Your resume is the first thing a potential employer sees of you, so you need to use white spaces strategically. Use the available space to your advantage by highlighting relevant professional experiences and accomplishments, and you may just sway the recruiter into calling you in for an in-person interview.
This is why we often hear that formatting can make or break a resume’s appeal. A resume should be written such that it may be swiftly and simply scanned and understood by the reader. Attempting to cram too much information onto each page usually results in a messy document.
When writing your resume, use the available white space to offer your information some “breathing room” and make it easier on the eyes. Adjusting the margins, spacing, and font size of your resume are just some ways you can make the most effective use of white space.
In this blog, you will learn why it’s not a good idea to stuff too much information onto your page and how to make the most of the white space available to you.
White space in a resume – what is it?
“White space,” sometimes known as “negative space,” is the blank area between sentences and paragraphs in your resume. The design concept of white space focuses on the idea that a lack of material will direct the reader’s attention to what is present: the text. You will lose your reader’s attention if you use large, continuous blocks of grey text in your writing. Instead, you should make use of white space to generate content that is appealing and simple to understand.
How much white space should a resume have?
There is no one-size-fits-all rule for the amount of white space on a resume. We suggest using 0.5″ to 1.0″ margins, 8 pt to 12 pt paragraph spacing after each key paragraph break, and line spacing of 1.0 to 1.15 for bullet points and body content (single-spacing).
White space in a resume – a checklist
There’s no singular way to figure out how much empty space to include in a resume. Too much white space can make your CV appear unprofessional and uninteresting. However, the whole thing can look cluttered and chaotic if there isn’t enough white space.
White space is your friend when making your resume look professional and well-organized. This way, the recruiter won’t have to rummage around a jam-packed A4 page trying to find the relevant information. The most important aspects of your resume will stand out more clearly if you leave some white space between parts. Reading comprehension can improve by as much as 20% if the text is properly formatted, since this improves their focus.
Here are some elements to be mindful about:
Margins
The margins of your page are the empty area around the edges. For maximum visual impact, focus on your page’s left and right borders.
Some human resources representatives and recruiters who still prefer paper resumes to digital ones also like to make notes in the margins. It’s okay, however, to have narrower margins at the top and bottom to get more space for text.
Line spacing
The term “line spacing” describes the vertical distance between individual lines of text within a paragraph. Your resume should have a line spacing of 1.0 to 1.15. Given the limited space you’re working with, double-spacing is not necessary.
Bullet points
Use brief, one-line bullet points to highlight relevant experience and accomplishments in your resume. If you choose not to use bullet points, arrange your past work into concise paragraphs. Make sure that a block is no more than six lines in length. Don’t forget to insert a few blank spaces after each chunk of text. Paragraph breaks make your material more organized and simpler to read by establishing a defined beginning and conclusion to each section.
Coherence
Use the same structure throughout your resume, including titles, dates, and companies you worked for. This will make your resume look more polished and professional. A resume that wanders between formats looks disorganized and sloppy.
Avoid big blank spaces
Empty space on your resume, especially on the second page, leaves a bad impression in the eyes of the hiring manager. It could even seem like you lack the experience and skills required for the position. So, no matter how many pages you go for, try to ensure they’re sufficiently filled up. If you can’t fit everything into the page, try revising the document to make better use of the space.
Get rid of the extras
Your resume should skip the extras and get to the point. Since most job-seekers are already proficient in Microsoft Office and email, listing technological abilities on your resume is unnecessary unless you can truly distinguish yourself.
You don’t need to add phrases like “references provided on request,” either. References are requested when potential employers wish to verify a candidate’s background.
Moreover, false information on a resume will never help you. This is the age of quality over quantity. One-page resumes that highlight concrete accomplishments and professional experience always fare better than their two-page counterparts that ramble on about things that aren’t relevant.
How should resumes be spaced out?
Proper resume spacing increases the skimmability of your document, providing some “breathing room” around your text and making it easier to scan. A poorly formatted and messy resume will send the wrong message to hiring managers, whereas one that is well-formatted and neat will impress them.
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