Résumés

Drafting a résumé can be an exhausting process. Everyone has a different set of rules. “Use the same font throughout! 12 point, Times New Roman or else! Don’t let them know you have a personality!” Well, this guide is here to show you that there’s no One Way to draft up a sleek, professional résumé! As long as you employ good C.R.A.P. Design principles, you’ll leave this site with an effective, sexy résumé.

One Template to Rule Them All?

Don’t let anyone tell you that there’s only One Résumé Template. Résumés come in all styles, colors, and levels of fun. As long as you keep the general feel of your field in mind, you can have some fun experimenting with your résumé! For instance, this résumé would work great for a graphic design job, but not so much for an engineering position. Likewise, this résumé belongs in a laboratory with doctors and scientists, but not in a photographer’s studio.

Plain text resume

No two résumés look the same, and that’s good! As a college student or recent graduate, you (generally) have one page to show off who you are, and why wherever you apply to should hire YOU.

Colorful design resume

Extreme Makeovers: Résumé Edition

Here are some fabulous examples of students who have taken their résumé from bland to grand by employing simple C.R.A.P. design.

Résumé Redesign #1: Taylor

Here you can see the student has given some real flair and personality to their résumé by introducing a pleasant color scheme of dark blue and light pink. She has also given her document some well-defined sections through the use of the two columns and engaging headers. The finished product is professional and creative, and more importantly, it shows off Taylor’s attentive, creative, and fun personality as she applies for jobs in the publishing and technical writing industry!

Taylor's black and white text resume Taylor's colorful design resume

Résumé Redesign #2: Amy

Amy's black and white text resume

This student (me, the student is me) has taken a résumé that is decent, and transformed it into a more stylish, attention-getting document. This is the kind of résumé that says, “Look at me! I’m the applicant you’ve been waiting for!” A simple color scheme of white, accented with maroon and pale blue, well-defined headers and sections, and clean structure takes this résumé to the next level.

Amy's colorful design resume

Résumé Redesign #3: Joseph

This student had based their original résumé off of one of those darned templates—a shining example of how templates are fine enough starting places, but ultimately don’t work for everyone.

Joseph's black and white text resume

Joseph here takes all of his info and compresses it down to one page, and it works beautifully! His new résumé shows more personality and flair than his original one, and all of the information is easily accessible. He also defines his field of interest by adding the psychology symbol to the running head of his document—a smart move if you want to be specific about what kinds of jobs you are looking for. Remember that a potential employer will have stacks of résumés to look through all the time, and you want their eyes to linger on yours!

Joseph's colorful design resume

Résumé Workshop

With a better idea of how stunning résumés might look, let’s get our hands dirty, and actually make one from the ground up! Take a look at this student's résumé redesign from one of our workshops.

For the graphic designer novice, I also recommend using Canva.com. It’s a free, easy-to-use site that allows for endless experimentation and creativity! You can also peruse the hundreds of pre-made templates they have and tweak them for your own purpose. Note that I do not recommend using the template pixel for pixel. Templates are good starting places, but you will almost always need to adjust several things before the design is perfect!

By Amy Foltz