Getting Creative – Do or Don’t?

In the past few weeks I’ve seen a steady increase of “out of the box” designs for resumes, ranging from including .jpeg images to making two or three columns of text instead of the usual linear format.

Whether this is because students feel these designs better represent who they are, or because they feel like a more creative design might catch an employer’s eye (and thus get them in for an interview), I can’t be sure.

So what should you do?

Through my conversations with students I’ve come up with a few opinions on the matter. I think creativity is wonderful, and I also think, bottom line, that your resume needs to represent you to the best of its ability, whatever that may be. However, I think some general things need to be taken into consideration.

If you’re not following a linear format, your information still needs to be clear, straight forward, and easy to find. An employer is only going to spend about 15-20 seconds looking at you resume, so if they can’t find where you worked, when you worked, what you did, and where you went to school in that time period you’re toast.

Also keep in mind too that many employers have a different idea of what’s appropriate than you do. Unless you’re getting recommended through a friend or have inside knowledge of the company, you can’t be entirely sure who is going to be looking at your resume. And, for all you know, you could get Mr. “By-The-Book” HR guy who probably wont be pleased with your deviation from the norm.

In the end it’s a matter of your own personal values. Your resume needs to show who you are, so do what you need to do to accomplish that. Just keep in mind too that you’re not the only one who will be looking at that resume, so make the decision that’s best for you.

If you’ve got any questions about your resume, or formatting in general, please stop by the Career Services Center in UC 403 and have either Seghel or I, or one of the counselors, take a look. We’d be happy to talk about this in more detail with you.

Best of luck,
Sarah