50 Shades Of Resume

50 Shades Of Resume #35: The Personal Touch

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Resume 35

Clifton Roberts would like to introduce himself – and that’s just what his resume does. In fact it opens up with a friendly greeting coming from a picture of himself. It’s a resume that starts right off with the personal touch – and there’s more when you look into it.

It’s a straightforward resume, but there’s little touches and quite a few lessons:

  • The introduction and his “speaking picture” is a great lead in. It makes a personal connection right off the bat.
  • There’s a good unified color scheme.
  • I like how he uses a all cap bold red font for “leads” for each paragraph. it gets attention and makes the resume more visually interesting.
  • Having art of himself (combined with an abstract picture is another way to show his skill.
  • He leads off with skills – but also does something different, working icons representing his software knowledge separately in the “portrait” piece. That’s a different approach, and might be something to consider for other resumes.
  • Skill section also shows a lot of detail.
  • He’s also put a lot of detail into his experience section by using a paragraph approach. Not always something I do, but it works well here.
  • Finally, it’s nicely restrained. It’s precise, not overdone, and effective.

Now a few things I might change:

  • The contact information is a bit dull. I think another speech balloon may be order.
  • He breaks with his red-then-black paragraph structure in his Personal information section. I’d go back to that.
  • The references are probably not needed.

Overall, a well-done resume. Personal, gives you the right information, and has an interesting way to “double display” skills.

Steve’s Summary: A good resume, the kind I’d be glad to see. Professional, clever, and effective, without overdoing it.

[“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

50 Shades Of Resume #34: The 8-Bit Resume

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Resume 34

You probably saw this resume on the internet before. Robby Leonardi decided to put his resume as a kind of 8-bit adventure reminiscent of the Mario Games. Think of it as Super Job Search Brother.

Now it’s easy to dismiss this as “cool” and move on. But if you’re thinking of employing Robert (which, as he made an 8-bit resume is a likelihood) then you’ll see it tells you a lot. It’s also important to take a look at in detail to see what we can learn:

  • He’s got a consistent look. There’s a lot of research and fine detail here, and it shows.
  • The resume clearly shows a lot of thought, ability, and technical skill. It’s actually subtle in its own way – though it’s a clear demonstration of skill, it’s fun and not “in your face.”
  • His skill about section uses what we’ve seen several times – a kind of “rating bar” – but he also uses some familiar plants instead of bars.
  • He reflects this “rating” system in his skills. – in this case using sea life. He also shows a lot of skills in this case, giving a good sense of detail
  • The working section displays what he did in each job – as a percentage pie graph. That’s an interesting touch period – but also looks neat when done as giant robots.
  • Showing his awards as a vertical progression is a nice break from the horizontal progress.
  • The resume ends with a contact form – a good way to encourage people to contact him. Which they should.
  • At the end there’s also links to social media and a PDF resume – that reflects this resume.

There are a few critiques:

  • There’s a few too many ‘intermediate” stage you have to scroll through.  It could have been amusing to add a “warp zone.”
  • The “About” section is a bit general, so it’s not clear you’ll get to skills later. It might be good to have put them together

Really, this is a quality piece of work. Effective, clever, showing his skills, a break from the usual, it’s a good example of a functional/stunt resume.

Steve’s Summary: As you can guess, I’d love it if an applicant had something like that. Not only is it good, but it also has a fun, whimsical sense. It’s not showing off – it’s showing skill.

[“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

50 Shades Of Resume #33: The Straight Up

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Resume 33

I originally saw a more funky resume that Landin Hollis had done – a clever clipboard. But he’s not one to limit himself, and his most recent resume is this straight up, almost minimalist resume with what seems to be a slight art deco feel. We’ve seen a lot of wild resumes here, and his is nearly restrained.

But a minimal resume is also a challenge to create – and do it right. I’m sure many of us have been there before.  He did it.

Some great takeaways:

  • The most artsy part is the header, with the unusual mix of fonts, sizes, and colors. That makes it stand out from the minimalism of the rest of the resume – and sets the color scheme.
  • On the subject of the color scheme, he’s chosen a simple and effective one.
  • This is another resume that uses symbolic representations of skills – in this case a “five point” scale for software and a linear scale for design skills.
  • Using braces is a neat touch for showing information relevant to his resume.
  • I like that the skills are at the top – you know me.
  • Another two-column resume here – and it works with the left column for career-specific, and more general stuff on the right.
  • This is another example of a resume that gets the job done and wants to communicate clearly. That says something about the creator.

A few critiques:

  • There’s too much white space on the left. that could probably be reduced by 1/3 to 1/2.
  • I’m not sure having two different forms of skill ratings is a good idea. It breaks up the design, but also contrasts.
  • The related skills section is a bit of a mishmash. It’s a good way to show other skills, but also mixes various things together including personal touches. It might go better in the left column.

Steve’s Summary: A good resume. I’d be glad to get one like this – concise, clear, and easy to understand.  I can’t really complain.

[“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