Resume formatting demystified
(+ free examples)

How to format your resume in 2024

A well-crafted resume is crucial for catching the attention of potential employers. It serves as your personal marketing tool, showcasing your skills, experiences, and qualifications. While the content of your resume is important, the way it is formatted can significantly impact its effectiveness. A poorly formatted resume may not only fail to impress hiring managers but could also hinder your chances of landing an interview. In this blog post, we will demystify resume formatting and provide you with strategies to create a professional and polished resume that stands out from the crowd.

Your resume is often the first impression you make on employers, and a visually appealing and well-organized format can leave a lasting positive impact. Effective resume formatting helps highlight your strengths and accomplishments, making it easier for employers to quickly grasp your qualifications. It ensures that your key information is presented in a logical and easy-to-read manner, facilitating a seamless review process for recruiters and hiring managers who often have limited time to evaluate numerous resumes.

The resume also serves as a tool for networking and professional presentation. MBA graduates often participate in career fairs, networking events, and recruitment activities. A well-crafted resume makes a positive impression on industry professionals, recruiters, and alumni, facilitating valuable connections, internships, and job interviews. By showcasing achievements, highlighting tangible results, and presenting a polished, error-free resume, MBA graduates demonstrate their professionalism and attention to detail.

By mastering resume formatting, you can create a document that not only looks professional but also effectively communicates your value as a candidate. Proper formatting enhances the readability of your resume, enabling employers to quickly identify your relevant skills and experiences. It helps guide the reader's attention to the most important sections and details, ensuring that your achievements and qualifications are front and center. In the competitive job market, a well-formatted resume can make all the difference in securing interviews and advancing your career aspirations.

In the following sections, we will delve into the key strategies for effective resume formatting, including structuring your resume, optimizing readability, highlighting key information, and leveraging online tools and templates. With these insights and actionable tips, you will be well-equipped to create a professional and polished resume that stands out to employers in today's competitive job market.

1. Start with a Clear and Consistent Structure

Begin by organizing your resume with a clear and consistent structure. Use headings, subheadings, and sections to categorize your information effectively. Common sections include "Professional Summary," "Work Experience," "Education," and "Skills." Keep the structure consistent throughout your resume to maintain a professional appearance.

When structuring your resume, consider the order of sections based on what is most relevant to the job you're applying for. If you have extensive work experience, place that section before your education. On the other hand, if you're a recent graduate or changing careers, highlighting your education or relevant coursework may be more beneficial. Tailor the structure of your resume to highlight your strengths and align with the needs of the position.

2. Optimize Readability with Proper Font and Formatting

Choosing the right font and formatting is essential for enhancing readability. Select a clean and professional font such as Arial, Calibri, or Times New Roman. These fonts are widely accepted and easy to read on various devices. Additionally, use a font size between 10 and 12 points for the main content and slightly larger for headings to ensure legibility.

Consistency in formatting is key to creating a polished resume. Maintain consistent spacing and alignment throughout the document. Use appropriate margins to provide ample white space, which improves readability and prevents the resume from feeling cluttered. Justify your text or align it to the left for a clean and professional appearance.

Best fonts for resume writing

Some resume fonts might look fancy and visually appealing when seen in a small sentence, but can become very difficult to read when put together on a document that runs along and across into several small sections with varying font sizes and colors. Your best bet is to stick to conventional fonts auch as Times New Roman, Arial and Calibri etc. Here is a list of best fonts most suitable for your resume, showing how your career objective statement would look in different fonts.

3. Highlight Key Information with Strategic Formatting

Strategic formatting helps draw attention to essential information on your resume. Use techniques such as bolding, italics, and underline sparingly to emphasize critical details. For example, you can bold your job titles and company names to make them stand out, or italicize specific certifications or course names. This formatting technique guides the reader's eyes and helps them quickly identify key sections and accomplishments.

While formatting can enhance your resume, it's important not to overdo it. Excessive use of formatting can make your resume appear cluttered and unprofessional. Reserve formatting for significant achievements, relevant keywords, and key sections, while keeping the overall design clean and readable.

You can see in the snapshot of a great resume, how the candidate has clearly highlighted key sections in her resume.

1. Repositories: If you are in a technical domain where you create or develop - be it designs, product prototypes, essays, articles, etc... you should consider including a bunch of respositories where the recruiter can see your creations. This example is from a Web Developer resume so the candidate shows repositories with the links so the recruiter can click and view them easily. A side point here is if you are in a technical domain and if you don't have respositories yet in the public domain, you are better off slowly creating a couple of them.

2. Project Skills: You can see the candidate has spearated her skills into two sections: Project skills and Soft Skills. Basically, it is a good idea to show techncial skills and soft skills separately. You could wonder why this candidate didn't call this section Technical Skills; knowing this resume well, we know this candidate already has a separate section full of logos of the technonologies she is good at. So, if you are a project manager, you can call the technical skills Project Management Skills, and if you are an Automotive components Designer, call it Design Skills, etc. Naming appropriately on a key word that you find on the job description abd separating key technical skills from generic soft skills immediately highlights your technical depth and will help catch the recruiter's attention quickly.

3. Soft Skills: Even for hardcore technical jobs like web development, etc. soft skills have become an integral part of screening and assessment processes, so it is important that you highlight the soft skills that are most occuring on the job description. If the job description mentions team work and leadership a lot, you should consider including them in the list of soft skill, well, assuming you are feeling confident that you possess them, of course.

4. Create an Impactful Professional Summary or Objective Statement

Your professional summary or objective statement is a concise introduction that captures the attention of hiring managers. Craft a compelling statement that highlights your relevant skills, experiences, and career goals. Tailor this section to align with the specific job you're applying for, emphasizing the value you can bring to the role.

In your professional summary or objective statement, focus on your unique selling points and what sets you apart from other candidates. Use action-oriented language to convey your capabilities and achievements. By crafting an impactful summary, you create a strong first impression and encourage employers to delve further into your resume.

5. Use Bullets and Formatting for Achievements and Responsibilities

When describing your work experience and accomplishments, use bullet points to enhance readability and highlight key details. Begin each bullet point with a strong action verb to convey your responsibilities and achievements in a concise and impactful manner. Focus on quantifiable achievements whenever possible, such as increasing sales by a certain percentage, leading a successful project with specific outcomes, or receiving recognition for your contributions.

The resume templates we have created all follow these simple guidelines. If you have not checked them out, take a look at Resume Formats

In addition to bullets, consider utilizing formatting techniques such as bold or italics to draw attention to significant achievements or standout responsibilities. This helps break up the text and allows employers to quickly scan and grasp the key points of each position.

My one more tip is that you do not spend a lot of the space on your resume, listing responsibilities - it can be best 1 sentence of two lines. The most of the space under your work experiences should be dedicated to achievements. Same goes for fresh colege graduate resumes - when listing your internship or projects, focus on including what you achieved during your internship and projects rather than listing down only your roles and responsibilities.

The example resume you see here is a great illustration of how to include work achievements under work experience section. The candidate focuses on achievements rather than listing down responsibilities. You can also see how well the candidate has quantified the benefits. Do not include quantified benefits that you are contractually obligated not to reveal from past professional engagements. Depending on the sensitivity, some organizations might want you to refrain from putting down on your resume specific details such as sales, revenue, marketing expenditure, etc.

6. Utilize White Space and Proper Margins

White space refers to the empty space between sections, paragraphs, and lines of text. It plays a crucial role in enhancing the visual appeal and readability of your resume. Avoid cramming too much information into a limited space, as it can make your resume appear cluttered and overwhelming.

Ensure adequate margins around the content to create a balanced and visually pleasing layout. The standard margin size is typically 1 inch on all sides. Slightly wider margins can be used if you need more space for white space or if you have additional information to include.

7. Customize Your Resume for Each Application

Tailoring your resume for each job application is essential to demonstrate your fit and interest in the specific role. Customize the content, keywords, and even the formatting to align with the requirements and preferences of the job posting. This shows employers that you have taken the time to understand their needs and showcases your attention to detail.

Review the job description carefully and incorporate relevant keywords and skills throughout your resume. This helps your resume pass through applicant tracking systems (ATS) and increases your chances of getting noticed by human reviewers. Additionally, adjust the order and emphasis of your sections based on the job requirements, placing the most relevant information prominently.

8. Seek Feedback and Proofread Thoroughly

Before finalizing your resume, seek feedback from trusted friends, mentors, or career advisors. They can provide valuable insights, identify areas for improvement, and offer suggestions to enhance your resume's formatting and content. Another set of eyes can catch errors, inconsistencies, or unclear information that you may have overlooked.

Once you have made the necessary revisions, proofread your resume thoroughly to ensure it is error-free. Spelling mistakes, grammatical errors, or formatting inconsistencies can create a negative impression on employers. Use spell-check tools, read the document aloud, and consider asking someone else to review it as well.

Having a friend proof-read your resume can be very beneficial. You can return the favor by proof-reading their resume.

Remember, content wins ayday over a great template. So as much as you focus on the style and formatting your resume, do not ignore the quality of the content. A high quality content does not mean degrees and certifications from top universities; a high quality resume just means it captures very well for easy reading all the competencies the candidate has to offer. By thoughtfully considering and expanding on these sections in your resume, you can effectively highlight your qualifications, experiences, and achievements to impress potential employers and increase your chances of securing job interviews in the competitive job market.

We have put together a variety of resume templates for use from recent colelge graduats to experienced professionals, helping highlight technical skills, project experiences and hobbies and interests. You can see some of them below.

Ready to use MBA Resume Samples