No matter how impressive the content of your resume, poor formatting can deter a hiring team from considering an applicant. So what changes can you make to ensure that you format your resume for success?
- Include the most important information first: your name, contact information, and desired position.
- Be careful about the fonts you choose. Choose a readable, common, and professional font. Avoid fonts that are too large (“This applicant is unqualified and wastes paper.”) and fonts that are way too small (“This applicant is causing me serious eye strain.”). Resumes are professional documents, and the font should reflect this.
- Keep your formatting consistent. If the name of former position is bolded, make sure that all others are as well. Choose a single style for bullets (either circles or squares, for instance) and major headings (either bold or italics, initial caps or full caps, and so on)—and keep to it.
- Avoid random changes in alignment and punctuation. Make sure that every heading, for example, has the same alignment (the choices are centered, ragged right, or justified) and every sentence ends with a period. Make sure dashes and hyphens are a consistent length.
- Keep the spacing between words, paragraphs, and bullets consistent. Search for double spaces between sentences and words; replace with a single space.
- Watch out for excessive capitalization. There is no need to capitalize every noun. (For example, “Collaborated with Sales Teams to improve Revenue year-over-year.”) The more capitals you use, the less power they have.
- Shy away from graphics and show restraint in the use of color, bolding, italics, highlighting, font changes, and other effects. A little goes a long way.
- Make sure your formatting works as well in print as on the screen, especially if you have used color or shading.
Formatting enhances your resume. At Robin’s Resumes®, we are prepared to format your resume to highlight your experience, skills, and potential.