Resume with COLOR! Stupid idea or does it work?

5502george

Ok so my resume has went through quite a few changes in the last week (thanks to you guys). This is the best I have come up with so far so PLEASE continue bashing it as much as possible so I can come up with a good finished product. Thanks again for all of your help in this!

networker050184

I'd go with all black, but it's probably going to be printed off/scanned a few times before it gets in front of the person reading it and be in black anyway.

The format seems to waste a lot of space too dragging it on longer than it should be.

I doubt either of these would stop someone from calling you though so more just nit picking at this point.

da_vato

Though it is not that much I say no. You don't want to over do it, you want grab someones attention without overdoing it. Grab their attention and leave them wanting to know more thus the reason for calling you in for an interview.

Colors, graphics, crazy fonts and so on are all distractors from your resume. Your resume should be neat, clean and to the point.

joehalford01

Mine has color but I don't think that's what helped me with my latest gig. I feel like it may have been hampering me in my search, so I plan to simplify mine the next time around.

Danielm7

It will most likely get printed in black anyway, which means the color might just come out lighter and hard to read. I'd stick with black print.

tombosauce

i realize you're just asking about the use of color here, but i agree with networker. if you can eliminate the double spacing and put it all on to one page without it looking crammed, i'd do that. do you use linkedin? if so, you can put a link to it with your contact info at the top. if you do that, make sure you've changed the URL for your profile to /johndough vice /adfae343qserf or whatever it assigns you (you can do that in the account properties).

another nitpicky thing is that you use DoD in one part and DOD in another. i'd recommend changing them all to DoD.

--chris--

My headings (skills, education, experience, etc...) all have a very light sky blue background, and it is small...but it is in color. I asked my last employer why he picked my resume out of the 60 or so submitted. He said he picked 6 resumes, the others had similar skills/education but he thought the color "was cool".

Scientific! I know, but its what I was told by the person who hired me.

Nytrocide

I've heard from several people that it's a good thing. Regardless if they're sifting through black and white copies or color copies (if you're lucky), it looks different than the traditional/kinda boring .doc layout. Here's mine I put together recently...

http://jeffjanes.com/JeffJanesResume.pdf

Doyen

That is a neat format Nytrocide, it presents itself quite well. 5502george, you resume looks a tad "chucky" with a lot of "fluff". I also agree you should put "DoD" instead of how you presented it, ergo making it to the point and something to discuss in depth at an interview. However, contact information in the footer is a nice touch.

--chris--

Nytrocide wrote: »

I've heard from several people that it's a good thing. Regardless if they're sifting through black and white copies or color copies (if you're lucky), it looks different than the traditional/kinda boring .doc layout. Here's mine I put together recently...

http://jeffjanes.com/JeffJanesResume.pdf

Real sharp

cruwl

It definitely looks like you tried to make it larger/longer then it needed to be. I would maybe ditch the double spacing, and pull your Certs out of the skills section and add a cert section above/below education. Also maybe add a note if you are 8570 compliant because of your certs? or maybe add that to your clearance?

I like the color, but I'm partial to blue.

MSSoftie

Color might work if 1) they looked at paper resumes 2) you had some of the skills they wanted but not all of them 3) and no one else did either and they happened to remember that one of the resumes that were close but not quite had color. Not putting anything faith in color on resumes. More likely to put some one off than to impress them.

Now for a little more constructive criticism. You have good experience but you focus only on what you did and nothing about what you accomplished. Did you work on a project that saved time or money?? Did you improve a process?? Were you recognized for outstanding work??? Focus more space on that type of thing and you will do much better.

networker050184

MSSoftie wrote: »

Now for a little more constructive criticism. You have good experience but you focus only on what you did and nothing about what you accomplished. Did you work on a project that saved time or money?? Did you improve a process?? Were you recognized for outstanding work??? Focus more space on that type of thing and you will do much better.

Did you even read the resume?

"Saved $35,000 by effective IT management and hardware revitalization for the avionics section."

"Increased testing efficiency by 35% through creating and implementing new testing procedures."

A couple examples of the exact things you pointed out.

pitviper

Nytrocide wrote: »

http://jeffjanes.com/JeffJanesResume.pdf

I might be old school but.... I don't like this at all - Looks like a sales sheet to me which instantly questions creditability.

kenop

My opinion is that an accent color to draw the eyes to important areas is fine, BUT, you must TEST your resume (and this applies to everyone's resume, color or not).

Test by making a photocopy of the resume on a regular copier, checking the legibility and quailty, and photocopying the copy to check again. Extra bold fonts don't make the cut. Colors that copy into faded text don't make the cut (so use deep dark colors on text if anything). FAX the resume to a plain low quality fax machine if you plan on faxing your resume to employers. That one is the worst possible quality they'll be receiving it in, if everything is still clear and legible with the fax test you're good to go.

Bryan0530

super stupid

tier~

If you believe BOFH, only attention seekers use color.

Nytrocide

Have to say I've had a lot of success with mine!

Bokeh

Personally, I would say if the job calls for it - IE graphics design, web design, etc. then color is ok.