Make your CV easy on the eye

This is the third in a new series – The Basics of Writing a CV.

First impressions can make or break your CV. If yours is packed with small, dense text without enough white space to break it up, it’s going to look uninviting. Create a visually attractive and well laid-out CV, and your reader is going to be more inclined to read on.

How long should your CV be

Expert opinions vary on ideal CV length. A good rule of thumb is one page for people with five years’ or so working experience, while those with ten or more will probably need to go to two pages. Medical or academic CVs can be much longer, with appendices for lists of publications.

But the key is to make sure your CV doesn’t look cramped. Resist the temptation to squash in as much as you can. You can either extend your CV to an extra page, or concentrate on making it more concise.

How to keep your CV concise

- avoid repetition
Consolidate your key skills at the beginning of your CV. You can title this section “Core competencies” or “Key skills” or “Key areas of expertise”. Doing this means you can avoid writing similar lists of responsibilities for each job.

- group by theme
If you’ve had a number of temp agency jobs, these can go under one heading (making the agency name the heading). You can also group skills and accomplishment by theme.

- stay focussed
You don’t need to include everything you’ve ever done on your CV. Focus on the most relevant skills, accomplishments and work history, and delete anything which is now obsolete or too far back to be of much interest. Ten to fifteen years back is generally far enough.

How to make your CV visually attractive

- avoid dense text
Don’t use long paragraphs, as it’s more difficult for your reader to scan for key information. Paragraphs should generally be no longer than two or three lines. Use double spacing to break these up. Use headings and subheadings to draw your reader’s eye down the page.

- avoid long bullet-point lists
These are just as difficult to read as dense text. Find ways of breaking up long lists, by using headings and sub-headings, or boxes with two columns, rather than just one.

- use a sensible font size
Your name should stand out, so use a larger font size for this and your contact details. The rest of your CV should be in a font size that is easy to read.

- use white space
Make sure there’s enough white space around major section headings, and between chunks of information to make the most important information stand out.

- add visual interest
Bold your headings, lightly shade boxes, include some colour to emphasise key information. Text inserts, charts and graphs can also be effective when you want to present numerical information in a striking way. See how to write a CV with impact for examples from professional resume writers

If you’ve used special design elements, consider sending your CV as a PDF, rather than as an email attachment, to make sure it displays as you intended.

Photo credit: Star Dust