There are many things to consider when writing your resume; what to include, what’s best left out, how to make yourself look good without appearing full of yourself, editing the content so that it makes its point without dragging on forever, etc. But have you ever thought about the importance of using the right font? It’s matters more than you might think. It could make the difference between clearing the first hurdle in the interview process or floundering.
It’s best to use a Resume font that is familiar, such as those in the Serif and Sans Serif family, but that are not overused and boring, like New Times Roman and Arial. The Serif font Georgia and Sans Serif font Veranda are good alternatives. Also, be sure your font choice translates as intended on different platforms. For example, some fonts designed for Windows do not work for Macintosh. Whimsical or unusual fonts like Comic Sans should be avoided as they might create the appearance that you are not taking the job seriously and/or not treating your prospective employer with due respect. Finally, font size should be kept in the 10-12 point range for the body of the document and 12-14 for subheadings. Anything smaller may be hard to read, while larger fonts can look too aggressive or amateurish.
Navigating the challenges inherent in finding that job that was made for you is difficult enough, why make it harder by overlooking a basic element that’s easy to get right? Making sure that you have the proper choice of font will ensure that your resume is both more attractive and easier for the reader to understand.
So imagine you are a hiring manager. On your desk are 100 received resumes so naturally the ones that will receive the best attention need to incorporate a number of important features and the top of that list is that it must be easily readable or your application may fall at the first hurdle. So keep the fonts simple and make it large enough to read but not too large and you will clear that first hurdle.
Steve Blythe (Recruitment and Social Media Commentator).