When writing a resume, you spend most of your time making sure the format is professional and that you’ve included your relevant experience and education. The last thing you worry about is what font to use. As long as you stay away from comic sans, you’re set, right? Not necessarily. So, what font can you use on our resume without running into trouble? Here’s a quick rundown of some of the most used fonts and whether it can make or break your resume!

• Times New Roman. This font is the go-to for professionalism. It’s the comforting fall-back when you’re not quite sure what to use. Times New Roman is the font teachers encourage students to use for papers. It’s also used very often, and might give the person reviewing your resume the impression that you haven’t given your resume the time you should have. Will using this font effect your chances of being hired? Probably not. It is a standby for a reason, though maybe not the best choice you can make.
• Garamond. This isn’t a font you automatically consider when typing up your resume. However, if your resume is lengthy, you should! Garamond is legible, clean, professional, and interesting. It’s also a font that is easy to read and can keep a lengthy list of experience neat.
• Courier. This is also a fall back font. It’s often used to make something short appear to be a bit more substantial. However, this is also a font that, unlike Times New Roman, can appear unprofessional. There are many better choices, so avoid Courier if you can!
• Helvetica or Arial. When at all possible, use Helvetica. Helvetica is considered, across the board, the best, most professional font to use for your resume. It’s clean, professional, and unfussy. It also doesn’t give a potential employer the impression that you are trying to fill more space with a larger font. But, many word processors don’t have Helvetica immediately available. If that’s the case for you, try using Arial. Arial is similar to Helvetica in that the lines are clean and easy to read!

Take a second to look over your resume. You may think you have everything in order, but don’t forget the small details! No matter the position you choose to apply for, recruiters and hiring professionals will notice and appreciate the right font on your resume.