Will color on a resume ruin your chances of scoring an interview? For the longest time, people have generally accepted that a professional resume should be black and white.

Now, this may be true in very conservative fields, however, most other professions have shifted to accepting (and even preferring) resumes with color. Why?

5 reasons why you should use color on your resume

I’m going to tell you five great reasons for including color on your resume. These are the reasons why you’ll find color on many of my professional resume templates here on Job Search Journey.

They are also the reasons why I use color on many of my award-winning client resume designs.

Of course, there are always exceptions, and I’ll cover those at the end too!

1. Resumes with color stand out

Companies receive on-average 100 resumes per open position. That number is shocking to many people.

While initially your resume may be screened by an Applicant Tracking System (ATS), it will reach human eyes at a certain point in the process.

As a former Fortune 100 Recruiter, I can tell you that after skimming a sea of black-and-white resumes all day, the one with color always got a little more of my time.

Remember, the goal of your resume is to get you noticed. Color is a great way to achieve this effect.

2. Color psychology can advance your candidacy

Science has found that we can impact the perceptions and behaviors of others through color.

Marketers utilize this psychology to influence consumer impressions and purchase habits all the time.

A study by Emerald Insight found that people make up their minds about brands and products within 90 seconds and 62%-90% of this assessment is based on colors alone.

Colors can increase appetite, enhance mood and even calm negative emotions.

Colors can also convey brand “personality”, as discussed in the Journal of Marketing Research. As a candidate, you can utilize these color insights to your advantage.

3. Color on a resume makes your professional brand memorable

According to Forbes, color improves brand recognition by up to 80%.

A study in the Malays Journal of Medical Science also found that color can improve memory performance, including attention and information retrieval.

By using the same design and colors across all of your candidate documents, you can leave a lasting impression on the hiring authority.

4. Content consumption preferences are trending toward visual elements

Recruiter and hiring manager behavior has long followed consumer content consumption trends (after all, they are consumers too!)

According to the Social Science Research Network, about 65% of the population are visual learners.

When considering this alongside the fact that text with images gets 94% more views and visuals are processed 60,000 times faster than text, you start to understand how elements like color and infographics can give you a competitive advantage as a job seeker.

Recruiters typically give a resume an initial 7-second skim before determining whether or not to read the entire document. If you can capture their attention up-front, your odds for securing an interview increase.

5. Top executives use color on a resume to land C-level positions

C-suite executives know a thing or two about presentation and capitalizing on limited time.

Most recognize the ROI of paying a professional Resume Writer to develop their career search documents and typically invest $5,000 or more for these services.

Nearly every C-level resume that I have seen over my 15+ years in recruiting has incorporated color.

There are always exceptions

While I hope you feel we have made a compelling case for using color in a resume, there are still fields and industries that view color as unprofessional.

The number decreases every year, but until 100% of employers and hiring managers appreciate color, it’s important to either research yourself or consult with a professional about color use within your field.