50 Shades Of Resume #2: The Splash

 

Resume 2

Our second resume is from Eduardo Lino of Brazil. I call it the “Splash.”

Eduardo’s resume is an interesting mixture of a standard resume design that’s easily readable, but has many layers to it – it literally looks like a series of papers and sticky notes atop a paint-splattered surface. He’s’ also got an eye-catching black, white, and yellow color scheme that really catches your attention.

The High Points of this splashy resume are:

  • It’s both colorful and readable. He manages a resume that stands out and still can be easily understood.
  • There’s a bit of whimsy to it with the paper-and-notes metaphor. It shows a sense of humor.
  • It’s information-dense – he does a lot with one page – but it doesn’t feel overcrowded.
  • It’s subtle. This resume avoids going over the top with it’s design, and thus I think communicates his graphical skills well.
  • The rating of his skills shows honesty – he’s willing to admit “I just have the basics” for some things.
  • Frankly, it’s a generally attractive resume. It feels like it’s meant to be read.

The limits of “The Splash” are:

  • This is a resume that may not work well on two pages, or he’d have to redesign it.
  • There’s not a lot of room for detail on what was done at his past employers.

Steve’s Summary: If this resume was handed to me, I’d appreciate the balance of readability and style. There’s a thoughtfulness here in design that speaks to me and makes me want to know more about the person.

[“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 #1: The Progress Graph

Resume 1

So what’s our first resume? It’s this graph of progress by Branko Yamasaki, a combination of a regular resume and a graphical display of his career growth and skill usage.

Brako’s resume is a skills-based info graphic that shows how he’s improved in his skills over the years (and in a few cases, like Ruby, just sort of let the skill go), and where he used them. It’s a single-page hit of information that focuses on what he’s done, learned, and where.

The High Points of this resume-chart are:

  • Strong use of visual space to portray skills, progress, and where he worked.
  • Surprisingly keeping everything on one page.
  • Shows a definite sense of growth and progress in a compelling way.
  • It’s humanized – Branko’s smiling face and extra comments on the left bar personalize what could be an otherwise effective but ultimately not “human” graph.
  • Demonstrates his graphical talents.
  • It’s clever, in that a lot is actually done with visual space and elements to communicate.

The limits of this graph-resume are:

  • It’s definitely going to choke a scanning system. This is a resume to send to people or put in a portfolio to impress them, not send to any position on a message board.
  • It may get more crowded over time and need to be rethought.
  • It may need to be rethought if any career changes occur.
  • The left column is indispensable to keep the human side, limiting space available.

Steve’s Summary: If this came across my desk, I’d be intrigued, especially if Branko was applying for a data-visualization heavy job, and I’d like the honesty on his skills.  I also like the fact I have a feel for his personality.

[“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

Geek As Citizen: Science Awareness

Scientist Scope Technology Science

Neil deGrasse Tyson gives me hope. And not just that a relatively nerdy guy can become an intellectual sex symbol (according CERTAIN people in my twitter feed). It’s that we can make paying attention and knowing science cool again. Because we need to, and the remade Cosmos is a great start.

It seems as of late science isn’t cool.

  • Of course there’s climate change, where apparently 97% of scientists agreeing about it leaves room for controversy, especially if fat donations and speaking gigs can be wedged into that room.
  • There’s the disgusting anti-vaccination crusade that means we get measles back to kill our kids. There’s a nice story of leaving the anti-vaxx movement here or you can just stew in anger over the body count site whose URL mocks Jenny Mc Carthy.
  • Abstinence only education doesn’t work, though people still seem to think talking about it will convince people it does. Having been a teenager and remembering it, and looking at the numbers, I’m pretty sure it doesn’t.

We probably need to clone Neil deGrasse Tyson (Ok, you folks on Twitter, calm down, you know who you are). But baring the possibility of using dark technology to create an Army of Tysons* it’s up to us to enhance science awareness.

It’d kind of be par for the course.

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