Using Times New Roman On Your Résumé Is Like “Putting On Sweatpants For A Job Interview”

(Scott Lynch)

Once upon a time, you actually had to type your résumé on real paper. If you wanted it to look special, you needed to find a letterpress shop to rework it into something special. But now we have a world of typographic options at our fingertips… and yet, when it comes time to apply for a job, so many of us still choose good ol’ Times New Roman.

Bloomberg spoke to a bunch of font freaks about the best and worst typefaces to use when putting together your curriculum vitae, and while some didn’t have any real problem with Times New Roman, its ubiquity — being the default font on many a word processor — may send the wrong message to a prospective employer.

“It’s telegraphing that you didn’t put any thought into the typeface that you selected,” designer Brian Hoff explains. “It’s like putting on sweatpants.”

A better option, if you insist on a serif font, may be Didot, which adds a bit of flair but is still legible. Though one designer cautions it may be too much for employers.

“It’s like wearing the black dress to the ball,” says Matt Luckhurst. “Do you wear a tuxedo to your job interview?”

Many of the designers preferred the clean lines of Helvetica or the classic feel of Garamond. Avoid script-like fonts because they’re just too hard to read and only use comic sans “if you’re applying to clown college.”