Michael Anderson’s resume is one of the infographic styles we’ve seen, though he’s actually merging several different info graphic styles together. There’s timelines, circular graphs, and even some humorous self commentary in graphic form.
The result is pretty information-dense and rather colorful – what he did was put most of the common parts of a resume into different formats, using a consistent color scheme. He committed to infograhpics, and stuck with them.
What have we got going on here?
- As we’ve seen before, he uses a progress graph that’s merges both employment history and his education – employment on top, education below. This is an effective method as it it provides a timeline while saving space.
- The employment/academic info graphic also has an interesting touch – he describes it as a measure of energy expended.
- He keeps the text elements of the Employment/academic infographic to a minimum, keeping it from being overcrowded and maximizing space.
- The skill set circular graph is interesting as it mixes time investment and professional development into one graph. That’s ambitious, and though I think it might be a bit too complex, it is at least clever.
- He actually made humor an info graphic as he discusses his “daily consumption” – and includes coffee. He thus says things about himself as a graphic, keeping it constant with the entire resumes style.
- There’s a consistent color scheme to the resume – and that’s a lot of color. He made the rainbow selection work – and it’s not blatant.
- He clearly loves good infographics and it shows.
- Though unusual, he really does show most of the information a resume needs to do in a different form.
I do have a few things that could be changed:
- Not sure the “effort expended” idea of the employment/academic graph works. It’s a nice idea.
- The skill graph, as noted, is a bit unusual for what most people are used to.
- The humorous graph in the lower left doesn’t seem to add much. It’s a nice touch to put personal information and humor in info graphic form, but I think something different could be done.
This is a good example of picking an idea and sticking with it. Though I have some issues with it, it has a consistency and commitment that really says something about him.
Steve’s Summary: A pretty good resume, especially considering his unusual approach. It’s one that I can show people who aren’t into creative resumes and they’ll “get” enough of it. Also I’m biased towards good graphic presentation.
[“50 Shades of Resume” is an analysis of various interesting resumes to celebrate the launch of the second edition of my book “Fan To Pro” and to give our readers inspiration for their own unique creations.]
– Steven Savage