Recruiters take six seconds to decide whether or not to toss your resume, so the right font makes a big difference.
Your resume communicates your skills, assets and hire-ability. So if a recruiter can’t read it, or is put off by a funky font, you won’t even get a second look.
“The most important thing is that your font is scannable, easy to read,” says Amanda Augustine, career advice expert for TopResume. “Because so many recruiters are reading resumes on-the-go, you’d also be smart to chose a font that’s easy to read on a mobile device, which means a sans serif font like Arial, Tahoma or Calibri.”
With so much being made of “personal brand,” it’s natural to want to stand out or make a statement. Augustine says you can still have some style, as long as you stay with one of these 10 resume-friendly fonts, ranked in order of preference.
1. Calibri
Soft, gentle and modern, this is the default font of many email programs, so it’s familiar to the eye—and it’s a safe sans serif font.
2. Times New Roman
“For legal, operations and corporate jobs, this formal serif font is still readable electronically and goes with the brick-and-mortar feel of those industries,” says Augustine.
3. Arial
This classic sans serif font “is a great choice for creative people or those in a marketing field,” according to Augustine.
4. Verdana
Like Arial, this is another clean and modern font that’s even easier to read because of the slightly wider spacing.
5. Cambria
This is another default-type font that recruiters are familiar with, so you can’t go too wrong with it. It’s not as formal as Times New Roman, but just as dependable.
6. Garamond
More graceful than some if its sans serif friends, Garamond might suit artistic types more than bankers or executives.
7. Book Antiqua
As its name suggests, Book Antiqua would work well for professions in the arts or humanities.
8. Trebuchet MS
Friendly and round, this is probably a good choice for creative or marketing fields.
9. Arial Narrow
If you’re tight on space, this sans serif is modern and still legible even in its narrow form.
10. Didot
This has style and panache, yet it is still readable. It’s probably the most artistic font that’s still professional enough to use on your resume.
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