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In my day job, I help students develop resumes and cover letters for their internships and future employment.  Since they often must compete against many similarly qualified candidates, I advise a differentiation strategy: how can they show the recruiter/interviewer that they are different (i.e., a better hire) than the other 30 applicants?  This is primarily demonstrated by the student’s work ethic and character.  One small tactic, though, is to choose a typeface that is not the default typeface in their word processing software.  For 95% of the world (Windows), the default font is Times New Roman.

Along these lines, one student recently wrote me the following e-mail:

Dear Professor Gowin,

I am in such a bind, I cannot decide between the Book Antiqua font or the Gateway font for my resume. Which one do you think is more suitable?

p.s. Georgia is growing on me as well.

Here is my advice:

Book Antiqua is good, although, in my opinion, a little dated. Even so, it’s a better choice than the overused Times New Roman.

I’m not familiar with Gateway; however, if it’s on Windows (which it probably is–I’m on a Mac and haven’t seen it) then it should probably be avoided.

Georgia is very popular right now. It’s the default serif typeface for a lot of "Web 2.0" sites and many blogs (including my own–Georgia is the headline, post title, and heading typeface on the site). It’s a more open, friendly typeface than TNR. Whereas TNR says "boring" or "I’m too lazy to change fonts" or "I don’t know how to change fonts," Georgia says "Hug me!" (but not in a needy, codependent way) or "I’m not TNR."

So, dear student, of these choices I’d recommend Georgia.  If you’re daring enough to take a chance and really want to stand out (but in a good way), consider Helvetica.  But avoid Times New Roman.

Tags: resume, typeface, font

Filed under: Business, Job Hunting, Teaching by Michael