A kick-ass resume builder can help you stand out from the crowd. But whether you’re designing your resume yourself or with a builder, you’ll need to know how to do it.
Below, we’ll outline the how, what, and why of designing a resume.
How To Structure Your Resume
No matter what design your pick for your resume, there are something that should always stay the same.
Some rules to follow would be:
Length
Keep not only your resume but each section of it concise. The maximum length for a resume is two pages, but even one well-organised page should suffice.
Font
Keep your font consistent throughout your resume. And don’t go for something too ornate (we’re looking at you wingdings!) that will make it hard to read.
Serif fonts like Garamond and Time New Romans are acceptable. Otherwise, opt for Sans-serif fonts like Calibri and Arial.
Margins
Make sure to set your margins and have them consistent throughout your resume. Then, split your resume into columns and keep your sections uniform. Make sure they don’t ‘spill over’!
Design Elements
As we mentioned, what is it about your resume that’s going to make it stand out? It’s all very well being valedictorian or graduating with a first; how do you get that across visually?
What To Include In A Resume
If there are rules that you should stick to when designing your resume, there are also rules for what to include.
Some obvious information to include:
- Name.
- Address.
- Contact information.
- Education.
And then it gets tricky.
You’ll need to decide what to include in your professional experience. You might include a resume objective with specific goals you want to achieve if you have less experience.
On the other hand, if you have a wealth of experience, think about compacting it into a resume summary.
For employment history, we suggest only including roles relevant to the job that you’re applying for. Having different resume designs that you can swap out will help you here.
Remember always to include the employer name, job title, years worked, and your responsibilities.
You might even have a separate section near the bottom of your resume for skills, certificationss, qualifications, and voluntary work.
So with all that on your resume design, how do you choose what not to include?
What Not To Include
The most obvious ones (that we see all too often!) are things like your favourite colour, and your height and weight.
Ask yourself – is it relevant to this job (or at all)? You could cut your ‘hobbies’ as well, or to at least personalise them each job.
Then, always proof-read your resume! Don’t include messy stuff like the date your resume was designed or written. And remove the names of previous companies you’ve applied for!
We also recommend:
- Getting rid of the photo.
- Only including your highest level of education.
- Not including statements about health, criminal history, or salary expectations unless asked to.
- No irrelevant work experience to fill space.
Resume Design
So now you might be left with all your best taking points to put on your resume. But how do you actually go about doing it?
Things like removing your photo and making your resume design mobile-friendly have implications for its structure. If you want a clear hierarchy and transition between sections then we suggest using a template builder.
Always remember that first impressions are important, so make sure to use clean resume templates that will make you look best. Think about using a consistent layout and font with a clear colour scheme to stand out. With a template builder you could even test out different resume designs to see which gets you more responses!