Professionally written and formatted resume increases your chances to get hired. This concerns to every part of the document, especially to the resume header, as it is the first thing the recruiter sees when opening the document. The professional header should be well-thought, contain all the important information, look good and attract attention in a positive way. It is quite easy to create a proper heading. Just consider the following points.
What Resume Header Should Include?
Including all the necessary information is significantly important. The resume header should include your name and surname, job title, and contact information. Besides, there are some optional lines you may include, depending on your profile. Let’s have a close look at each line on your professional resume headers.
Name
Well, this is probably the most important part of your resume, as it differs your profile from thousands of others. Start a header for resume with your name and surname. It is generally recommended to use your full name. But if you use another name form on websites and for network accounts, it is preferable to use it. Employers often check candidates on LinkedIn, Facebook, Twitter, Instagram or online portfolio. Therefore, if you use “Bill” for websites, don’t put “William” on your resume.
Job Title
Not adding job title to the resume headers is a common mistake for most applicants. Try always do it. If you know which position you’re applying at, add the name of the desired position to the resume header. Otherwise, use the title of your last job or your general qualification. For example, you were a “Business Developer” at your last job. But you can work in different areas of business analysis. Thus, you should add “Business Analyst” at your resume.
Certification
If you have some certifications that are important for your profession, you can add them to resume headers besides the name. Examples: “John Baker, PMP”, “Anna Potter, RN”, “James Wolf, MBA”.
Address
There’re some options on how address can be added to good headers:
- Adding the full postal address: 000 Street Name, City, State, Postal Code;
- Adding just City and State / Country;
- Not mentioning address at all.
You may not mention your address if you’ve always lived and work in the same city and send the resume to the local employers. In this case, it’s better to provide the location of the companies you’ve previously worked at.
In case you’ve changed your locations several times, include at least city and state of your current address for the recruiter knows where you live. If you want to move to another city, you may add “open to relocation” line.
Besides, the permanent address of your residence is much preferable than P.O. box number.
Phone Number
Most often recruiters contact the candidates via phone. That is why:
- Check if it is correct;
- Add the number you are easiest to reach.
Don’t use your work number as it may cause serious misunderstanding at your current workplace. Besides, it would question your work ethics for the future employer. Provide the full number, including the country code.
E-mail Address
Before sending your resume, make sure you’ve added correct e-mail address line. Lots of communication during the employment process happens via e-mail. So, first of all, check if the address you provided works.
The recruiters are likely to decline the resumes with unprofessional resume address. For example, best headers would never contain “johnlikesfastcars@yahoo.com”. Instead, use your name and surname. Besides, it’s better to use professional providers, such as Gmail and Outlook. A professional address would look like that: “johnwalker@gmail.com”.
It is still not recommended to use your work postal address for application purposes.
Optional Lines
You may also include a link to your portfolio or LinkedIn profile to the resume header if you have one. Add your portfolio only in case it is relevant to the position you apply at. For example, if you used to work as a web designer and have a solid portfolio, but later you decided to change a profession and search for a registered nurse position, probably it is unnecessary to add a link to the websites you created.
LinkedIn is a good tool to provide more detailed information on your experience, achievements, and projects you completed. So, if you have a strong account, link it to your resume. If you don’t have one, consider creating it.
Resume Header Formatting Tips
Besides providing all the information correctly, you should also care about formatting it right. Here are some recommendations for resume headers:
- Put the header to the top of your resume;
- Use professional header layouts;
- Center it or align it to the left.
Name
Use the biggest font size on your resume to highlight your name. If you use a centered header, make sure that your name line is on the top of your resume. You can also use capital letters for the name line.
Position
For the job title, it’s better to use a smaller font size than used for a name. Nevertheless, it should be larger than other resume lines. If you used Caps Lock for the name, use it for the position name as well. Put that line right under the name line.
Contact Information
Use normal font size for your contact information. Put it into one line under the name and the job title for the centered layout. Or you can put it to the top right corner if name and positions are aligned to the left. In this case use a new line for each type of information (address, phone number, e-mail, etc.).
Links
For easier usage, it is important to make your e-mail address a clickable link. Besides, add hyperlinks to your LinkedIn account, Facebook page, job-related website or online portfolio.
Two Page Resume Header
When you get invited to the interview, the recruiter will probably print your resume. In order to make it easier to follow the pages and not to mix them up, it’s better to use two-page resume header. You may copy all the info from your first page and make it look similar. Otherwise, you can include just your name, e-mail address and page number/e-mail address and page number/name and the page number.
All in all, the resume header is not a guarantee you get hired. But making it correct, you make sure you will be contacted if chosen for the interview.
