Transcript: Resume Formatting
Did you know that recruiters take 7.4 seconds on average to initially skim through your resume and determine if they want to review it again? If you have a good format where information is easy to find, you increase your chances of getting a second review by a recruiter.
To get started, make sure your resume has a nice balance of text and white space, and doesn’t look too crowded. Next, a good rule of thumb is to have a one-inch margin from top to bottom and side to side.
You also want to make it readable for an Applicant Tracking System, or ATS, which is a screening tool many companies use to sort out and discard applicant’s resumes who don’t appear to have the right qualifications for the position. An ATS scans for keywords on your resume to determine if you meet the requirements, so be sure to include keywords that describe your knowledge and expertise and match the job description, so you make it to the next round of reviews.
Some things an ATS can’t see are graphics, tables, or text placed in the header or footer. Graphics may be appropriate for some audiences but be aware that important information included inside those elements won’t be read by an ATS.
The font you use also plays an important part of resume formatting. The best fonts to use on a resume are Serif and Sans Serif. It is also best to avoid using multiple fonts.
You can guide the readers’ eyes through the resume by bolding, italicizing, capitalizing, underlining, or adding a bit of color. The font size for the body of the resume is anywhere from 10 pt. – 12 pt. And be aware, with some fonts, 12-point could look too big, and 10-point could look too small.
Your name should be the biggest and most visual element on your resume, — up to 28-points in font size. This makes you stand out to hiring managers and help them find your resume again if they want to refer back to it. Then include your phone number, email address, and LinkedIn profile URL. Remember to use a professional email and avoid silly emails. Also remove all hyperlinks for a clean look. If you choose to include your location, keep it to your city and state rather than the entire mailing address.
When you write out your experiences, always organize your information the same way from experience to experience. For example, if you write your title first, and then the company, your next work experience must be organized the same way. Choose an order that highlights your selling points and then stick with it throughout your resume because it will confuse your reader if you change it up mid-resume. You can either lead with your company or with your job title. Either way is fine, but in the next experience, don’t change it up, this confuses the reader so always be consistent with whichever order you choose.
There are plenty of choices you can make when formatting a resume, and the order of sections can be different for different audiences. The important thing is to keep the document formatting consistent in all your resumes, and always think about who is reading your resume.
Good luck writing your resume!