CMU School of Drama


Wednesday, September 27, 2006

The 7 deadly sins of resumé design

lifehack.org: "We’ve covered articles about how to improve your resume’s content. How about the design aspect of it? It is equally important to give a professional feeling. Another problem is that the design gets too fancy. LifeClever describes 7 deadly sins of resume design"

6 comments:

Anonymous said...

There are so many different rules on resume design....I have heard to make them stand out with large headers and boldened names, different fonts for each section, no funny-business with plain divisions...when will it end? I think that generalizing the way a resume should be made is just talking in circles. Lets just face it that MAYBE in this realm, we have many different standards. Art/Design People like stylized fonts and unique composition while the business world wants stiff and rigid. I think that those guidelines given could work for you if that is what you want to portray about yourself. Find a style that works for you and stick with it.

Anonymous said...

As short as this article was, it was really useful. From my experience, production people put a lot of emphasis on making paperwork pretty. I sadly am not one who is so into pictures and colors and all the other extra pretty things one can put on paper. I think as long as all the important information is there and the format is clear enough to be understood and read, the paperwork is good. This is basically what the article was saying a good resume should be/is. Make the person reading it want to actually read it, not just admire it as a piece of artwork.
-Natasha Alejandro

Anonymous said...

All I can say is thank god that someone finally came out and said it! I have seen so many resumes that people have gone out of the way to make it stand out or make it look different thatn others. The purpose of the document is to communicate your credits and experience, not express yourself. Sometimes the formatting and decoration just gets in the way. If you want to show your creative ability, present a portfolio.

Anonymous said...

I have read and filed numerous resumes for job applications. Clarity - before design and content - is for me the most important element of a good resume. A little pizzaz can help your resmue pop, but going overboard with fonts, headers, graphics, etc. is a major deterrent. The one thing that confused me about the article is the fact that Times New Roman is taboo. In the computing world it is considered the standard - so is it so ordinary that it's bad to use or is there another reason I am missing altogether? - Maddie Regan

Anonymous said...

I was surprised at the recommendation against printing on an inkjet. I own an inkjet printer. Why is it taboo?
And I will admit I shamelessly purchased a packet of nice resume paper when on my last job hunt...

Anonymous said...

Business resumes and artistic resumes are most definitely different. For artistic position, the design of the resume can be critical, as it does reflect your personal design ethics. The Set Designer for PCPA particularly looked at the choice of fonts when choosing Design Interns for this reason. However I doubt it was a factor when I applied to be a carpenter however.