The Student Room Group

Can CVs have colour?

I recently applied for a student helper role for an upcoming university residential. I had been told that the layout of my CV had been a bit odd (I agreed with this and made the necessary changes). I was told about using an online template and found a 'student CV' template by Microsoft (here: https://templates.office.com/en-gb/Student-CV-Modern-design-TM16402507). I didn't get the role and they said they had a very high volume of applications. I applied quite late compared to others so I wondered if they started sifting through applications early. If that's not the case, then I know the issue is with my CV. I'll definitely work on the writing of it, but since the CV template I used was quite modern and obviously not just black and white, I wondered if that might be an issue too? Should I just stick to the traditional black and white scheme?
Original post by etherealinsanity
I recently applied for a student helper role for an upcoming university residential. I had been told that the layout of my CV had been a bit odd (I agreed with this and made the necessary changes). I was told about using an online template and found a 'student CV' template by Microsoft (here: https://templates.office.com/en-gb/Student-CV-Modern-design-TM16402507). I didn't get the role and they said they had a very high volume of applications. I applied quite late compared to others so I wondered if they started sifting through applications early. If that's not the case, then I know the issue is with my CV. I'll definitely work on the writing of it, but since the CV template I used was quite modern and obviously not just black and white, I wondered if that might be an issue too? Should I just stick to the traditional black and white scheme?


Stick to black and white. In certain industries then non standard ones might be accepted, but they are rare.
Original post by 999tigger
Stick to black and white. In certain industries then non standard ones might be accepted, but they are rare.


Noted. Thank you! :smile:
Hi,

It's risky looking too different, however thought I'd share the experience of a work placement friend of mine who has just finished her 'year in industry' work placement with a big pharma firm.

She put a couple of graphic designs (nice not tacky!) on the edges of hers. She got called to the assessment centre etc, got the job, beat off quite a bit of competition in doing so. When she started the job, the hiring Manager congratulated her on how her CV stood out from the rest. The Manager saw so many generic looking CV that my friends really jumped out at the hiring manager (obvs the content/skills/experience was good too!)

I must caveat this with it is just one story, as mentioned it might'nt be suitable for lots of companies and industries, but anything you can do to make your CV not just be another one in the generic pile is good I think!

Good Luck!
Paul
Original post by paulkevinmurphy
Hi,

It's risky looking too different, however thought I'd share the experience of a work placement friend of mine who has just finished her 'year in industry' work placement with a big pharma firm.

She put a couple of graphic designs (nice not tacky!) on the edges of hers. She got called to the assessment centre etc, got the job, beat off quite a bit of competition in doing so. When she started the job, the hiring Manager congratulated her on how her CV stood out from the rest. The Manager saw so many generic looking CV that my friends really jumped out at the hiring manager (obvs the content/skills/experience was good too!)

I must caveat this with it is just one story, as mentioned it might'nt be suitable for lots of companies and industries, but anything you can do to make your CV not just be another one in the generic pile is good I think!

Good Luck!
Paul


Thanks Paul! I'll keep that in mind!
Original post by J-SP
Nothing to do with the colour, but:

Name is too big and it’s odd that the surname is in bold but the first name isn’t

The description for the objective is just odd and I wouldn’t follow it at all. If you are applying with a cover letter in 90% of cases an objective isn’t needed anyway.

β€œActivities” could be better phrased as a title, especially if you have got any extra curricular experiences worth talking about.

Colour is fine as long as it is still relatively dark font. If someone does still print documents, and prints them on black and white you need it to print ok. Light colour fonts won’t do this, and it can make it more difficult to read in these situations.


Thanks JSP!

At the time, I ended up changing 'Activities' to 'Interests' and put extra curriculars in there, and I changed 'Objective' to 'Profile' (going off of my original CV) and basically just put 3 lines in a sort of summary-ish things about the kinds of experience and skills I had. I'll definitely look into the bold font/name thing though, and I'll go back over the colour idea :smile:
Looks daft, but these jobs have a shed load of applicants and the chances are you are going to be rejected even with a conventional CV. Forget about the colour scheme and format.
That is kind of JSP if they have looked at it for you. i was always taught B&W for photocopy reasons and that attempts to stand out with pictures, graphics and funky fonts can often create entirely the wrong impression.

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