As I mentioned in my previous post, December is a great time of year to get going on a job search, and that generally means polishing up your resume.
This post gives full credit to Toni Bowers of TechRepublic, who, back in May of this year, answered the question, “What is the best font to use in a resume?”
Ms. Bowers addresses her remarks to an audience of techies—who apparently can be counted upon to do some strange things with their resumes—but her advice works for all of us:
- Try something other than Times New Roman ‒ It’s a perfectly acceptable font, but “everyone” uses it. Choose something else to help your resume stand out a bit more.
- Do not use Courier ‒ Hard to believe that anyone does, but if you were considering it, forget it. It looks odd and geeky, even for a programmer.
- Do not use anything too exotic ‒ Bear in mind that your resume may be scanned, so don’t use a cursive font or anything truly unusual. Arial and Helvetica are perennial favorites. And Calibri is nice and clean.
- Use ragged right margins ‒ Strictly speaking, we’re talking about font here, but font and spacing work together to create a readable piece of work. Right-justified text contains disconcerting holes and is just plain hard to read.
One last thing. After you’re tired of looking at your resume, ask a friend or peer you trust to take a look at it and make their most honest comments. You may not be overjoyed with what you hear, but you will be glad you asked.
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