Critique: Any advice on the design of my systems engineering résumé?

Question

So I'm creating a résumé for Engineering/Design/Computer Science internships, so I guess I am allowed to be a bit creative and less conservative here. I was working on this all day today, so it I am just going for a general look/feel for now. None of the little details like icon size and placement and text alignment have been looked at, and the content is still a work in progress. With my actual name being used, it lines up nicely with the 2B Systems Design Engineering subheading. I just wanted some feedback on the general look and feel of the résumé. For reference, I'm making this in Adobe Illustrator.

Also right now I'm using Myriad Pro as a placeholder font, so what other fonts would you recommend using instead? I've used Helvetica Neue many times before so I want something a little different and Avenir Next is a little too wide to fit in my content nicely.

Thanks! EDIT: I fixed the contact info alignment as suggested here. I will wait until I finish all the content before adjusting font size/line alignment.

EDIT2: I should also probably note that I have more experience to add, I just haven't been able to type the content yet and I don't want to adjust the line spacing without finish that.

Answer 1

As a general recomendation I would suggest to add a bit more of negative space. You can get this by reducing your font size up to 10 or even 9 pt (don't be scared, it would be readable enough). At the same time I would reuse some of the space we've gained increasing line height; everything will look lighter and cleaner.

You can also reduce a bit your name size without loosing the hierarchy you want to give it. By doing this, on top of a bit more of negative space you can also move your contact information block a bit to the left to align it with your right column in your resume, so your grid is clearer.

For tipefaces I don't really know, is better up to you, but some of my lifesavers are Futura, Akzidenz, Miller or Din. Helvetica or Gotham are also fine but a bit over used.

As a general tip of advice, think about your negative space (the space in which there is 'nothing') as another element to design with.

Answer 2

Overall, the design looks slick, but it makes your experience look minimal. If you had at least 2 jobs on there, I think it would be fine.

There isn't much contrast between your name and subheading. I also don't understand what the subheading is- title? freelance company name? handle? All of these are unnecessary anyway. If you really feel the need to include it, make it smaller or lighter and make your name bigger and heavier- both have the same weight right now.

Kill activities and interests. Hiring managers see those as fluff and it gives them reasons to say 'no' and throw your resume out.

Make sure to print this out in black & white to make sure it still is readable and has enough contrast. Print it on the crappiest printer you can find- inevitably some people will have one. Also keep in mind that desktop printers won't print bleed.

Answer 3

Nice work!

Generally, I agree with @raulaglo on the whitespace. In addition:

• I would make the timeline-line one stroke: there are gaps there
• I would move the contact with phone and twitter to align with the left column. Achieve this by making the name smaller (you have to take into account that people might have very long, double names)
• Pull the text in the header up a little
• The contact thing might have to include address to homepage etc
• You might have to include other elements in the left sidebar, such as voluntary work, stuff made (such as links to software the person has made etc).
• I would find another icon for interests: it seems a little too gameish - people might have very different interests than that, and it would make a good contrast to the rest
• I would work a little on the font. Stick to sans-serifs though.

Since this will be used by several people, make sure it is flexible enough. I am guessing most people will have more than one page.

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Edit: Another little note: you could differentiate a little more between the two columns, such as making a soft colour background to one of them. That will let you compact the content a little.