Give your CV a facelift: 10 resume layout tips

Following my recent post 10 deadly CV sins I thought I’d give you some tips on how to improve the layout of your CV by applying some simple rules.

Here are 10 layout tips:

1. Only 1 goal
The layout of your CV should only have 1 goal: to create a fast and efficient overview, in other words, make your resume skimmable. Surely your resume won’t get any better using a better layout, you can apply the best layout in the world, it’s still the content of your CV that will make or break an impression. But if the information on your resume is difficult to find, you might miss the boat. One thing is sure: making it skimmable will definitely benefit you when applying for a new job and the employer will thank you for it.

2. Writing a book?
A CV shouldn’t exceed 3 pages, unless you were asked specifically to elaborate on certain topics or to include e.g. publications, training, etc

3. Font
Choose a font that is soft to the eye and easy to read both printed and on screen. Most CV’s will be screened (at least to make a first selection) on screen and about 90% of CV’s received will never be printed.
As explained in my previous post, it is best to choose a font that comes standard with all operating systems. Use a maximum of 2 different fonts. More than 2 will make your CV harder to read. You could differentiate certain parts of your resume (e.g. a title) by using a different font but try and stay away from mixing up too many.

4. Font size
Dependent on the font, you can go for a font size ranging from 9 to 12.
Never exceed font size 12 as your resume will become too hard to read.
You can apply a different size font for your CV header (e.g. for your name and tag-line) but try and avoid doing this in the remainder of the document.

5. Font styles and effects
Use only 1 font style (e.g. italic, bold, underline) to differentiate text from the rest of the CV. Using more will make your CV look messy. Effects such as shadows, embossing and engraving don’t belong on a CV so stay away from them.

6. Indentations
The less indentations the better! I actually prefer none at all. Use bullet points, tabs and headers to make certain parts stick out, don’t indent text as it will make your CV less skimmable.

7. Tabs
Tabs are excellent to attract focus on e.g. dates, locations and job titles. Tabs that are aligned left however, create a rather messy effect. If you use tabs, stick with a right alignment so that the text is at the same position throughout the whole document.

8. Titles / sections
Make sure that someone reading your CV can find what they’re looking for in no time.
If it takes more than 2 seconds for me to find out where on your CV you’ve mentioned your education, it’s not good enough!

Apply a clear title for every section (e.g. personal details, education, career overview) and make it stick out. There are many ways to do this, e.g. by applying borders and shading or making the text bold.

9. Line spacing
Dependent on the type of font you are using, you might want to use different line spacing. There are no set rules for this as long as you are consistent. Don’t use single line spacing in one part of your resume and multiple spacing in the next one.

10. Alignment
Although I am personally a huge fan of justified alignment in a CV, left alignment is as good, as long as you stick with the same alignment throughout the whole document.
Right alignment can be used for short text (e.g. a date or a job title) but is not recommended for complete paragraphs.

Clear?
Now, let’s put these tips into practice and have a look at the below CV, which looks like any other CV I receive in my inbox on a daily basis.

This CV doesn’t look too bad overall but can be improved a lot. By using the above tips we can easily create a better looking document.

Let’s start with the font and the font size. In this case, I opted for Tahoma, 10.

Now, let’s get rid of all indentations and italic text.

BEFORE

AFTER

To make the personal details more skimmable, let’s use a tab.

BEFORE

AFTER

Instead of using underlining for the section titles (bold is already used), let’s make them stand out more by applying a bottom border and by using capital letters rather than a bigger font size.

BEFORE

AFTER

Let’s improve the look of the header by making the font size of all text identical, applying a grey shading and making the top and bottom line white.

BEFORE

AFTER

Now, let’s add some final touches by moving the dates (education and career overview) to the right (tabs), creating a better overview by moving the location next to the company name and justifying all text.

BEFORE

AFTER

Here is the final resume:

BEFORE

AFTER

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Related posts:

1. 10 deadly CV sins
2. No kidding: a big resume mistake
3. Write a winning cover letter