No discussion of resumes and cover letters is complete without info on fonts. At least, that’s what I’ve come to understand after years of helping people with their resumes. The question pretty much always comes up. In the past, my advice has been not to overthink it, but today I’ll get a little deeper into the topic. But you still shouldn’t overthink it.
First of all, the most basic info is that you can choose either serif, sans-serif, or script fonts. What’s the difference? Serif fonts are things like Garamond, Georgia, and Cambria with the little “feet” or tiny lines under the letters. These fonts are generally seen as more traditional and serious, so while they risk looking a little bit stuff, they’re also generally considered easier to read.
Sans-serif fonts, on the other hand, are the “cleaner” fonts like Arial, Calibri, or Tahoma. Without the little feet, they look a bit more modern, but since they take up that fraction less real estate, many find that those fonts don’t display as well, especially on screens, which can make them harder to read.
Those are your two main choices, and the trick to picking one is to know both yourself and your audience. For instance, while I’m not a particularly traditional person, I still really like Times New Roman as a resume font because I think it’s easy to read. I’m absolutely not saying that’s the one you should use, mind you; I’m just saying that my 53-year-old eyeballs enjoy that sort of bookish font, and back when I was working for other people, I found that most of the decision-makers in those orgs liked the serif fonts like that. So I know myself and I knew my audience. If you can’t get a sense of who it is you’d be working with, your best bet is to choose a font you like and find easy to read.
Now how about the rest? Script fonts are the ones that look like cursive or calligraphy, and in general are best avoided, especially for the body of the document. They look formal and elegant, but some people can’t read them, and I also find them to be a little too wedding-y and not terribly professional. That said, if you find one you really like, you can opt to use it in a logo you design or the background image of a LinkedIn profile. But otherwise I really recommend avoiding them, as pretty as they can be.
And (sigh) the wacky fonts. Yeah, you know the ones. Comic sans, of course, is a top player, and I know lots of people like it, but it’s sure to get your resume immediately tossed into the “no” pile in lots of places. Ditto with Papyrus, Impact, and whatever the heck that one that looks like stencils is. An argument could be made that one or more of those might be appropriate for a specialized field, but err on the side of caution here. These playful fonts are much less legible, and also give off the sense that you’re immature and unprofessional. Not the impression you’re going for!
Finally, how about font size? I always tell people to make sure their name is the largest font on the document—around 18-point. For the rest of it, stick with 11- or 12-point. This makes everything easy to read and it also doesn’t look like you’re in high school and trying to make your too-short essay fill up 5 pages. If you can’t reasonably fit your experience into 2 pages with an 11-point font, it’s probably time to start trimming. (Exceptions, of course, include fields like academia and medicine, places where people routinely have multi-page CVs instead of shorter resumes.)
On a similar note, please also don’t be tempted to play with the margins when you’re writing your application materials. Yes, you can fit more in that way, but those really tight pages aren’t likely to do you any favors. So much of this comes down to legibility, and if you’re giving a decision-maker a headache with your quarter-inch margins, you’re probably not getting asked for an interview. So just don’t do it!
