Geek Job Guru – Page 14

50 Shades Of Resume #45: The Multi-Stage Infographic

May 21, 2014 by Steven Savage

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

50 Shades Of Resume #44: The Combined

May 20, 2014 by Steven Savage

Leonardo Zakour combined his web page, his resume (into foldable style to boot), and his business card into a project to promote himself. It’s like a grand slam of development, consistent style, and self-improvement.

Now I’m going to focus on both his resume and this combined effort. What can we learn from the resume first?

The resume is very cleverly broken up. The folds in turn define the different subsections, making each section nicely bounded and precise. This well-composed.
A foldable resume is, of course, useful to hand out at events and easily portable.
The resume flow is also excellent, each nice, precise section leading to the next (though again, I quibble with the skills listed last, below)
The resume also uses varied text styles and colors to make it more interesting and to highlight important information.
The resume is also pretty straightforward, but he breaks it up using icons for communication and putting skills in graph form. It keeps it from being dull.
On the subject of the skills, he presents the skills section as graphs and makes it effectively compact – he gets a lot in a small space.
The resume also communicates well. It shows a lot of thought and ability.

What can we learn from the “whole effort?”

The unified look is great. It shows planning, it presents himself consistently, it looks professionally.
Describing it on the web as a personal project is a good move – it shows thought as well. It also is a good challenge.

A few critiques:

As I note a lot, I prefer skills first on resumes. However as he’s using a graph form for his skills, I find this can work lower down the resume.
I’m not sure the light blue works on everything. It seems a bit light for the “logo” on the resume, but a bit too aggressive on the business card front.

Steve’s Summary: Great resume, and a good unified effort, says a lot about his skills and thoughtfulness. This is the kind of thing I like getting handed at a business event or an interview.

– Steven Savage

50 Shades Of Resume #43: Infographic Mania

May 19, 2014 by Steven Savage

Michelle Magoffin did an infographic resume. Only where we’ve seen some smaller infographic resumes (or ones that were resumes redone as infographic) she went all out. This is a complex infographic with a huge amount of detail – it’s the kind of thing you’d probably print out on Tabloid paper.

The more you drill down, the more you see. There’s a kind of thought flow to go through the reader’s thought processes. There’s quotes. There’s history. There’s a lot.

So what can we learn from this?

She decided to go the complex route on this – then made it easier. She’s got a scannable link to her regular resume and she broke the resume into four basic workflows depending on interest – experience, leadership, results, and creativity. It’s a good example of complexity and simplicity.
It shows a definite sense of humor – even though it’s actually a serious resume. The quotes, the workflow, the design in general has a sense of wimpy.
It shows she knows her potential audiences as she gave a sort of thought roadmap depending on what people are interested in.
She put in hard numbers on her performance. That’s always welcome – and a bit too rare.
Doing this shows a lot of talent and time. This is not something you whip up quickly. For that matter, it shows patience – not something resumes easily display.

Any criticisms? I have a few, though it’s a difficult one to critique:

It’s definitely overbusy. That’s a choice she clearly decided to make, but I don’t think everyone will go for it.
I think the flow of questions could probably be made more orderly.
The use of the four initial colors for each category could be replicated in the resume to show how elements relate.

This is one of those “it’s it’s own thing” resumes. It merely is. And it is pretty neat.

Steve’s Summary: I’d be impressed in seeing this – but I like good infographics. I’d definitely want to talk to her, but would get her regular resume for people not into the idea. It’d also be an interesting conversation starter.

– Steven Savage