This is my best advice to you. Keep it simple! Your resume is not a good time to let your creative flag fly. We aren’t in art class–there is no need for your resume to be 11 different colors, 6 different fonts, and decorated with lines and clip art. You’re looking for a job in the professional world–don’t forget. Keep it simple! It’s important to get straight to the point of what your reader would want to see. As a refresher, when listing your work history our eyes are trained to look for:
Position-Company, Location;----------Dates (Start-End)
Title
Bullet (Task #1)
Bullet (Task #2)
Bullet (Task #3)
Ahhh, the magic of simplicity!
In the end, your goal is to present yourself in the best light possible and the best way to do that is to let your resume speak for itself. Chances are, your experience makes you qualified for the role you’re interested in, but your reader might get so overwhelmed by inconsistent formatting, tons of -ing and passive verbs, “responsible for’s,” colorful font, lines, and glaring spelling errors, that they bypass your resume altogether — straight to the virtual “no” pile. If it takes us more than 5 minutes to slap on Alaant letterhead and get it out to our client, that’s probably a bad sign.
Don’t let a simple grammar faux pas get in the way of your dream job!