A leader is the row of dots that carries your eye from an entry to the number at the end of the line — the device a table of contents uses. On a resume it does the same job for dates: the title and the date are usually far apart on the line, and without a leader the reader's eye has to jump the gap on every entry. With one, the two ends stay connected even on a wide page.

It is also the reason this template survives the Word export better than most decorative designs: a dot leader is a native Word tab-stop feature, not an effect we have to fake.

Clay and sand read as friendly, which is exactly wrong in some rooms — banking, law, government. And the design leans on two fills, so on a grayscale printer the sand band and the heading chips both flatten to similar grays; if you know the resume will be photocopied, pick a template built on rules instead.