Resume Formatting Guidelines By Alison Doyle, About.com Guide

How you format

your resume is important for several reasons. First of all, your resume needs to make a strong visual impression on the reader. Secondly, your resume may first be read by software rather than a person, so it needs to be in a format that will easily upload, but still retain it's visual appearance without the text or font getting garbled. Finally, in some cases you will still need to deliver a paper resume - at a career or job fair or to a connection who is helping your job search. In all cases, your resume needs to make the best possible impression on the reader and how your resume is formatted is as important as the words that describe your employment history.
Margins, spacing, font size and style, and the other elements of resume formatting are all important when creating resumes that are professional and engaging. Here are guidelines for writing resumes that will work to showcase your skills and qualifications to potential employers.

Resume Font Size and Type
Guidelines for choosing a resume font size.
Resume Text
Advice on formatting the text of your resume, including margins, section headings, and readability.
Resume Margins
Resume margin guidelines, including standard resume margins, text alignment, and how to reduce margins if you need extra space.
Resume Spacing
Resume spacing guidelines including how to space margins, paragraphs, and each section of your resume.
Sections of Your Resume
Here's information on what to include in each section of your resume, including contact information, experience, education, skills, objective and career summary (if you use them), as well as advice on adding keywords to your resume so it gets picked up by recruiting management software.
How to Format the Sections of Your Resume
When you write a resume you can either write your descriptions in paragraphs or use a bulleted list, here's information on both options:

• Resume Paragraphs
• Resume Bulleted List