How Creative Can You Be With Your Resume?

One of the most frequent questions I hear from potential clients is "Can you make my resume look really different from all the others?" Generally the question isn't related to resume content, but to layout and typography.

It's an understandable question - it's certainly tough to get noticed when there are so many resumes for every position - but unfortunately, the answer is no.

In the old days, before email, resume writers had a lot more flexibility for creative design. The resume would be printed out and mailed, so there was no concern about formatting for email. But now, your resume must travel between computers and operating systems and it must retain its formatting even when the recipient has a different version of MS Word to the one you're using.

(And yes, you MUST create your resume in Word. It is the standard word processing program and resumes created in programs like Photoshop or Illustrator will be useless to most HR people and recruiters.)

Therefore, you have to keep your resume as simple as possible. Use only standard system fonts (you can see safe fonts highlighted in blue on this list). If you use other fonts, you run the risk that the recipient will not have that font installed on their system - when that happens, their computer will replace your pretty font with Courier New, and all your careful formatting will be thrown out.

You must also avoid any of the Microsoft Word drawing objects, such as text boxes or lines. This is because they may not show up depending on the settings on the recipient's computer.

You CAN use color to liven up your resume, but be aware that the document will probably be printed and photocopied, so make sure you use colors that will still work when printed/copied in black and white.

I do think resume design is very important - your resume must be well laid out, consistent, easy to read and contain lots of white space - but sadly in this age of email, excess creativity will hurt your job search  rather than help.

The best way to differentiate yourself is through strong content that clearly shows your value to potential employers. If you do that, you won't need to worry about unusual typography and clever layouts.

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Comments

[George Blomgren]

I once attended a job fair where they scanned all of the resumes & distributed them to hundreds of local employers. At the time, I had a very creative resume, with complex formatting. I later saw what happened to my resume once it had been scanned and "OCR'd." Not pretty. Yet another reason to follow Louise's good advice!