

“You have to think carefully about what to say and how to say it so the hiring manager thinks, ‘This person can do what I need done,’” she says. Don’t think you’re going to sit down and hammer it out in an hour. “There’s nothing quick or easy about crafting an effective resume,” says Jane Heifetz, a resume expert and founder of Right Resumes. Should you keep it to one page? Do you put a summary up top? Do you include personal interests and volunteer gigs? And how do you make it stand out, especially when you know the hiring manager is receiving tons of applications? This may be your best chance to make a good first impression, so you’ve got to get it right. To get your resume content in order, check out this article from CIO.com on streamlining your executive resume or our post on how to write a resume that works.The resume: there are so many conflicting recommendations out there. Whether you design your own resume format or use one of our executive resume templates, we highly recommend you consider these styling best practices. Color used sparingly and only on headings or candidate name.No photos or graphics used anywhere in the document.Minimum one-inch margin on each side with minimum of.Avoids the use of ALL CAPS for section headings (they actually de-emphasize the text).For designs where two fonts are used, one sans serif and one serif font is used so the fonts look deliberately distinct.No more than two fonts used (one for headings and another for body content).

Body copy font size of 11 or 12 points for easy reading.Our templates adhere to these design and styling best practices: Our resume templates use classic or contemporary designs to appeal to today’s corporate and best search firm recruiters. Executive resume formatting best practices Key takeaway: top-performing resumes have simple layouts and plenty of white space. Two column designs actually give you less space to describe your qualifications which isn’t ideal. While they continue to improve their accuracy over time, it’s simply too big of a risk that your resume will look like a jumbled mess or the system will decide you’re not a match for the position because it couldn’t parse out the relevant content from your resume. Our research tells us that most applicant tracking systems struggle with two column designs, non-standard fonts, graphics, and tables. Understandably, you don’t want your resume to be perceived as boring, so you do need to put in some effort into your design, layout and font choices.Īlso, keep in mind that most resumes are entered into an applicant tracking system, and this can be a huge problem when you use a trendy resume format. You won’t get an interview if the hiring manager can’t read your resume.Īt the executive level in particular, you can’t go wrong with a simple, classically elegant resume design. Unless you’re applying for a job in a field like graphic design, it’s better to stick to a resume in a basic format with a simple, black, sans-serif font. Just as you would never hire an executive recruiter or resume writer to design your logo, you shouldn’t rely solely on a graphic designer for your resume design.Īs we’ve explained in our article on top resume mistakes, incorporating fancy graphs, charts, colors or images into your resume may capture a recruiter’s attention, but it might not be for the right reason.Įlaborately-designed resumes are often more difficult to decipher and cause the reader to have to hunt for relevant information. Keep in mind that many of the people who profit from selling creative resume templates are designers without any experience as a hiring manager. While that may be true, our experience tells us that these templates are largely ineffective for actually landing interviews. These highly designed styles are touted as being more eye-catching.

These formats typically include two-column designs, substantial use of color, non-standard sections and layouts, and fancy fonts or bar graphs to indicate skill levels. There are all sorts of resume templates available on the internet we’re seeing a trend towards more creative formats being used, even by executives. What you need to know about selecting an effective executive resume template

Executive resume formatting best practices.What you need to know about selecting an effective executive resume template.
