vWhat is one font you would recommend using for a professional resume?
To help you find a good font for your professional resume, we asked HR experts and business leaders this question for their thoughts. Keep reading to learn the science behind sans serif fonts and why two business leaders highly recommend a font as simple as Arial.
Here are ten great fonts to use for a professional resume:
- Lora
- Garamond
- Arial 10
- Arial
- Sans Serif
- Georgia, Calibri
- Times New Roman
- Choose One That Compliments Your Personality And The Position
- Railway
- Helvetica
Lora
After working in the business school’s career center at my university, I always recommend the basics because I know they are perceived well by employers! While Times New Roman is always the go-to, I recommend Lora, which is a Google font. Coming from Google itself, it is described as “a well-balanced contemporary serif with roots in calligraphy. It is a text typeface with moderate contrast well suited for body text.”
Kayla Centeno, Markitors
Garamond
Garamond is a great font for more academic resumes or those with several years of experience. Garamond is an old-style font that looks clean and professional when used in a resume. Resumes should always feature a standard font that is easy to read, so Garamond fits the standard!
Jon Schneider, Recruiterie
Arial 10
Arial 10. This is a very clean, easy-to-read font, and it’s the font we see most frequently in the 20,000+ resumes we receive each year at Freedom Financial Network.
Heather Marcom, Freedom Financial Network
Arial
Our recruitment team reviews a high volume of resumes for a variety of roles, but due to the nature of our business, the majority of our time is spent looking at resumes from IT professionals. For this reason, we recommend using a simple font like Arial. Considered a classic, Arial is very versatile. For one, it can appear to be a variety of different fonts simply by changing the font size. Arial also provides a lot of contrast once bolded. This allows for clear headings and emphasis so that the job seeker can easily highlight certain tools or technologies they have experience within their resume.
Alex Arkarakas, KUBRA
Sans Serif
Sans serif fonts tend to work well for resumes. On our website and in our insurance policies, we use a sans serif font called Varela Round, a Google font that translates well to digital and physical resume formats. The font has rounded corners, giving it a soft feel, and works great for both headlines and body text. While Varela Round is our preferred font, make sure that the font you choose can have the same appearance on the web and offline.
Brandon Berglund, Berglund Insurance
Georgia, Calibri
Whether you know it or not, recruiters go through hundreds of resumes per week. With that said, ensuring you use a font that is easy to read is crucial; their eyes do get tired after a while. My top two recommended fonts are Georgia and Calibri. They’re not a fancy font that Elle Woods might have used on a resume, but simple fonts go a long way.
Bianka Castillo, Recruiting Maven
Times New Roman
Times New Roman is clean and professional and is often the standard for publishing. Why? Because it is easy to read. You don’t want the font to be distracting. You want your accomplishments and experience to jump off the page, not be hidden with emojis or an unprofessional font. Keep it simple and clean.
Lorraine Bossé-Smith, Concept One LLC
Choose One That Compliments Your Personality And The Position
The look of your resume is going to vary based on your personality and the position you’re applying for. You should choose a font that compliments both. Ultimately, the content of your resume is more important than appearance. You want to choose a font that is professional, legible, and accessible. Make sure your font and colors aren’t too light, that your font size isn’t too small, and that there’s a comfortable amount of space between each letter. Size 12 is typically standard for the body of the resume, and if you’re unsure of your font, it’s probably best to stick with Times New Roman, Helvetica, or Garamond.
Maia Kelly, TechnologyAdvice
Railway
Unfortunately, most people skim when reviewing resumes, so why not create your resume in an easy-to-see font like Raleway. It is clean and expressive in its design and feels more inviting. Plus, the slim but larger print is easier on the eyes, the font transitions into capital letters well, and will help your information stand out from other resumes.
LT Ladino Bryson, vCandidates
Helvetica
There are tons of fonts from which to choose in programs like Google Docs, MS Word, etc. But when it comes to resumes and CVs, I would highly recommend you stick with one of the standards. Fonts like: Arial, Times Roman, Calibri, and Helvetica. These are fonts that look very nice and professional, readable, and widely used and installed on systems. It’s important to note that Helvetica has been a standard Mac font since its early days and will typically convert to Arial on PCs.
Ronald Auerbach, Job Search Expert and Career Coach
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