Visual Design
Once you have the content created, consider design. Of course, if you are
using a word processing program like Microsoft Word, you will have various
resume templates or visual designs at your disposal, but you can design from
scratch if you so choose (don't be afraid!).
Simply keep these simple, reader-based design elements in mind:
Resume Design Elements
- Use "short, informative headings" for your categories
rather than lengthy/full sentence ones.
- For ease of reading, present material such as job duties in list
form rather than in paragraphs. Rule of thumb: one activity per list
entry.
- Use bullets rather than dashes to indicate entries in your lists.
- Experiment with bold and italic to draw attention to such items
as degree received, job titles, place of employment.
- Without going overboard, vary type styles: use one style for all
headings, one for content, etc.
- Again without going overboard, vary type sizes: Make your name
the most visible thing on the page, then your headings the next-largest,
with the text the smallest of the three. Remember: size indicates
importance of information.
- Use white space to make your text easier to read: 1-inch margins,
spacing above and below all headings, etc.
- Finally, remember the most important piece of advice: BE CONSISTENT!
(drawn from Anderson)
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Anderson suggests that you use a simple test to check your visual balance:
fold your resume in half vertically. Both sides should have roughly the same
amount of type/text.
