Back to the Basics: Seven Secrets of Effective Font Selection

Over the course of my ten plus years as an executive recruiter, career management expert, and resume writer I have come across some really terrific resumes and some that really tanked. The ones that worked were obviously well prepared and made use of some simple tactics. In this Back to the Basic series, I will start with fonts because good font selection makes for a great resume.

Consider the following in your resume development.

1. Illegible text: Just recently, a client sent me his old resume along with some other materials so I could get to work on new materials for him. The font actually appeared to be medieval. It was nearly impossible to read.
2. Too much emphasis: The same client opted to emphasize all the text. The entire resume was bold. Honestly, I wonder if he ever got any calls from employers for interviews.
3. Creative and special fonts: Be mindful of obscure fonts. Going out to a website called World’s Largest Font Selection might seem like a great idea. And, your resume would probably look gorgeous on your end. However, if your reader is opening the document using an older version of software, you might be in trouble. Your reader might end up with garbage on his/her end.
4. Font size: Font size 11 is what I consider a best practice – generally Arial and Times New Roman look good using an 11 font. It is okay to go with a size 10 or size 12 font in some circumstances. However, Garamond and Perpetua are relatively small fonts, so I would not suggest using a 10 size when using either of these fonts. Consider removing verbiage if necessary so you’ll be able to go with a legible font size.  Palatino Linotype and Book Antiqua are larger fonts. So, I would not use a 12 size font when using either Palatino Linotype or Book Antiqua because at some point, a larger font starts looking childish.
5. Font variety: A general rule of thumb when writing a resume is to stick with one or two fonts. When you use too many fonts the resume starts to look chaotic and can cause reader eye fatigue.
6. Font color: Try to stick with black in the body of the resume. Grey can look great on the computer, but it can be difficult to read when printed. Also, if you plan on using a color within the body of the resume, consider going with color only in the name and in the headings – not everywhere.  Really, I like to keep font color to the candidate name only.
7. Font style by profession: Choose a font appropriate to your profession. There is no hard fast rule here – you can select any font you like for your profession. However, I like to use sans-serif fonts, which are the ones without the trailing features for technical, scientific, and trade related professions.  For medical (most), education, and communications professions, I like to use serif fonts. Here is an example of a sans-serif font: “G,g” and an example of a serif font: “G,g,” hopefully you can see the difference. In my mind serif fonts are more formal and sans-serif fonts have a cleaner look.

It is interesting how fonts can make such an impact on a document. It is a pretty important part of the resume design and development strategy. Using the right font can lead to a highly effective presentation and a call from a perspective employer.  Make the right selections and you’ll be on your way to a job you love.

Other Articles of Interest:

Resume Writing Tips

Writing a Good Resume

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