Resume Design is Critical: Make Sure Yours Stands Out

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A single job posting can receive hundreds of resumes, so creating a CV that stands out from the crowd can be difficult. To truly rise above the competition, your resume has to be perfect. That means it has to have an eye-catching, professional design, and content that highlights your best qualities.

Creating a resume of this caliber can be overwhelming. So, if you’re not sure where to start or you find you’re not getting as many callbacks as you’d like, it may be time to consider using professional resume design services.

Read on to discover why resume design matters and how professional design services can help.

Why Does Resume Design Matter?

1) Readability is Key

Professional resume developers know that nothing matters more than your content. Professionals can highlight your most relevant skills and qualifications, and they can do it in a visually appealing way. If your resume is so dry and dense that recruiters can’t digest it, it won’t matter if you’re the perfect candidate because no one will ever finish reading your resume.

A professional resume service can balance content with design to create a readable document that allows your strengths to jump from the page.

2) A Well Designed Resume Draws the Eye

Recruiters are generally looking through dozens (or even hundreds) of resumes to find the right candidate. With so many CV’s to sift through, they often blend together. Knowing most resumes look the same, it’s clear you need to create a document that stands out. However, you also have to ensure your resume doesn’t stand out in a bad way. If design elements are overdone, the document will look unprofessional and it will get passed over.

A professionally designed resume perfectly balances color, design, and substance so you can feel confident your resume will shine for all of the right reasons.

3) Your Resume Speaks Volumes

We all know the saying “show don’t tell,” and that’s precisely what a well-designed resume can do. If your information is displayed perfectly, it shows you’re a strong critical thinker who pays attention to detail. If your resume makes excellent use of color, spacing, and formatting, it shows that you’re creative and a problem solver.

A professionally designed resume communicates your skills at a glance.

How to Create a Well-Designed Resume

Not ready to try out a professional design service quite yet? That’s OK, read on for our top tips on creating a well-designed resume. 

1) Use a Common Font

Remember that when it comes to your resume, readability is critical. So use a well-known font that hiring managers are familiar with and can easily read. This includes standard fonts such as Calibri or Times New Roman.

In addition to the type of font, make sure you’re also paying attention to your font size. The font should be large enough (10 or 12 pt) to be easily read on any device.

2) Make Sure Your Resume is Easy to Read

Your design choices can make a big difference when it comes to readability. To create a readable resume, you have to have structure and white space in the document so your text jumps off the page. This structure can be created through your spacing, margins, and text formatting:

• Use Consistent Spacing- Spacing errors are obvious at a glance and can make or break the look of your document. To create a neat resume that allows your content to shine, make sure that your spacing is consistent between lines, sections, and titles.
• Double Check Margins- The standard for resume margins is to set them to 1 inch on all sides. This spacing instantly creates a balanced design and adds some necessary white space to your CV. This white space ensures your document isn’t too dense. If you desperately need more space, you can consider decreasing the margins slightly, but do not make them smaller than a ½-inch, as this will leave your document looking too cluttered.
• Organize Text– You shouldn’t include long blocks of text on your resume; it makes your doc too dense and difficult to read. Instead, use bullet points to create lists. Using bulleted lists organizes your information and makes it easier to skim.

3) Incorporate Subtle Design Elements

If done correctly, adding subtle blocks of color to your resume can really bring it to life. When doing this, keep in mind that bright colors can quickly overwhelm the eye. The safest way to add color to your resume is to use traditional black and white with a third, more understated, shade such as grey or light blue. You can use this third color to highlight one area of your resume, such as the header or your executive summary. No matter how you use color, make sure that your layout is clean, and your document is easy to read.

Looking for even more tips on creating your best resume? Read our top tips for making your resume stand out here.