Dear Sam: Is there a “best” font to use for your résumé? I have always used Times New Roman in font 12, but keep seeing résumés that use all sorts of fonts and sizes, so wondered if my way is still “current”. — Andrea
Dear Andrea: You are right; today’s résumés use all sorts of fonts and sizes. Times New Roman (TNR) is still the most common font, but it is overused and does have an “older” look to it. Other serif fonts that can be great options include Book Antiqua, Garamond, and Cambria. If you want to create a modern and clean look, choose a sans serif font like Tahoma or Calibri. All of these are great options. Benchmark your font size off of TNR font 11. There is no one perfect size as Book Antiqua works well at 9.5 while you may want Garamond at 11. Don’t choose a font, however, that is not fairly common on all systems; otherwise, you may run into an ugly font substitution issue on the recipient’s system.
