I was think more along the line of a "water mark" as the graphic?

Answer 1

Having a watermark is dangerous because a lot of companies scan their resumes into a computer, which sorts the applicants based on keywords. If there is a background graffic, it will confuse the scanner and just enter jibberish into the system. That's a surefire way NOT to get the job!

Answer 2

I'm telling you. Something as simple as choosing a slightly wrong shade of white for your resume will make it immediately discarded. This is the first test of your professionalism. Nobody cares how cool your resume looks. They care that it is done exactly correct. It is pretty common for human resources to use a checklist for correctness and discard unread resumes that fail that checklist. Having a watermark or other extraneous crap on your resume will cause you to automatically fail.

It's real simple. Buy a resume book with examples of how to write it correctly. Write yours correctly and use a laser printer (no other types of printer are acceptable) to print it on standard white paper. Attach a brief cover letter if you are mailing it. Otherwise, just the resume.

Use a standard one page format for most jobs. If you are highly experienced (and highly paid) professional with many many things to put on a resume, it is OK to use a two page format....but only if everything on it is advanced stuff (example, you have a buttload of advanced degrees and important certifications). You really should use the standard 1 page one.