Writing Your Resume: Style

You've probably seen a million and one style tips for resumes.

Now I'll throw in a few more.

First you have to choose your structure. There are a variety of different structures from which you can choose. Chronological resumes are the most common and most preferred by recruiters. They are mostly a list of your work experience from most recent to least recent.

A functional resume, on the other hand focuses your accomplishments and career highlights and relegates the actual jobs to a simple a list. This resume is very popular for people who have had lots of different jobs, breaks in employment history, or have done a lot of consulting for different companies.

Once you have chosen your structure, you need to think about how your resume looks. Here are some fundamental style tips to remember.

Tip 1: Don’t use small fonts. This is an old trick used by many a newbie resume writer to get more space and say more things. The rule of thumb is never use a font smaller than pt. 10. Anything tinier than that and it is really hard to read. And if your resume is hard to read and someone else’s is easier, they will get the attention and you won’t. Don’t make it harder on an interviewer. Yes, you must be judicious in deciding what to include, but the brevity is worth it if it makes the resume more readable.

Tip 2: Don’t use strange fonts. I know there are many wonderful and eye-catching fonts available. And I know someone once told you to get their attention in any way you can. The problem is that most of the odd fonts don’t scan and e-mail well. Many companies use computerized resume systems that scan in the document and look for key words. Unusual fonts may not be read properly meaning that your attempt to say that you have great writing skills may be read by a computer as writhing skills. A very different translation that probably won’t help you get a job unless it’s with Cirque du Soleis.

Tip 3: Use white space to make it easier to read. Most new resume writers aren’t into minimalism. They want to fill every available space with some useful tidbit. They’d write in the margins if they could figure out how. Your job, however, is not to pack in the information, but to make it easy to read and appreciate. White space helps the eye get to each word. I love how freelance designer and writer Jacci Howard Bear puts it: “White space provides visual breathing room for the eye.”[i] Using 1 inch margins is a good way to start. Carriage returns between major sections will also help the eye get to the right places.

Tip 4: The top three lines of your resume should be your name and contact information. These should include:

• A single address where you would like information or packets mailed
• A home and cell phone which you answer regularly and on which you have voice mail
• An email address that you check at least once each day

You should not include:

• Lots of phone numbers or numbers where you won’t be available to talk should an interviewer call
• Lots of addresses. Choose the one at which you are most likely to be reached. Trying to figure out where you is a pain for an interviewer and you never want to highlight that you are at your parents’ house for the summer.
• Unprofessional email addresses or multiple email addresses. The best email addresses are ones that simply have your name or first initial/last name.

Your name should be the name by which you want to be called by the recruiter. Recruiter Stacey Carpenter of the Millennium Group notes the importance of making your name easy for a recruiter. “If you have a very long or hard to pronounce name, you might shorten it. It’s less intimidating for the recruiter. If your name is Sachidandin Vrindamandan, for example, You might choose to put Sachi or Dan on your resume.” You can always explain what you prefer to be called once you have the job.

This sounds racist. It's not. It's laziness and a desire not to look stupid when you get someone's name wrong. A recruiter is going to take the path of least resistance, so make it easier on them, at least until you get the job.

Tip 5: Don’t over due the “style” element.
One of the most common errors of newbie resume writers is to try to overstyle the resume using fancy flourishes. In fact, the more you add to the resume stylistically, the more you stand to take away from the information. For example, many young people show up in my office with a resume on which every other word is bolded or italicized. They are trying to use these stylistic words to attract attention. That’s a good idea. The bad part is that they have used so much of it, a reader can’t tell which ones are the key words. A resume writer should use bolds and italics sparingly and only to emphasize the headers to make it easier to read. If your resume is well written and organizationally sound, the other flourishes won’t matter.

Tip 6: Use white or cream paper only. No funky colors.
In an age of internet submissions, this may seem like a moot point. But no matter how far away we get from plunking our resumes out on a typewriter, there will always be a need for a paper resume. Even if you submit an emailed resume (which is more than likely going to be the case,) you will still need to have a nice printed out copy to take with you to job interviews. These hard-copy versions should be printed on clean crisp professional white paper. No unusual colors, no flecks of cotton, and no fancy envelopes will change what’s written on the document.

[i] http://desktoppub.about.com/cs/designprinciples/a/morewhitespace.htm