How to Make Your Resume Visually Appetizing

How to Make Your Resume Visually AppetizingMake a Resume Easy to ReadHow to Make Your Resume Visually AppetizingI was invited to a dinner party with some old friends this weekend. After sweating through a meal outdoors in the East Coast heat and humidity, we decided it was time to head into the air-conditioned living room for coffee and letzter gang. That was when I noticed a phenomenon I had seen many times beforean entire cake left untouched. (Shocking, I know.)Our hosts had laid out two tempting dessert optionsa tray of individual pastries and a gorgeous, gooey, delicious-looking chocolate cake. Fifteen minutes later, the pastry tray was decimated, while the cake remained intact. It wasnt that the pastries looked tastier than the cake (that cake looked like heaven), but the pastries were bite-size and easy to just pick up and pop in your mouth. (You could even saythe pastries were a piece of cake to eat)Enjoying a (literal) piece of cake, on the other hand,would have required you to set down your drink, pick up the cake knife, cut yourself a slice, put it on a plate, grab a fork and a napkin, and focus for a minute or two on eating it. Even though it would almost certainly have been worth the effort, no one bothered.OK, heres the tie-in Your resume should also be served in bite-size pieces. No one wants to cut through a big slab of text that takes time and effort to consume. Not convinced? Consider these two (purposely blurry) resume examplesUgh, too much text.Mmm, bite-size piecesThe resume on the left looks like a lot of work. Any one of those solid paragraphs of text would be enough to discourage the reader.The one on the right is much easier to digest. Your eyes can scan around the page, taking a bite here and a bite there.Specifically, it hasWider marginsMore white spaceHorizontal lines to show the eye where to go nextBold type, centering, and capitalization to call attention to key informationLess detailBullet lists instead of full sentencesVarying lin e lengthsWant to check your own resumes visual appeal? Zoom out to view the page at about 30% of its actual size. Check that each section is clearly defined, the layout is evenly balanced, and you can pick out the key components. Members The zoom tool appears in the upper right menu bar when you click Print Preview.Dont let your resume be the cake that remains untouched. Make it visually appetizing and easy to read.