Want Your Resume to Look Standard? Think Again
Business is learning it. Apple’s done it. Ikea and Target have ridden this horse all the way to the bank. What is it? Design. Not as accessory to the brand but integral to it. Roger Martin writes in Fast Company, “Design, in short, is becoming an ever more important engine of corporate profit: It’s no longer enough simply to outperform the competition; to thrive in a world of ceaseless and rapid change, businesspeople have to outimagine the competition as well. They must begin to think–to become–more like designers.”
What does this signify for job seekers writing their resumes? That it’s a good idea to pay attention, not just to content, but to how you get your message across visually. Using a Word template? Hiring authorities have seen thousands of them. Using a traditional style of resume may just fail to capture attention. If you are seeking a $100K+ job, do you think an ordinary design is going to help? Make no mistake, if your resume design looks cheesy, you are not apt to be taken as seriously as someone whose resume conveys, through its design and content, that the person has a sought-after value proposition.
What does a design-driven resume look like? There are as many designs as there are creative people developing them. But one tip is to take a look at how various media present information. I occasionally take a design idea from The Boston Globe or Wired Magazine. For my IT and life sciences clients, I want the look to be fresh and edgy. Sometimes I will follow their leads by using sidebars with pithy short news items listed. It’s a great way to get across brand by highlighting key achievements and qualifications. If you look at how Wired Magazine communicates, you’ll notice information communicated in visual chunks distinguished by placement, color, and font. You can skip the color and proceed with unusual placement and text blocks.
But make sure your design matches your brand. If you are in a creative field, use the design of your resume to reflect your ability to be creative. If you are an accountant, you might want to err on the side of a conservative design – the resume equivalent of a conservative business suit: original and high-end, but sober and serious.
So, given a choice, would you rather your resume be a Target or a Kohl’s? I know my preference.
By Jean Cummings and courtesy of CareerHub.com. The Career Hub blog connects job seekers with experts in career counseling, resume writing, personal branding and recruiting.
