Resume and Cover Letter: Box around the Outer Edge

Putting a box around the outer edge of the resume and cover letter can be a nice touch, and help yours stand out from the others. Here is how to do it:

In the 2007 and 2010 version s of Word, go to the “Home” tab and find the Paragraph group, which is the third from the left. Look for the icon that looks like a grey box and a dark line underneath it (it is the last one in the group). Immediately to the right of it is a down-pointing triangle, known as a “more” button. Click on this.

 A pane will open up with a list. At the very bottom is one called “Borders and Shading.”  After clicking on that, a new window will open up that has three tabs, “Border,” “Page Border” and “Shading.” Click on the “Page Border” tab, in the center.

In the Page Border window, there is a row on the left called Settings. Click on the second one, called “Box.” A box will appear in the preview section on the right. The box is ready, but let’s work on it some more.

The center area of the window is called “Style.” There are a few options here. In the first box there are a number of different styles of lines, including straight to dashed, and if you scroll down using the Vertical Scroll Bar, you will see there are many other types of lines available.

The next choice down is “Color.” The default set is “Automatic,” which is black. If you click the “more” button on the right side, you will have many choices of colors to choose from for the line. Try to pick one that is not glaring or too bright.

Under the “Color” is the choice of “Width.” This will determine how thick the line will be. The default is ½ point, which is very thin. This is acceptable, but if you click on the “more” button, there are other choices. Be careful not to make the box too thick, such as 3 pts. or larger, especially if you decide to use a color other than black.

You may be tempted to put a fancy border from the “Art” section below the “Width” window, but it is strongly recommended not to do this. These fancy borders are better suited for personal uses, such as year-end letters, rather than a more business-related cover letter and resume.

As much as you may want to color the whole page, it is not a good idea, because while it looks nice in theory, if you email the resume, they may not want to print it out because of the use of the large amount of color ink needed for a full page of color.

Letterhead

When writing a cover letter or a resume, it is a good idea to create a letterhead. This does not have to be complex, and it presents your personal information in a way that makes it easier to read for the potential employer.

There are many ways to create a letterhead, but here are the basics:

Your Name
Address
Phone Number
Email

Make your name the largest, say 16 to 18 pts., and the rest slightly bigger than the text of the resume or letter, at about 14 pt. Do not make it too large, just enough to stand out.

There are many ways to manipulate the text to make it look nice. For example, you can flush everything left, center, or right (In World, on the “Home” tab, it is the first three buttons on the lower row of the Paragraph group). Also you can center the name and put the rest flush left or right. There are many variations, so use the one that looks best to you.

It is also good to put a line across the page under this information, separating it from the body of the text. Once you have set this up, use the same letterhead on the cover letter and resume, so if they get separated, it will be easy for the employer to match up the pages.

Resume and Cover letters: Typeface/Font

From the Employment and Learning Computer Lab:

Choosing a typeface, also known as the font, for your resume and cover letter is important.  It will be the first thing that a potential employer will notice, even before the content.

The two most commonly used fonts are Ariel and Times New Roman. There is a big difference between the two, though both are equally accepted.

Let’s start with Times New Roman. Each character of this typeface has little flourishes on the edges of the letters, known as “legs” or “serifs.” For example, if you look at the lower case letter “I” it will have a horizontal line at the bottom, and a little wing on the top pointing to the left.  Or the capital version will have a horizontal line at the base and top.

With Ariel, the text is very plain, or “sans serif,” with no extras, so in both cases the letter “I” will be a straight vertical line, the lower case with only a dot on the top.

When choosing the font for your letter and resume, it is wise to choose the one that suits your needs best. It may depend on the volume of content. Each character in Ariel, while being plain, is also wide. Times New Roman is fancier and sometimes hard to read if too small, but takes up less space.

It is good to think about this when preparing the letter and resume. If you have a lot of content that, say, will not fit on one page, you may want to use Times New Roman because you can put more onto a page with less space. However, if you do not have much experience and there is less to put on the page, you can use Ariel, which will take up more room.

Whatever typeface you decide to use, be sure it is the same one throughout both documents. Do not mix them in the same page. In other words, do not have the titles in Ariel and the bullet points beneath it in Times New Roman. Keep it all the same font throughout. This is also true across documents. Keep both the cover letter and the resume the same typeface to show consistency.

Resume and Cover Letter Consistency

From the Employment and Learning Computer Lab:

Last time we discussed how when it comes to cover letters and resumes, two important and overlooked techniques in looking for a job are simplicity and consistency.  Since we covered simplicity, let’s talk about consistency.

Much like colors that can either blend or contrast, the same is true for the look of your resume and cover letter.  It is important to keep the letter and resume in the same typeface, or, font. Mixing up various fonts is both hard on the eyes and shows a possible lack of focus on the potential employee. 

Have everything in a row. If you are using bullet points, make sure all the points line up on the page.  Similarly, keep the previous job’s dates written consistently. For example, do not have some of them say just the years (2010-2011) and others more detailed dates (July 2010-May 2011). This is especially true if you mix them up (2010-May 2011). This could give the impression that you are not detail-oriented. If you know all the months you started a job, than use the July 2010-May 2011 format. If there is even one you are not sure of, use the simpler 2010-2011 on all of them.

It is important to keep the page looking as realistically symmetrical as possible, so it looks like a complete document, rather than a hodgepodge of information.