How to Create an Enticing Resume Design

56% of hiring managers feel that salaries will rise in 2016 due to unfilled positions staying open longer because of unmet salary requirements. That means that 2016 is an excellent time to search for a new job, so it’s time to get your resume updated and ready to send out. Right now, the competition is pretty fierce in some industries, so the more enticing you can make your resume design, the more attention you’ll likely gain from potential employers.

Content to Include

Before you figure out the actual design of your resume, you need to think through the content you’d like to include. The key with a resume is to highlight exactly what you bring to the table for a potential employer. Typical items in a resume include:

• Contact Information
• Objective
• Education
• Work Experience
• Volunteer and Extracurricular Activities

With about 1.9 million students graduating from college in 2016, it’s important that your resume stands out from the pack. There are a number of ways you can stand out and grab the attention of recruiters.

Get Trendy

While it is always smart to have a traditional paper resume that you can immediately send out, you also may want to create an infographic that highlights your key skills and knowledge. An infographic is simply an image representation of facts and figures. These visual resumes may be particularly attractive to companies that are more cutting edge.

Curriculum Vitae

A curriculum vitae is much more detailed than a shorter, informational resume. It gives you the opportunity to highlight the things you’ve done that the employer might be particularly interested in. Information tends to be organized in chronological format. If you’ve received a lot of awards or done a number of internships and volunteer work, a CV allows you to easily highlight these accomplishments.

Because it is longer, a CV lends itself to a beautiful, eye-catching cover (this might be a good place to pull in some of those images from your infographic).

Takeaways and Promotional Mailers

Students who are in artistic fields may benefit from creating a promotional mailer or takeaway. One example would be a fold out set of cards that list the different skills you possess. While you will still need a traditional resume as well, this can work to grab the attention of an HR person who is faced with a large stack of generic resumes to sort through. If you are in any type of design work, this is a must to grab attention.

Traditional Resume

Even if you only feel you need a traditional resume, there are some things you can do to make yours stand out.

• Use a bold, clear font for your header
• Add simple boxes to highlight information
• Use italics to set off text you want to draw the reader’s eye
• Keep in mind how busy managers are and keep it short and sweet
• Make your objective unique to the job instead of cookie cutter “I’m seeking a position”
• Use high-quality paper instead of the typical 20 pound printer paper

There are many things you can do that will give you a slight edge over the competition. Creating a unique, but professional design is the best place to start so you can get your foot in the door and grab that interview. The rest is up to you.