Retail Resumes Q&A: Can I use fancy elements to make my resume more attractive?

To a point, but remember that in the end your resume should be about substance, not style.

Keep in mind the purpose of a resume - to provide information to a recruiter or another decision-maker that will compel them to select you for an interview. The purpose is not to impress them with your design skills (unless you're applying for a design-related position).

To that end you can, and should, use creative elements to make the most important information stand out - and that means your headline, perhaps key points in your summary/profile (if you have one), company names, job titles, possibly testimonials, and to some extent, your name (although it just needs to be at the top - the reader will find it).

This can most often be done using bold, uppercase, underlining, and/or a larger font size. I occasionally use color for things like company names if I want to differentiate them from job titles because, after all, if you use the same element to try and make everything stand out, nothing will stand out. But I don't overdo it.

Here are some things to think about:

1. It's important to be consistent. If you use bold caps for one company name, use them for all company names so the reader can quickly become familiar with your format. If you mix up your strategy half way through your resume and start doing things differently, the overall impression will be poor.

2. It's important to not go overboard. Too much bold, underlining, caps, italics, font types, font sizes, color, horizontal lines, text boxes, etc. will make the reader pull their hair out. Again, nothing will stand out if you try to make everything stand out, so use these elements sparingly.

3. Some creative elements may cause your resume to not get entered properly in an employer's database. Applicant tracking systems parse a resume into a database but that may not work if you have things like pictures, boxes, columns, etc. that can disrupt the automated process. 

4. Remember in the old days when people used to print resumes on colored paper to help them stand out? Turns out, it often didn't help. Instead, it backfired and left the impression that the job-seeker was trying to compensate for the fact that they really weren't very qualified. Today the same lesson is applicable - if you go overboard on style, the reader may believe you're trying to over-compensate for something.

Bottom line - if you're a consistent top performer who has all the qualifications needed, you shouldn't have to reply on gimmicks to get your resume read. Focus on what you bring to the table, make sure the most important and compelling information can be found easily, and leave the fancy design elements for those who have little else to offer.

Best of luck!