Top 7 Resume Formatting Tips

Did you know that some recruiters and hiring managers admit that they sometimes use what the resume looks like as one of the first ways to narrow down their candidate pile? Having a well formatted resume is almost as important as the content within. Hiring managers may be looking over 10, 20, 50 or even hundreds of resumes for just one position. You don’t want yours to be put into the reject pile because of some simple formatting mistakes or because it doesn’t look nice. Hiring managers will immediately look at your poorly formatted resume as a reflection of your work. After all, this is their very first introduction to you. Don’t set yourself up for disappointment. Give yourself the confidence you deserve when applying for a position by following these 7 simple tips:

1. Be Concise. You want your prospective employer to learn all about you in the most efficient manner. You may like to write a lot about yourself, but they do not want a novel. Get to the point of what you want to say, include only the most valuable information, saving details and explanations for an interview, and don’t add unnecessary words. A general rule of thumb is to keep your resume length to one or two pages. See our blog post on resume length for more information: www.careerconnectionsllc.com/post/how-many-pages-should-my-resume-be.

2. Font Sizes. Keeping a consistent font size throughout makes your resume easier to read and follow. For most of your content, the body of the resume, you want your font size to be around 10.5. Avoid making it any smaller and instead focus on condensing down the content to save space rather than trying to squeeze it all in. Your resume headings should be a littler larger with font size around 14. Your name should be the largest font size on the page, around 18, allowing it to stand out.

3. Font Style. It is important to use the same font throughout your resume. No matter the font size the font should be the same for your name, headers and the body. Three of the most popular resume fonts are Tahoma, Calibri and Times New Roman. Furthermore, limit your use of bold, italic, and underline, as overuse can be distracting.

4. Margins. These are the blank spaces on the sides and top and bottom of the page. Keeping the margins too small will make your resume page look busy and crowded. Keeping them too big will make your resume look like a picture with a large white frame around it. One inch is the standard; however, if you need to reduce margins (to fit your resumes to 1 or 2 pages) never go less than one-half inch.

5. Use Bullet Points. Having bullet points keeps your thoughts and information organized. There is marketing psychology behind lists or bullet points called clustering. This is grouping similar thoughts together in one section. Bullet points clearly and concisely show your strengths for the position you’re applying for. Like the other tips above, make sure each bullet point is the same. Same size, same style and same indentation.

6. Spacing. Make sure all your left/right indents and before/after spacings are the same and consistent throughout your resumes. Use one space after each sentence period and one to two lines between each header. Most of your content should also be justified alignment.

7. Refrain from using Templates. Downloading a free template found online or using a pre-formatted template from Microsoft Word may seem like a safe and easy option, but these templates tend to have complicated, busy, and challenging formatting to work with and maintain. Many of these templates utilize text boxes, columns, headers, and footers, all of which may be problematic for an applicant tracking system to scan through, missing critical information from your resume. Additionally, using a resume that has complicated formatting may cause issues with how the resume looks when opened on different computers. Simple, minimal, and clean formatting is key!

Remember, your resume is the very first impression you make on a recruiter or hiring manager and the formatting can be just as important as the content. If you would like professional help formatting your resume, contact us today. We’re here to give you the confidence you need to present your best you.