Typophile

Critique and feedback on my Gridded CV?

James Deux

Hello all!

I formatted my CV to Grid. I would like some feedback. I have never done grid before and I feel I have trivialized it far too much. I also fear that I went with form before function, but I will leave that for you to decide.

Currently, it is at it is. I want to expound on my responsibilities underneath "Experience" because I want to make sure that my potential employer is aware that my tasks weren't vapid; that I actually did things. Also: If any of you are aware of what to properly include in an American CV, and see that I did not include that, please offer those thoughts as well. I am working on an 8.5in x 11in piece of paper, portrait, and am tempted to see if I can keep it one page.

This was done in InDesign. I used Lucida Fax which I have recently become fond of. It sits nicely. But that is up for debate as well.

Thoughts?

I would make the paragraphs under "Experience" align with its bar. I would not hyphenate in those same paragraphs.

Thank you Special-K but I'm afraid I don't know what you mean by "bar". Can you explain? Are you referring to the visual element, the gray rectangles, that I used?

EDIT: Okay I looked at it again and think I see what you're saying but I just want to double-check...

Updated. The last three points need better spacing. Any other comments?

How about the hyphenation advice? And, I am pleased that you do indeed study Sociology :)

YESH!!

As for the hyphenation: Are you referring to how I marked the time periods? Is that incorrect? Is it the symbol used or the style? If it is all incorrect, how should I go about marking how long I did them?

Unjustified setting (ragged right) in short paragraphs would probably look better without hyphenation: Ad-missions Techni-cian
And quite a few on the right

As for the time period spans, an en-rule would be better than the hyphen

Noted. Thank you paragraph.

You're welcome.

I would suggest that you use not only an en-dash to separate a range, try a "thin" space (Command-Shift-Option-M in InDesign) instead of a full space.

I would definitely turn off hyphenation in the paragraphs below "Experience". It might also help eliminate the "orphan" http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Widows_and_orphans in the second paragraph.

Even though the rule of "never end a sentence with a preposition" is no longer accepted as hard grammar, I find that ending a line break with a preposition, that is, separating the preposition from its object, makes scanning more difficult. Try keeping prepositional phrases together if you can. With a résumé, you want it as scannable as possible. I might even consider (shudder) bulleted lists instead of the compounded sentence with all those semicolons.

I suggest changing "information" to "Contact" (isn't the entire cv information?). Delete using the actual word "Address" and group all of your addresses under the bar, the same with your Education information. Your design makes sense with how you organized your employment, having the position in one column and the responsibilities under the gray bar, but to use that same treatment for contact info and listing your schools doesn't work. Or you could have the bars align with the left column and handle your name in a different manner. Your spacing is inconsistent, compare the white space from the bottom of the gray bar to the base line of "School Address" and the white space from the bottom of the gray bar to the baseline of "Saint Joseph" and same for third bar as well.

Thank you both for the help! I've attached the updated.


I would suggest that you use not only an en-dash to separate a range, try a “thin” space (Command-Shift-Option-M in InDesign) instead of a full space.

I'm embarrassed to say I didn't know this prior but this is perhaps one of the best kept secrets of InDesign. I've integrated it.

I would definitely turn off hyphenation in the paragraphs below “Experience”. It might also help eliminate the “orphan”
Done.

Even though the rule of “never end a sentence with a preposition” is no longer accepted as hard grammar, I find that ending a line break with a preposition, that is, separating the preposition from its object, makes scanning more difficult. Try keeping prepositional phrases together if you can. With a résumé, you want it as scannable as possible. I might even consider (shudder) bulleted lists instead of the compounded sentence with all those semicolons.
This is all being considered. I think I'm going to drop this by the Career center and say "Look I know this looks funny but can you just judge the content?" I think the semicolon system works, but it isn't ideal and it certainly should be PERFECT for a CV.

suggest changing “information” to “Contact” (isn’t the entire cv information?).
Done.

Delete using the actual word “Address” and group all of your addresses under the bar, the same with your Education information.
I added more information (that is appropriate) so it all meshes much better. ...does it?

Your spacing is inconsistent, compare the white space from the bottom of the gray bar to the base line of “School Address” and the white space from the bottom of the gray bar to the baseline of “Saint Joseph” and same for third bar as well.
Good catch. Fixed.

Also... Is the type choice acceptable? I was happy with it until I read that Lucida Fax was designed for... faxing. I think it's appropriate but a Designer may question me on it.

What exactly would make a type fax specific?

Ask Wikipedia. That's what I did. :p

Faxes used to be 200 dpi and I guess Lucida Fax was optimized for that resolution.

. . .
Bert Vanderveen BNO

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