You’re in the home stretch! We’re almost done creating your polished, professional resume! This is the penultimate step: personalization.
Not for you?
It’s worth noting that this step is completely skippable. The majority of what we’ll cover here will be topics like adding color, using different fonts, using a pre-made template from Microsoft Word, etc. If you don’t feel that this kind of personalization is for you that’s perfectly fine! Do check back for when we cover grammar, though. That’s going to be the final step in completing any resume, and it’s absolutely crucial – that’s where the pickiest of Hiring Managers will go to find fault. If you’re sticking around, let’s dive into the world of resume personalization!
Templates
First, let’s cover templates. So many people have no idea where to begin when writing a resume. They don’t know how to format it, what information from their past positions is the most vital, etc. Now, of course this is something that our Resume Bootcamp series strives to help with, too! But if you find a template that you love, then you should try it. They’re designed to make the process as simple as possible, and many people use them to great success.
We would just council caution for one reason: they can be a little troublesome to personalize to your exact needs. For example, you might have a lot of past positions that you want to represent on your resume, but most templates are only formatted for one page. Consequently, you might find that trying to get it to expand onto page two complicates things. This is not to say that creating a multiple page resume with a template cannot be done – far from it. We just want to be upfront about some of the drawbacks of using templates since so many people are drawn to their ease.
Playing with headings
A great way to customize your resume is to play around with your headings. Some of the most common ways we’ve seen include typing your headings in a soft, muted color, or putting them in a different, complementary font. While were here, you can also play around with the alignment of your headings, too! Try centering all of your headings on the page and see if you like it!
Columns
Columns can also help you gain visual interest while effectively using all of your white space. An excellent time to utilize columns is in your “skills” section, especially if you’re lucky and have a lot of skills to brag about. If you’ve got a lengthy list with a lot of white space on the right side of the page, consider breaking that list in half with a column and redistributing half of your bullet points on the right side of the page (it’ll shorten the overall length of your resume, too).
Just remember…
The most important thing with personalization and templates is that your information needs to be easily understandable. All the beautification and customization in the world won’t matter if the reader can’t understand the flow and content on the page.
Just one more!
You’ve almost graduated from our Resume Bootcamp! Unfortunately, there won’t be a certificate once you’ve reached the end, but you will walk away with a stellar resume! Check back for our last installment, where we’ll be covering grammar! We know it sounds dull, but making sure you have proper grammar on your resume is of the utmost importance, especially for picky Hiring Managers. It shows an attention to detail that no other aspect of your resume can and is a vital step in the process.
If you’re in the job market, head over to our Open Jobs page! We have all our open positions listed there and you can apply directly to our recruiters with your resume. And of course, even if your resume isn’t in top form, submit anyway! Our recruiters have decades of experience between them editing and polishing resumes and we’d love to hear from you!