Saw an interesting (honestly!) feature What does your choice of font say about you? reported by David Sillito on the Beeb news this morning about fonts being the new hand writing and what they say about you. First up was a gentleman called Simon Garfield, an author and a journalist and all round nice chap, with, a love for fonts. Simon’s website can be found at simongarfield.com, worth a look as he has a lot of interesting interviews and a book available for font fans and the uninitiated called Just My Type. Second up was an equally nice young chap, Jason Smith of Fontsmith, a man who not only creates fonts but had the good fortune to brand his company with his name without sounding narcissistic.
What does this have to do with you?
If you have not guessed yet then you really need to sit up and take note. We repeatedly see a variety of inappropriate fonts being used and sometimes more than three on one CV. Throw into the mix overuse of different sizes, weights, italics, underline, colours and bullets and a CV can become an absolute mess. At end of the report, Sillito mentioned that if you plan on using Comic Sans then you had better be applying for a job as a clown. A statement more amusing than he intended!
I thought it a good opportunity to share a couple of insights:
Choose your CV font(s) carefully:
You can have more than 1 but really avoid more than 2. Use one for the main text and the other for your headings. Ariel, Ariel narrow or maybe Times New Roman are all acceptable but when using any font it is always worth asking for another viewpoint.
Weight, italic and underline:
Be sparring with any adjustments to the font and if you use italics for example then try for continuity throughout the CV by using it in the same areas such as descriptions of the different organisations that you have worked for.