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portalhavoc
July 30th, 2015, 01:02 AM
I was wondering, Is the Ubuntu font a good font for a resume?

I really like the styling of the font and I tend to use in every single document that I make in LibreOffice.

Is it good for a resume?

QIII
July 30th, 2015, 01:15 AM
Unless you want it in a trashcan before it's read, stick to a more traditional font.

If you are applying for a job at Canonical, it would be fine.

SantaFe
July 30th, 2015, 02:20 AM
Unless you want it in a trashcan before it's read, stick to a more traditional font.

If you are applying for a job at Canonical, it would be fine.


263480

I prefer Comic Sans MS myself! ;)

papibe
July 30th, 2015, 03:04 AM
... stick to a more traditional font.
+1 to always playing it safe.. and formal.

Having said that, IMHO the Ubuntu font (http://font.ubuntu.com/) looks formal, and it is not a big departure from others "sans-serif" fonts.

Just a thought.
Regards.

1clue
July 30th, 2015, 03:34 AM
Whatever you do, make sure that a standard Windows box and a standard Mac can open the file and that it looks really good everywhere.

I made what I considered to be a masterpiece (not a resume luckily) and sent it out, only to discover that on both Windows and Mac it showed up with deformed, blocky, pixelated font from the old trs80 days, or a really bad rendition of the font your bank uses for the numbers on the bottom of the check.

You didn't ask all this, but there are a lot of people who don't really get interviews. Speaking as someone who has gone through a lot of resumes on the other end:


You can include a font in the document, but no matter what you do make sure it actually looks the way you planned. Just because a font is available by name on more than one operating system does not mean it will be identical. Particularly spacing and margins can be tricky.
I'm +1 on traditional fonts for a resume, then maybe make it stand out with really good paper, if it's going to be printed. For sure if you show up for the interview, hand them something YOU printed rather than what they downloaded off of some head hunter site.
Your printed resume should not take more than 2 sheets of paper, single sided and not crowded. Head hunters will slice it up and make it look like hell, but if you get to the interview, give them what you created. Everyone's resume can fit on 2 sheets. If there are more they will almost certainly not be read. Give them something easy to read, and make it interesting enough that they want to read it. The resume's purpose is not to tell them what you can do, but to get them to ask the right questions.
Your resume is not written only for the guy in the interview. It has 4 groups of viewers:

The group who takes a few stacks adding up to 4,836 resumes and tries to make it into a single stack of 100 resumes for their boss.

These guys do not care about the content of your resume. They will throw it out for being on crappy paper, an illegible font or any number of things.
If your resume passes that filter, they will try to disqualify you for missing or incorrect information.


The group who takes 100 resumes and tries to make it into 3 for his/her boss.

Depending on the company policy, these guys may actually call your references. Make sure everything is correct, especially dates.


The person/people who interview you.

These guys have already seen the electronic form. It's perfectly OK and even appreciated if somebody is proud enough of their printed resume to give them one on nice paper. Make sure it's the same one they received before, just printed nicely.
For this guy, your printed resume is a piece of art. It tells them why you think you belong with this position, and what questions he/she should ask you.
Brevity is better than detail here. It's an outline, not a book.


You.

People get flustered during interviews. I've seen it from the hiring side of the desk and experienced it firsthand.
You (better have) labored over this resume. You probably start with 10 pages and trim it down slowly until it's neat and concise. That makes it a really good outline for you, as well as for your interviewer.




The interview goes both ways. Not only are they seeing if you fit in their company, but you're seeing if they fit into yours.

Know something about the company, beyond what you see on the main website's splash page.
Ask questions that pertain to the company and to the position you hope to fill.


The interview is as much about personality as it is about skills. Be who you are. It's OK to be a nerd. I got lots of jobs without hiding my nerd status.


Good luck and have fun.
PS: That two sheets number is a maximum, not a minimum. I've seen some really nice resumes with only one easy-to-read page. If it's intelligible at all (and it's for a non-entry position) then it's worth interviewing this person simply because they can fit it all on one sheet.

mastablasta
July 30th, 2015, 07:57 AM
use whatever font you want just make sure you know the manager (or person that decides on hiring) before the interview. that's how it works here. really professional.

I always got a call for interview but was never selected (when I tried to change jobs). I wonder what I did wrong. usually they said they will call me later for a second round but they never did. my guess is some relartive got the job in the end.

if anyone here is looking :D
- 10 years international sales experience
- now handling only most difficult and largest customers/accounts - not every year but usually I had 20% and more above sales target (last year I finished at 210%. what can I say 2008 was a tough year so I only had 90 %.
- speaking 4 languages; have Cambridge CAE certificate
- customs certified and authorised exporter
- pushed for numerous work efficiency improvements via IT projects (well I worked with IT, wrote specs, did all the testing - basically all the work except developing - I don't know how to program)
- no issue working with computer

but all the "thanks, you're the best" and similar messages from my customers don't help me. more or less same crappy salary (=barely meeting national average) for the last 7 years , no promotion, what is worse no chance of promotion and even worse I don't like my job or the work I do. sometimes I think to my self - imagine what I could od if I did something that I actually liked. but I never could move to that kind of job. I am stuck.

but at least it pays the bills for now and as long as I live a very frugal life.

NathanRodriguez
July 30th, 2015, 08:34 AM
I would use a more familiar type like Arial for content and use the Ubuntu font for titles only, they should look good together. On a web context maybe replace Arial with Open Sans, a more recent "good looking" (really subjective) font that is being widely adopted.

Old_Grey_Wolf
July 30th, 2015, 10:12 PM
If you are sending the resume as a file, then you need to know that the browser, PDF reader, word processor, etc., of the recipient will substitute a different font if it is not a font installed on their computer.

mastablasta
July 31st, 2015, 07:59 AM
you can embed the fonts in pdf.

Old_Grey_Wolf
July 31st, 2015, 09:04 PM
you can embed the fonts in pdf.

That is true. You have to remember to select the option to embed the font when you export the pdf file.

fkkroundabout
August 1st, 2015, 08:44 PM
could depend on where you are applying to, and what kind of role.
traditional/conservative company that doesn't change much: probably wants something traditional that isn't much different to a conventional template.
new startup that wants things in the industry changed: probably doesn't want something traditional that isn't much different to a conventional template
designers could get alot more leeway than lawyers, etc

Old_Grey_Wolf
August 1st, 2015, 10:14 PM
I was a manager at a fortune 500 company. I looked at a lot of resumes. I didn't notice the font as long as it was easy to read, and it didn't look childish. I wouldn't have noticed the Ubuntu font. I was more concerned with the applicant's education, certs, and work experience. What irritated me the most were people applying for jobs with no experience remotely related to the job, and a page listing certs that were old enough that they weren't relevant anymore.

wizrddreams
August 7th, 2015, 12:07 AM
I used it as a font for a resume recently. Happened to hear back with a positive response. I exported my files to PDF from Libreoffice and I assumed that the fonts carry along with the PDF by default. I hope this is the case :-P

I think as long as the font you use on resume is not hard to read and looks fairly standard, it won't really sway the job manager either way. It's all about the content. :-)

SeijiSensei
August 7th, 2015, 12:28 AM
I'm an old fart who would choose a font with serifs for a "formal" document like a resume. Back when I ran a business we chose Century SchoolBook (http://www.pickafont.com/images/fonts/large/c/Century%20Schoolbook%20Bold.ttf.png) as our default font for public communication because it was a seriffed font but distinctively different from the much more common varieties of Times Roman.

scriptkitten_
August 9th, 2015, 07:27 AM
Nah ink costs too much money just write in pen :D