Resume format is a personal preference, and also a way to make an impression on hiring managers. A poorly formatted resume might be overlooked regardless of its content, and a beautifully designed resume might get positive attention because of its strong marketing value. If your design is bland, your resume could be met with a yawn; yet if you go overboard with graphics, you could turn off the very people you’re wanting to impress.
How do you want your resume format to stand out from the crowd?
On-Line Formatting Services
I was recently offered an opportunity to refer clients to Loft Resumes, a website specializing in professionally formatted resumes. I am honestly hesitant to recommend this service for many reasons, but I thought I would get your opinion before passing final judgment. Do you think this design service would be valuable for The Essay Expert’s clients?
Let’s go to the website for Loft Resumes to check out their offered formats. Here’s what I found (please click to explore):
LOFT Resume’s formats are visually more complex than those provided by The Essay Expert. But are they better?
Resumes designed by The Essay Expert
(Click to view full resume samples)
Which do you prefer between Loft Resumes’ formats and The Essay Expert’s?
Your opinion is requested…
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I prefer your designs over Loft. The loft designs make me want to ask what shortcomings does the applicant have that they are trying to make up for with a flashy resume. The other thing that baffles me is the prevalence of made up words in job descriptions and resume’s. I understand that a lot of it is industry jargon, however I am the type of person that prefers to read proper English and truly appreciates the person that is gifted with written English.
Thank you for your perspective Wesley. It certainly is possible that too much “flash” could raise issues about the resume content. As a writer, there is always a balance to be achieved between jargon, conversational language and variety of phrasing. One of my favorite taglines from a recent Essay Expert resume is “Leading teams to performance when the game is on the line.” It is not typical resume jargon and I think gets the point across with a bit of personality!
There is a position and an audience though coming up through the ranks that I believe see “graphically” and visually in a way that other older generations do not. We are almost overwhelmed, but even Gen Y may see the Loft resumes and see confidence and creative thought. I’m not saying they fit most situations, it’s just that younger hiring managers are coming up the through the ranks and grew up with content displayed differently than we did (or I did!).
Brenda, there really isn’t a comparison. When clients work with The Essay Expert they receive personalized attention to their respective situations in two significant forms.
First with the construction of a professionally written resume which is followed by a customized style that will work for their particular profession. Your examples clearly highlight the versatility of using The Essay Expert.
Loft Resume states on their website that they do not offer a resume writing service. You could offer their service as a printing option after you worked with your clients. Their resumes are visually appealing but I would not skip the important step of having the appropriate content and keywords included on the resume. Your objective feedback provides key distinctions that are invaluable.
Although The Essay Expert’s resumes are much better for most professional settings, it is possible that Loft’s might be better for artistic/graphic design types applying for jobs in those fields. Overall, I think that the flash and dash of the Loft’s resume formats would turn off a hiring manager, but perhaps a flashy consumer products firm or ad agency seeking someone to develop mar com collateral material might feel otherwise. By the way, I can’t resist commenting that Wesley’s comment above that he likes proper English didn’t match with his use of “resume’s” for the plural of resume! It probably was just a typo, but such typos would probably lead a hiring manager to discard a resume without considering the candidate for any position.
The marketing effort didn’t give the impact needed. Like lots of house designs – much wasted space….. I’d keep it simple and straight forward. Design might catch your eye but content should be the deciding factor.