How to Use Resume Lines in Your Resume

Your resume is the only chance to leave a solid first impression with potential employers. In this article, you’ll learn how to use resume lines to organize your resume to give it a clean look.

Should you use lines on your resume?

Although it’s not necessary to include lines on your resume, they can drastically improve readability.

Resume lines allow you to break down each section and improve the likelihood that the recruiter will read the entire thing.

How to use resume lines properly to improve readability.

Adding resume lines isn’t a complex process. All you’ll need to do is follow a few steps to define each section of your resume. Creating an outline first can be helpful, but it’s not necessary.

Read more: How to Make a Resume Outline

Reduce the margins of your resume.

First, you’ll want to reduce your resume’s margins to .5 inches on the top and bottom and .75 inches on the side. This will give you enough space to include resume lines in your formatting.

If you need more space, you can reduce the margins further. However, you should stick to these numbers to avoid a messy-looking resume.

Use hyphens, borders, or horizontal lines.".

Formatting your resume for readability is easy by using hyphens, borders, and horizontal lines.

• Type three dashes, then press “Enter” to get a short line
• Use the “Borders” function and choose a bottom border to create a longer line
• For horizontal lines, simply select the horizontal lines in the “Borders” tool

Don't leave just a single word on a whole line.

A single word on the last line of a paragraph is a “widow,” and a single word on the first line is an “orphan. You want to avoid these because they can throw off your resume’s alignment.

Focus on the design.

Focus on tying your resume lines into your resume’s design and layout. Make sure they add to the flow of your document and keep the recruiter’s eyes focused on learning about you.

Be consistent with the type of lines you use.

The most important thing to remember is consistency. Don’t fluctuate between short and long lines because that can make your resume look messy.

For example, if you choose to use the three-dash line, stick with that throughout. Do the same if you think a long line looks best. Choose one and stick with it.

Example resume with lines:

Resumes consist of four key sections:

• Header
• Education
• Work Experience
• Skills and Certifications

Here’s a breakdown of how you should structure your resume and the best way to incorporate resume lines.

John Doe
555-555-5555
JohnDoe@email.com

—

Education

Rowan University
Glassboro, NJ
Bachelor of Science in Computer Science
September 2007 - June 2011

—

Experience

[Job Title]
[Organization]
[Dates]

• Job duty 1
• Job duty 2
• Job duty 3

[Job Title]
[Organization]
[Dates]

• Job duty 1
• Job duty 2
• Job duty 3

—

Skills

• Python
• SEO
• Google Analytics
• HTML

—

Certifications

Certification 1

Certification 2

Takeaways

Using resume lines is an excellent way to give your resume a clean, professional look. If you’re interested in learning more, check out our resume builder to get started right away.