How to design and format your resume to professional standards

Resume design is a vitally important aspect of your application, if your resume is plain and lacks personality, in a pile of applications it can be easily overlooked. It’s one of the most common mistakes candidates make today.

On the other hand, bright colours, big text, fancy fonts, and pictures, can be visually off-putting and lead to instant rejection. The key is to keep the resume looking professional while adding aspects that catch the eye of recruiters. This can be a coloured header, a sidebar or a professional font other than Arial or Calibri. Ensure all your section headers use the same size and font throughout, along with the body text of your resume. Make sure your resume sections and text align perfectly with each other and use the same weight, size and spacing within your text. Keep the resume size A4, and avoid coloured backgrounds and images as these are disliked by applicant tracking systems. Save your resume as a PDF and use this for your application. This ensures that when the resume is opened by a recruiter, it doesn't lose it's formatting due to compatibility issues which is common with Word and Pages. Finally, ensure your supporting documents match the design and formatting of your resume. This shows that you care about attention to detail and it looks significantly more professional. For more information on our resume writing service visit the services page of our website. Our professional resume writers are always on hand to assist with your application.