In this four-part series I am going to address the main components of a resume — Header, Summary, Experience, and Education — to tell you how you can improve your resume and stand out from your competition.
The top third of your resume is the most important part and usually consists of the header and summary. Today we are going to address how to improve the header, or letterhead portion of your resume.
One simple way to stand out from the crowd with your resume is to design a professional looking masthead for your resume. The majority of resumes I see have the person’s contact information presented like this:
While there is nothing eminently wrong with this, it does not stand out in any way. Stacking the data in this way also takes up precious space.
Besides your name, which should be the focal point of the header, there are many other pieces of data that you could include. In the example above, it includes the physical street address. This is something that I am seeing less and less in modern-day resumes. It is not critical to your candidacy to have your physical address, and for companies looking for candidates within a certain distance of their location, the city, state, and zip code will suffice. Other pieces of data you may wish to include are:
- Personal website URL
- LinkedIn URL or other online profile
- Blog
- Twitter handle
- Portfolio URL
- Availability for relocation
The main goal of the header is to include the most pertinent information so someone can contact you, but not overwhelm the person with too many options. For example, I recommend only using one phone number instead of both a home and a cell phone. And, if you are going to include a Twitter handle or another online URL, you better be sure all the information there is professional and adds to your credibility as a candidate.
In order to spice up the header a bit the Borders and Shading function of Word will become your friend. For those of you who are novices in Word, you can do just a few simple things to dress up your header. In the example below, I put the name in small caps, added a tab to right justify the email and phone number, and added a border of a .5 pt. line underneath.
With the right font treatment and adding a bit of color you can even use the header to address a little of your personality. In the header below using all lowercase letters gives a bit of design flair. It could also appear less professional so you’d likely only want to use it for a position where creativity is a desired skill.
The next two headers have some bold elements in them, which help interpret that these candidates mean business.
For a more traditional look use a serif font and center all the content. The simple line under the name in the next example helps set off the name and appear more executive.
The right justification of the name in this final example demonstrates that this job seeker isn’t afraid to do things a little different. The name is balanced nicely with the shaded area with the contact data. By using icons to represent phone, email, web, and location also make this header a little more fun.
One thing to note about using special characters like the icons or shading above is this treatment will not render correctly when submitting your resume online. It is also best to have each piece of contact data on a separate line for the version of your resume you are applying online.
Bonus tip: Keep your email address and web URLs hyperlinked, but get rid of the underline Word automatically does. Highlight the link and click the Underline button twice.
Which type treatment attracts the most attention for you? Let us know in the comments below. Next week will be How to Write a Great Resume, Part 2 of 4 — the Summary.
