Margins on a resume Forum

[PeanutHead]

Title says it all. I've always though 1", but career services advised going with less to fill the space out more.

Thoughts.

[shastaca]

Typography for Lawyers suggests more white is better and provides good evidence for such.

Hand a copy to your advice giver is and maybe they will start giving good advice.

[emciosn]

I went smaller than 1" but that was just so I could fit everything on to one page. If you are at one full page with your 1" margins you are probably ok. If you are more than one page then widen the margins the get everything on one page. Just my thoughts.

[kaiser]

It is totally fine to make the margins smaller if you want to fit an extra line or 2 onto the first page. Much better to have it all on one page, even if it means cutting the margins a bit. Don't make the page a wall of text, but shortening the margins is not at all taboo.

[ran12]

Depends on if you actually have substantive things to add. If you don't, it could end up screwing you b/c recruiters tend to read parts of the resume and could end up focusing on less important points. You don't want to have too much white space but you don't want to make it look cluttered either considering how many resumes recruiters look through. Career services people are usually wrong about a lot of things too so keep that in mind and ask a lawyer you know or even someone in business to look at your resume if you can.

[PeanutHead]

Thanks for the advice. Just to clarify I worked for about 5 years before law school and most of the work is relevant so I am trying to find some additional room.

I'm thinking about going .75 top and bottom and leaving the sides at 1 b/c the space above the header looks really empty. Good idea or will the lack of uniformity look sloppy?

[Rule11]

From the perspective of someone reviewing a resume, margins are very useful. You want to leave space so that someone can make legible annotations. Also, small margins often lead to a "wall of text" resume, which is rarely a good thing. If you can't fit all of your relevant qualifications on a page with legit margins, you're probably being too verbose, or overestimating the degree of detail required.

Remember that, particularly in the context of a screening interview, a resume is a conversation piece, not a reference volume.

[bdubs]

I don't think anyone can give you a definite answer without seeing your resume. Hand it out to a few people whose opinion you trust and ask them if it looks good without giving them time to read it. If it is visually appealing with .75" margins it won't matter to the recruiter.