Whether you are a recent graduate looking for an internship or a first job, a PhD applicant, or a seasoned academic up for tenure, there are many moments in your career when you need a resume or a CV.
Most people spend a lot of time tweaking the content of their resumes, tailoring every word and sentence to the requirements of the specific job they are applying to. However, not much thought or time is given to another, equally important task: formatting your resume or CV.
Three Things to Keep in Mind When Formatting Your Resume or CV
Based on many documents I have edited, here is some formatting advice:
1. Keep it simple
Google “resume” and you will find many examples that use colourful, even flashy designs, featuring everything from bright, thick borders to headshots. In certain industries these resumes may work, but for most job applications, my advice is to keep it simple. When formatting your resume or CV, go for a classic look:
- Use headings for different sections and arrange the content in a logical, neat manner. Keep the headings themselves simple too: use standard titles (e.g., “Education”, “Work Experience”) to ensure your resume is compatible with Applicant Tracking Systems (ATS).
- Make use of bold or italicised fonts, rather than a rainbow of colours.
- Choose a standard, ATS-friendly font (e.g., Arial, Calibri, Georgia, Helvetica). For reading on screen, sans serif fonts are sometimes preferred.
- If using border lines (for example, between your name and contact details, and the rest of the resume), keep them simple. Opt for lines that are thin rather than thick, and monochrome rather than multicoloured.
- Avoid design elements like icons or graphic shapes (e.g., solid-colour rectangles, circles, waves, splotches). This is particularly important if you are submitting your application through an ATS. This software, which scans for keywords, often has problems handling design-heavy elements.
2. Keep it consistent
Keeping the format of your resume or CV simple also means keeping it consistent. That refers to every aspect of the document, from how you organise and format different sections to the paragraph and line spacing.
Below are some of the most common inconsistencies I see on resumes:
- The font type, size, and colour don’t match perfectly, often due to copying and pasting text from another document. The mismatch is typically very small. For example, a few words will use dark grey rather than black for the font colour, or some lines will be in 11-point font size rather than 12. Sometimes, just some words will be rendered in a different font. (Did you spot the inconsistencies?)
- Date ranges use a mixture of em and en dashes and the spacing before and after the dashes varies.
- The employer, position, location, and date range of different entries do not align perfectly. This inconsistency is often due to using tabs for formatting.
- Bullet points are formatted in different ways across the document. Occasionally, people use different types of bullet points (circular, hyphen), but more often they use the same shape of bullet point in slightly varying sizes.
- The indentation of the text varies. This is especially common with items like bullet points, which can be trickier to format.
3. Don’t try to trick recruiters
Job advertisements often come with word or page limits for the documents that need to be submitted. While most applicants adhere to these limitations, some try to cram to extra information onto the page through creative formatting. My advice: Don’t try to trick recruiters when formatting your resume or CV.
People who are in charge of hiring read dozens (hundreds?) of applications, one after the other. Utilising any unusual formatting, non-standard margins, or a smaller font size to fit your application within the specified limit will be immediately noticeable to them.
Alison Green, who runs the popular Ask a Manager website, recommends the following:
“Your margins should be at least one inch on all four sides. You can probably get away with going down to half an inch on the top and bottom if you absolutely must, but no smaller. Font size depends on the font, but in most cases anything smaller than 11 point risks being tough for some people to read, especially if they’re older. And line spaces are not your enemy.” (quote source)
Green’s advice is a good reminder that skirting requirements doesn’t just mean you are not following specific instructions – never a good idea when you are applying for a job – but it can also reduce the readability of the document you are submitting.
Ultimately, what you want is a document that is cleanly formatted and easy to read. That way, the ATS can extract the information it needs and the (human) person reading it can focus on what really matters – the content.
Ready to update the format of your resume or CV? Read my post on Tools & Templates to (Re)Format Your Resume or CV. Need help? Inquire about my job application editing packages.