Do Fonts Really Matter?

Nancy Anderson
Posted by in Career Advice


A job seeker needs every possible advantage against other candidates. Details that have gotten down to a science include networking, researching a prospective employer and composing the perfectly concise cover letter. Even something as simple as the type of font on your resume may help you land the job of your dreams.

A 2015 report from Bloomberg indicates the type of font you put on a resume may actually give you an advantage over another job seeker. Stand out from the crowd by moving away from default fonts such as Times New Roman. Otherwise, you may as well wear sweatpants to the interview.

Avoid a fancy font that includes cursive letters such as Zapfino. These scripts appear too much like a wedding invitation. Do not try to invite a potential company to an event when the opposite occurs during a job search. You want an HR manager to invite you to the interview, not send someone at the company best wishes. Cursive scripts connote greeting cards, and your resume does not convey those kinds of feelings.

Do not use a font that appears to come from a typewriter. You have a computer, so it is okay to branch out and use a different type of font that does not appear boring or pretentious. The Courier font looks like you inserted paper into an old-style typewriter and plugged away for a few hours. Add some whiteout to make the document look more authentic.

The best font does not use little feet at the end of letters, a style known as sans-serif. Helvetica and Garamond represent simple, clear letters that convey professionalism and communicate in a straightforward way. Human eyes have little trouble distinguishing letters in these two fonts, so your reader's eyes do not have to strain as much. Look over your document before you submit it to an employer. If you have to strain to see something, perhaps you should alter the font.

Tailor your type of font to the industry or company. A graphic design resume could actually stand out with fancier, non-cursive scripts. A curriculum vitae for a lawyer's office should probably look like the same typeface used for legal documents submitted to a court system. If possible, mimic the typeface used on a company website or company logo.

Vary from one type of font to another between your resume headings and resume text. Use one style, such as Helvetica, for all headings and then another, such as Garamond, for the text underneath the headings. This way, your text breaks the monotony from one section to the next. Make your headings stand out by using boldface, and increasing the font size, versus regular text.

As a job seeker, one type of font may impress a prospective employer. Make your resume clear to read, easy to follow and look professional by choosing a nonstandard typeface that remains aesthetically pleasing.


Photo courtesy of David Castillo Dominici at FreeDigitalPhotos.net

 

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  • Nancy Anderson
    Nancy Anderson

    @Karen it is very distressing when you have a technical issue to resolve and the person on the other end of the phone can't understand what I am saying! Not to mention that I can't understand what they are saying, either. It is a shame that companies resort to that to save a few bucks. From my viewpoint, they aren't saving but losing because I will move on to someone else or to another product or company. Knowing how we feel when we deal with an issue like that only makes me want to present the best possible front to an employer - offering a great looking resume as well as making sure that it is grammatically correct and the fonts are pleasing to the eye.

  • KAREN O'KEEFE
    KAREN O'KEEFE

    !! Karen - I got a good laugh when I read Howard's post! Then Nathan's post didn't make any sense, and Upendra obviously is struggling with her English. I'm always amazed that so many jobs are outsourced considering that their English is generally terrible and they are so hard to understand on the phone. Too many U.S. companies are sacrificing quality by hiring the cheapest labor that they can find which, more often than not, means hiring a foreigner.

  • Karen Mercy
    Karen Mercy

    Howard, if your resume looks anything like your post does I am personally surprised that you have ever had a job. You have one long, run on sentence when in actuality it could have been broken up into two to three paragraphs. Just saying.....

  • Nancy A.
    Nancy A.

    @Howard what you are saying is true - content is extremely important. However this is the first "impression" that the prospective employer has of you. Do you want it to a resume that is messy and basically unreadable? When you go for an interview, you wouldn't go in wearing jeans and a tank top. No, since it's their first impression of you (in person), you want to dress appropriately. It's the same with your resume. Nuts or not, isn't it better to err on the side of caution when it comes to your future?

  • howard schneider
    howard schneider

    Having a niceley printed resume is great but when people not pick on things like where ur header is ie in the center top or to the left side is nuts first of all different people like different things so how am i suppose to know what they like and another thing should'nt employers be looking at your work experience more then how your reume is laid out to me it is more important to know if someone has the experience rather how he/she has there resume laid out people who make decisions based on how ur resume is laid rather you have the experience or not for that position shoukd rethink there prorities when searching for employees I'll tell u the truth if u judge me by how my resume is laid out rather then my work experience then I would rather not work for you cause that shows me you will hire someone over me cause they have there resume laid out the way u like it whether they have the experience or not very dangerous cause if they do not have the experience they can hurt someone including themselves and also you could have passed up on a really great worker I know this cause this happened to me once and after they hired that other guy who did have the experience and did hurt someone they called me and I turned the job down

  • Nathan Basanese
    Nathan Basanese

    // , They shouldn't matter. That's what matters, to me. I'm not a superficial person.

  • UPENDRA SARAGADAM
    UPENDRA SARAGADAM

    Yes Fonts are important when we writing a resume

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