Appearance in your ProfileWhen your resume is seen by the human eye, it needs to catch attention and be simultaneously reader-friendly. Research indicates that employers rank easy readability as the most important resume point in terms of first impressions.
Avoid instantly recognizable Microsoft Word resume templates. Employers have seen a million of them, so they don't stand out. They are also somewhat inflexible and contain problematic formatting. "Using a template or any kind of boilerplate to demonstrate your value to a company is the worst thing you can do to yourself when job hunting," says Nick Corcodilos of Ask The Headhunter.
Ensure that the appearance of your resume holds up when you transmit it electronically. If you are regularly sending your resume as an e-mail attachment, you may want to experiment with sending it to friends' computers to ensure that the formatting appears consistently from computer to computer, however using Resume Blaster you don't need to worry about the formatting as what you see is what you get (WYSIWYG) and we highly recommend the profile owners to visit and provide us with valuable feedback
Display your name boldly and in a large font at the top of your resume to project confidence; a small name makes the job-seeker look timid.
We recommend a resume body font no smaller than 10.5 points and no larger than 12 points. Type at 11 points is often the best choice for resumes. Don't use justified text blocks; they put odd little spaces between words. Instead, make your type flush left. Employ some typographic variety -- judicious use of bold and italics. You can use up to two different fonts on your resume, and make sure they are readable. Avoid underlining because it adds clutter to your resume.
Include pleasing white space on your resume, but don't go overboard. The default margin setting in Microsoft Word is 1.25", but you'll have an easier time fitting everything in if you set your margins at .75" to 1".
For a "print" resume -- used for networking, career fairs, taking to the interview, and mailing to the employer -- include some design elements, such as rule lines, to give your resume graphic interest. We also strongly recommend a bulleted style to make your resume more reader-friendly. Most employers prefer bullets and dislike the density of type seen in a paragraph format.
Be sure your headings and sections are clearly marked and information can be located easily.
Some job-seekers damage the appearance of their resumes by trying to squeeze a lot of information onto one page. Don't be afraid to go to a two-page resume. Two pages is totally acceptable and even expected for those with higher levels of experience.
