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Ask HN: Resumes that look good but professional too

122 points by kreeWall ↗ HN
Share the format you use for your resume so that it looks good, but still professional. All of my "creative" friends (graphic designers, marketing people) have cool resumes, but mine is boring. What did you use to make yours look good?

85 comments

[ 3.6 ms ] story [ 164 ms ] thread
fencepost
I don't want to post mine, but I just followed Clippy's advice on what would look good.
bernardino
Definitely recommend LaTeX:

- Templates: https://www.rpi.edu/dept/arc/training/latex/resumes/

- For generating the resume, and minor custimizations: https://www.sharelatex.com/

- For generating the resume, and advanced customization: http://pages.uoregon.edu/koch/texshop/

pbnjay
I used Google Docs. Boring is OK, it's more important that the critical info is easy to find (e.g. it is well laid out and easy to read).
toomuchtodo
Combination of LinkedIn and MS Word for Mac.
_ah
Counterpoint: be careful about going too far into the "cool" spectrum. When I've been hiring, the best-looking resumes were often the least qualified. If you're a visual artist, then sure, go nuts! But if you're a technical person then stick to the basics. Forcing someone to decode your pie chart to understand your skills is not a way to win points with a hiring manager. Go for bullet points, short sentences, correct grammar, and no spelling mistakes.
wickawic
For better or worse I index the opposite way. My CV is a markdown doc wrapped in the absolute minimum html/js to render it as a web page. If viewed as text it is perfectly readable sans a single line of css gobldeygook, if viewed as a web page it’s also perfectly readable.
nilkn
As a hiring manager I've often noticed the same. There's a weak positive correlation between candidate quality and the resume being one page in LaTeX. There's a weak negative correlation between candidate quality and the resume being very graphically fancy. That said, I try to completely forget these correlations when reviewing resumes because it's just not fair to anyone for me to go into the process with preconceptions like those.
exolymph
The simpler the better. Prioritize readability over visual coolness. (Unless you're in a design field.)
DoreenMichele
Even if you are in a design field. If you can't make it both cool and readable, you aren't that good.
exolymph
Agreed, but I'm not sure whether the hiring norms go along with that principle.
[deleted]
(comment deleted)
jowiar
I know this is possibly going a bit too far, but learning the basics of typography/design goes a long way.

https://practicaltypography.com is a pretty nice introduction on the topic, but overall, if there's any one major thing to keep in mind,

It's this:

Use white space.

The difference between something that looks thrown together and something that looks professional often come down to simply giving a shit about where text is and where text isn't. Does it look good? No? Try again.

Beyond that, don't go crazy with fonts. Two-maybe three weights/variants of one typeface will probably be sufficient -- I've generally found it's a lot easier for an amateur to make things that don't suck when they aren't trying to pair fonts.

z1mm32m4n
I want to second this. The number one problem with resumes is that they all focus on the positive space: craming as much text and non-data-ink onto the page as possible.

Let your main point breathe.

Also: use a professional typeface. Recruiters look at Times New Roman, Arial, and Computer Modern all day. Try Avenir, Garamond, or San Francisco. Maybe even pay for a font license.

> And fi­nally, font choice. The fastest, eas­i­est, and most vis­i­ble im­prove­ment you can make to your ty­pog­ra­phy is to ig­nore the fonts that came free with your com­puter (known as sys­tem fonts) and buy a pro­fes­sional font (like my fonts eq­uity and con­course, or oth­ers found in font rec­om­men­da­tions). A pro­fes­sional font gives you the ben­e­fit of a pro­fes­sional de­signer’s skills with­out hav­ing to hire one.

— https://practicaltypography.com/typography-in-ten-minutes.ht...

fuzzythinker
I use html and css, I like its simplicity yet elegant look.

https://johnleung.com/resume (pdf format is linked there as well)

Template originally used by https://resume.stavros.io/ Which seems like he's not using anymore. His current one looks good too.

rileyt
Here is my resume: https://standardresume.co/rileyt

It's built using Standard Resume [1], a tool that I built with two designers to answer exactly this question.

I would love any feedback on the resume style, as we are contemplating adding a few alternate styles to choose from.

[1] https://standardresume.co/

thestephen
This is a great tool!

I noted, though, that the Linkedin import didn't seem to work flawlessly – after uploading, I was redirected to the resume list and I have no clue of what actually happened.

Would you like more feedback?

rileyt
sorry about that. linkedin changed their pdf export a bit yesterday and it broke our import. should be fixed today or tomorrow.

would love any other feedback you have. did you end up completing a resume?

guessmyname
I have used and recommended this LaTeX template [1].

Template that I have also seen being used by many professional software engineers both applying and currently working at some of the big corporations like Apple, Google, Microsoft, Amazon. It is clean, easy to read, easy to parse by most ATS (Application Tracking System) [2].

[1] https://github.com/sb2nov/resume

[2] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Applicant_tracking_system

matthewbauer
I have to say that resume doesn’t look very good to me. Way too long lines and not enough white space. Maybe that’s part of the strategy though? This whole ATS thing annoys me because it seems like such a shallow way to hire. But maybe that’s what you need to get into Big 5 tech companies now?

For anyone interested in what I’d consider cleaner: here is my Latex resume

https://matthewbauer.us/resume.pdf

I worry now it’s not ATS optimized though.

arca_vorago
I also use latex but through emacs org mode.
lma21
Great format, simple and easy to read.
v33ra
Mine made with HTML + CSS. I made it sure that the whole page fits in a A4 Size so that I can easily export it as a PDF to be shared with recruiters. I also make sure to send the URL of my resume (https://veerasundar.com/resume/) along with the PDF. (bit outdated, though! :)
chad_strategic
I like a little creativity, it also tells me if a recruiter actually clicked in the link. People either love it or don’t really care...

http://www.strategic-options.com/resume/

blowski
I hate it. When I'm hiring, I have 100s of CVs to look at, and on my first sweep, every CV gets no more than 30 seconds. Your website takes too long for me to figure out, so I pass on it. Life's too short. (I'm guessing it's not the first time someone has said this to you, though, so good on you for keeping it.)
chad_strategic
It's just a little slow, the website was probably getting hit quite a bit.

But thank you, based on your comments, I wouldn't want to work for your organization or ones that you are hiring for. I get job interviews on the website alone, so thanks I'm doing fine. Basically the website is recruiter repelant.

wallacoloo
FWIW, the navigation buttons in the lower right aren't working for me in either Firefox or Chromium. I can't figure out how to get the webpage to show me anything other than the titlecard:

      Chad Humphrey
  A click & show resume
    Sr. PHP Developer
Not that interactive resumes are always something to avoid (I couldn't say - I've never been handed such a resume in the hiring process), but I think this is a great example of the risks associated with them.
chad_strategic
Navigation is lower right corner, which you might have already known. Other wise it might be an ad blocker issue? Thanks
alecgorge
I have had tremendous success with very unorthodox layouts, features and subtle use of colors on my resume via Adobe InDesign.

https://www.alecgorge.com/Alec%20Gorge%20Resume.pdf

I used to completely redo my layout every year while I was in school and had success with it. Especially at the collegiate level when many resumes are the same in practice, something new for the recruiter to look at goes a long way.

On quite a few occasions I have walked into an interview and been greeted with some variant of "oh wow so you are the person with the cool resume!" or "we have all been talking about how we love how your resume looks!"

I have never gotten negative feedback on my layouts and the positive feedback has been a huge confidence boost in those interviews.

I spend hours and hours attempting to build a unique layout provides personality and the information needed—this means no pie charts or arbitrary skill ratings. I view the design as a way for me to communicate something about my passion for typography and layout while giving an insight into my personality. I always want my resumes to be friendly and have a clear hierarchy.

I'm still on the fence about using paragraphs instead of bullet-points but it looks so much better with justified paragraphs that I think it is worth the trade-off to stand out in a positive way.

Of course, all of the work into the design goes to waste if you don't write clear, concrete supporting information. Too often I see resumes that contain factual but boring/non-contextualized data. Why did you do X thing? What problem was it solving? How did it solve it? What did YOU do that that was special? Use numbers to give a sense of scope and size.

_d8fd
I'd say you can lose the GPA now :)
alecgorge
What's the rule of thumb on that? One job post-graduation?

I'm not entirely sure what to fill that space with to balance the line if I remove it haha. Maybe I could expand BS out to Bachelor of Science? Still probably wouldn't look balanced though...

amorphid
Unless your GPA is super impressive, I'd argue it's not worth bragging about at all. A 3.2 is fine when you're hunting for your first real job. After you've got work experience, I doubt many would care about a GPA. When people did really well, you'll sometimes here them say "I graduated summa cum laude" instead of specifically referencing their GPA.
maruhan2
just want to comment how there's so much in such a short time period. jesus you did not waste any time...
gcatalfamo
I honestly have trouble understanding the chronological order of you experiences at first glance, plus they all seem to be given the same importance.

If you really are contacted and complimented over this, I’m puzzled at how the recruiter mind works, I would like a recruiter comment on this.

(This is entirely not directed against you, but towards trying to understand if my way of conceiving resumes has been all wrong so far)

alecgorge
That's totally fair, but not entirely unintentional. I like highlighting the fact that I ran a consulting business throughout high school and college as well as the popularity of some of my side projects. Those have been just as (if not more) valuable as the internships I have had when it came to looking for full-time work.

I haven't updated the layout since I have been at Stack Overflow because I like it and I don't need a resume. If I were to redesign my resume right now it certainly would put more emphasis on the last two years of full-time employment.

Plus, even if it might create some confusion I hope it communicates that I can be trusted to not totally screw up the UI side of things if left by myself haha

chauhankiran
I personally like your resume as it included what it needs to be no more, no less. But I have less experience ( only two places I have worked ). If I follow your resume style, my resume probably completed within half of A4. What is your suggestion on this?
alecgorge
Thank you!!

Yeah, that's a question I get a fair amount.

Many people have an instinct to leave things off of their resume because they aren't "professional" or "tech" enough. Do not sell yourself short! If you feel like you don't have enough for your resume, include anything that covers the soft-skills portion. A good first rule of thumb is to look at anything that occupies a lot of your time or did so in the past. There are a lot of skills that apply to any job or social arrangement: time management, initiative, planning, leadership, etc. It is optimal of course to demonstrate those through internships and full-time jobs in your chosen field but there are other ways too. Mowing lawns, working with a club/charity, working at coffee shops, washing windows and volunteering at the library can all demonstrate different important qualities that will translate to a new role. Don't leave them out if you are looking for more things.

The layout needs to be fit to your personal story—not the other way around. If you feel like you still have less content than you would like, use a touch more whitespace or use less terse wording (but not fluff). If you have one major thing you are incredibly proud of, make sure the design reflects that—don't let it sit and have it match all the boring things in visual appearance. I usually go through a bunch of different sketches before I find something I like. It is definitely not "one-size fits all".

There's lots of ways to vary the appearance of something: bolding, italicizing, different font, border, whitespace, color and the position on the page. There's no magic combination but you generally don't want to use more than two or three of the techniques at the same time. If you use too many things will look out of place.

bitL
Did that layout work before you were in Apple?
alecgorge
I didn't have the exact same layout but it had a similar feel and it was quite successful. The people at Apple as a whole appreciated the unusual resume design more so than any other place I have applied.

It started as something I used as a freshman in college to grab their attention and plead my case before the recruiter realized my age (I also took my graduation date off resumes given in person). I had mixed results but, hey, I was a freshman and getting some conversations was better than none.

bitL
OK, thanks! I just wanted to know if it was the design or the big name on resume ;-)

I also "decorate" my CV with e.g. different alphabets of languages I speak and some headhunters told me it's perfect. No issues getting interviews at top companies, smaller ones hesitate more often.

softawre
Cool resume. Boiler up! If you're ever looking for a job back in Indiana hit me up.
egfx
Notepad.exe makes beautiful looking .txt files. That's the format I use when I can get away with it.
dbg31415
Advice on Resumes...

Keep it short. As short as possible anyway.

Keep it readable. Plug what you write into Microsoft Word, or some other tool that measures readability, and aim for like a 9th grade reading level. Grammarly can help.

Keep it relevant. Use a tool like JobScan to make sure the keywords line up. Why? Because recruiters are lazy and use these tools to sift through the applicants.

Talk about your achievements, using numbers. Not: I did the thing everyone with the role does... Instead: I wrote code that improved page load weights by 50% and times by 75% using Foo and Var for website that got 20M views a month; this will save BumbleCo over $7M next 24 months in AWS charges.

List some reviews. Don't assume they're going to go to your LinkedIn. People are lazy. Recruiters are people. HR generally doesn't know anything about the subject matter at hand, and can only read into personality, accolades, and "culture" fit. Your first goal is to get past them.

* Resume of First Last (Template) - Google Docs || https://docs.google.com/document/d/1YvUmlAKF-mlx2zNDITfV_VWC...

vfulco
Be really careful with some of the graphically rich resumes. If in a creative field and you are pretty sure if will only be looked at by a human, use it. If applying to Fortune 1000, there is a good chance yours will be ingested by an applicant tracking system (ATS). Not all resume parsers work well on these fancy resumes. I have frustrated clients, on the job search quite a while, who come to me with edit jobs for a lot of simplification so their response rates to go up. Additionally be careful with some of the "progress bars" or "pie charts" of skills. How does a prospective employer gauge the competency of an applicant with 3 bars a opposed to 4 in Adobe Photoshop, as an example?