It isn’t something you would immediately think of as important when creating a CV, but the font you choose for your resume can make the difference between your CV getting through to the hiring manager or being put in the rejected pile.
A recruiter at a large law firm could be recruiting for 50-60 roles at the same time and be looking through hundreds of CV’s a day. They will spend between 3-5 seconds looking at a CV before deciding to shortlist or reject.
In this market in particular every role will have a huge amount of competition, there could be 200-300 people applying to the same paralegal role, so here are our top tips to make sure your font choice is helping you to put your best foot forward.
Size
In this instance size really does matter! Make sure the font is a large enough size to read easily on a screen - 10-12 is a good guide. You may think it is better to make it smaller to fit it on to one page or to cram in a lot of detail, but in reality it is better to be concise, and go on to two pages, rather than use a font that you’d need a magnifying glass to read.
Colour
It may look pretty to have your font in a colour that matches the design of your CV, but ask yourself is it easy to read? And what if it is printed off to be reviewed, this will most likely be in black and white, will it be too pale and come out as blank when printed? We’d advise to stick with black.
CAPITALS
Obviously use them at the start of sentences and where grammatically appropriate, however using it for the whole document can be hard to read, and as capitals are commonly used when you want to SHOUT ABOUT SOMETHING, is can give off the wrong vibe to a hiring team. They do have their use, in a title or for something you think really needs to stand out, but we’d suggest avoiding using capitals for the whole document.
Fancy Fonts
You may have found an amazing font that adds a lot of character to the CV… but can you actually read it? Leave the fancy fonts to an invitation or a social media post, you want to be seen as a professional on your CV and using a professional font will help. Solid choices are Arial and Calibri.
Nailed It
Your CV is your first chance to impress and to demonstrate the skills and experience you have. Do not underestimate the importance of having all aspects of this correct! See our other posts for more information on how to make the perfect legal CV.
Lunaria Partners are a specialist legal recruitment agency, to see our current job vacancies click here