Graphically Speaking: Okay, we're almost in the home stretch. Now it's time to add some finishing touches. There are four main techniques to consider: holding, CAPITAL IZING, o bulleting (you can substitute dashes, diamonds, boxes, arrows, checks, pointing hands, or asterisks for bullets), and italicizing. All of these will add distinction and emphasis to your text in varying degrees. Underlining, which was once popular, is not recommended because it looks sloppy, and has a nasty habit of slicing through the lower half of g's, q's, p's, y's and j's. Capitals take up a lot of space and should be used sparingly. Bullets work best for highlighting individual accomplishments. Bold print is most appropriate for category headings and other information that requires major emphasis. Italics lend a softer touch, and are effective for highlighting key information.
Whichever graphic devices you use, make sure that your design style is consistent. If you italicize your first job title, then every job title on your resume should be italicized. Don't suddenly switch to another technique. You will confuse the reader. Also be careful not to use the same graphic technique for adjacent items. For example, if you bold both your job title and the name of your employer, neither item will stand out. Highlighting key words within the body of your text is not recommended. Usually the reader can figure out for themselves what's important in a sentence. We also take a rather conservative view when it comes to adding symbols and pictures to resumes. First of all, only do this if you're applying for a creative position such as art director or graphic designer. If done well, these additions can spice up your resume and help it stand out from the crowd. If done poorly, which they usually are, they make your resume look "cutesy" and unprofessional while wasting valuable space. Remember, no one is hiring you to be cute they're hiring you to get a job done.
About the Templates: The layout templates that follow have been designed to make life a little easier for you. All the information regarding format, typeface, type size, and tab stops has been provided. For ease of presentation certain assumptions have been made regarding the categories to be included, as well as their sequence. Feel free to make modifications as you see fit.
Also, because employers vary in terms of their preference for different resume styles, each template has been rated as follows: 1=traditional, 2=moderate, and 3=artistic. The traditional styles are best for conservative fields such as accounting and banking. Moderate styles are appropriate for most fields, with the exception of those just cited. The artistic styles are best when applying for creative or artistic positions.
Good News for the Non Artist: Fortunately, designing an attractive, readable resume is not a task of Herculean proportions. Rest assured that to pull this off you need not be artistically inclined good common sense will do just fine. Once you understand the basic layout and design principles, you can't go wrong. And for those of you who would rather take the easy way out, we've provided nine time tested, time saving templates.
Production and Design Tools: Before we go any further, you'll need to have the following at your fingertips: a draft of your resume, a computer equipped with word processing software, several sheets of 8 1/2 x 11 paper, and a printer. We'll discuss printing and paper later, but for now let's turn our attention briefly to computers and software.
Please say "yes, I am proficient in one or more word processing packages." If word processing is not currently one of the skills in your repertoire, then you should put this book down and go sign up for a word processing class. Better yet, take a friend to dinner and have her teach you. The fact is that practically no matter what job you apply for, word processing will be a basic requirement.
Whether you use an IBM, PC clone, or Macintosh computer is not really an issue. Nor is it crucial which word processing package you use, so long as it has good flexibility, offers an array of typefaces (also known as fonts), and is likely to be on the market for a while. In the end, the deciding factors will probably be cost and convenience. What we can't recommend at this point, however, are any of the resume writing software packages. They just don't seem to make the process that much easier, and more importantly, they don't offer the kind of flexibility you'll need to design a first rate resume.
Commencing Your Masterpiece: Take a seat at your computer and switch it on. Insert your disk, and you're ready to rock. Remember to always save your work on your own disk, especially if you're doing your resume in a computer lab. If you've only saved on the hard drive, there's a good chance that by the next day all your work will have been deleted from the system. Create a new document and name it. If you anticipate putting together more than one version of your resume, make sure that your document names are indicative of their contents or you'll be wasting valuable time trying to figure out which document is which.
Marginally Speaking: The first thing you're going to do is set your margins. They serve two important functions. First, they act like a frame, providing a welcome border of white space around your text; and second, they serve as a built in memo pad for employers, many of whom like to make notes directly on your resume. To play it safe set your margins at one inch on all four sides. If you need extra space they can always be decreased later to a minimum of .5 inches, or if your resume is a bit on the skimpy side, they can be widened to a maximum of 1.5 inches. For the sake of balance, try to keep your margins approximately the same on all four sides.
