Should I trim the white edges off my resume?

Trimming it will probably not improve it. As yo said it won’t be standard size, and it’s difficult to get a good, even trim.

I don’t think you should submit a resume that is a nonstandard size. But if it really ruins the design, use a paper cutter to get a perfectly straight cut.

Instead of having a yellow background, I’d just go w/some similarly colored special paper. And, yea, what everyone says about the standard size is right: don’t mess w/8.5×11.

Further thought: I don’t know anything about resumes in graphic design, and maybe this field is the exception, but I have always seen the advice to use plain white paper for your resume and a clean, clear standard font. You want your resume to be attractive and easy to read, and not all special and weird. Besides, it may have to be photocopied and sent around. Can’t you include samples to show off your design skills and let your resume be classic and clean?

Making it a non-standard size will irritate potential employers. And as someone who has hired in graphic design, excessively design-ey resumes can be off-putting. A better way to show off your design skills is to subtly improve upon page layout, font choice, sizes, styles, leading margins, etc. on plain white paper so that it looks like an ordinary resume only better. That is a real test for a graphic designer.

But if you really want this affect, pay to have it printed on 11×17 paper and have it trimmed to 8½×11.

@anartist I agree, I was actually thinking about including a standard basic resume that has identical information with the designed resume in case they didn’t feel like looking at something with graphics and all that on it. I looked around online and saw a lot of Graphic Design resumes that have a lot of graphics and crazy things going on. Personally myself I think your idea is much better but wasn’t sure if I was limiting myself by doing that either…

Don’t send two resumes. That just makes you look indecisive and probably the design-ey one will get chucked. Wait to show them your portfolio—be sure to include likks to a portfolio on the web if you have one

All I can say is that when I was reading resumes, I would throw away the ones that looked like they were cut out of a scrapbook and the ones handwritten on yellow paper.

from a recruiter for all sorts of government jobs—quoted on fadebook

I love resumes that nice and clean! Not a lot of fancy dancy formatting.

Personal information… See More
Exp Summary
Education/Certs
Clearance Info
Technical Capabilities
Thennnnnnn Employment History

Turn offs:
Spelling errors
Email address on resumes that are NOT professional (ie Blaquequeen69@yahoo.com, Cashmoney352@hotmail.com)

Oh I had this one guy use hearts instead of bullets on his resume-I bet he also used scented paper LOL needless to say I did NOT call him to find out.