual read

To make a bold statement quickly, consider including the logos of well-known companies you’ve worked for, especially those whose logos are easily recognizable. Looking at a resume and automatically noticing a logo like Coca-Cola can get the attention of employers without them reading a word. 

Emphasize your contact information section visually

Here are a number of things you can do to make your contact info section stand out:

  • Use icons to add live links to your personal website, social media, email address, and portfolio.
  • Use white space to draw the recruiter’s eye into your contact information.
  • Use color – you can change the color of the text itself, or create a new background color just for your contact info section.