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50 Shades Of Resume: Make It Awesome

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Org Chart

OK, after stepping away from resumes for a bit, I’m back for a final roundup. Namely, what we can learn from the 50 Shades of Resume analysis to make your resume awesome.

So I went through all my past analysis and here’s what stood out!

Now That’s Something Else

  • Making your resume look like something else is a great way to show creativity and communicate. If it looks like a newspaper, an ad, etc. that shows your skills and may just be a good way to communicate.
  • In some cases your resume could literally be in another form – a book, a poster, and so on. This could be radical and expensive, but clearly shows skill and commitment. An excellent choice if the chosen form relates to your career. Just make sure to have a regular resume available.
  • A resume can also be done over something or integrated into something – like an illustration ora photo. This can also let you focus on a look or a metaphor appropriate to a given industry or job.
  • You may want to go nuts and just go all out with a crazy, almost obsessive effort to do a different resume, especially if that applies to your skillset.

The Form And The Function

  • Try a different material besides paper – though if you make it out of something non-paper, you may want to make the content itself more standard. This will be memorable, though it may be a bit odd.
  • Consider resumes that can be folded into different forms, collapsed down like a flyer, etc. Those are great to hand out to people.
  • If you can do a business-card sized resume you’ve got a great thing to hand to people you meet.

Make It User Friendly

  • Consider making a resume as simple and minimal as possible. A good, precise resume can have an impact – and may fit well onto unusual forms.
  • The use of known icons for social media, skills, and so on makes a resume easy to read, skim, and use.

The Digital Resume

  • If you have an online or otherwise digital resume, this is a chance to use design, web, art, and technical skills to show your stuff. Or to show that you can pay someone. Either way you’re freed from physical limits.
  • Crazy online resumes and so on should have links to other ways to get a dull, regular resume. In case.
  • If you create a digital resume, consider making using a related metaphor – a familiar website, a video game, and so on.
  • Remember a digital resume can be interactive.

The Look

  • Coordinate your resume design and that of other marketing materials (business carts, web page) to have the same look. Use the same colors, fonts, icons, etc. This makes you memorable, looks professional, and probably is easier to update.
  • Font choice is very important – and you have a huge variety of them to choose from.
  • Consider varying font sizes and colors for a more diverse yet consistent resume.
  • Break your resume up well. Having identifiable sections makes it easier to skim and to digest.
  • Using colors stands out. Even one or two splashes makes a difference.
  • Good design can give a resume a 3D appearance, which can be very pleasing.
  • Consider anchoring your resume with visual elements; a colorful band down the middle of the page dividing it up, a picture of yourself at the top, different divisors, etc. These can let you keep a standard resume while making it more interesting.
  • Try something else than a white background and black text. I’ve seen resumes that were white-on-black and were very effective.

Layout

  • Two column resumes allow you to get a lot on one page. Make sure the columns are broken up appropriately.
  • Parts of a resume can be mutlicolumn, like putting achievements in multiple columns under a job. This can save space and let you experiment with better layouts and metaphors.
  • If you want to show some art, the left hand side is a good place to put it, providing a kind of border/compliment to the rest of the resume.
  • If you want to get a little crazy, try moving your name out of the header and vertically onto the side, in a band across the resume, or something else.

More Than Text

  • Paths, charts, graphs, and timelines are ways to give people a strong sense of your history. People relate to visual information.
  • A resume can be done as an infographic. Resumes sort of are anyway, but when you take it all the way and do it right it’s very effective.
  • If you’re rethinking the different parts of a resume consider how the different sections can be shown different. Some ideas:
    • Skills can be displayed as bar graphs.
    • Skills can be displayed as icons indicating software or products you know.
    • Job history and education can be shown as timelines.

Cover Letters

  • Don’t forget a good cover letter, package, envelope, etc. can make an impression. After all, people may see that before the resume.
  • If you have a standard format and design – fonts, colors – don’t forget to use that on cover letters.

Personal Touches

  • Including a picture (or drawing) of yourself personalizes a resume
  • If you’re an artist you can work in some of your art, but be careful so you don’t overwhelm the piece.

So those are the findings that came to mind for me after analyzing all these resumes.  I think I’ll be working them into some of my presentations and advice.

So, what did you learn?

– Steven Savage

Steven Savage is a Geek 2.0 writer, speaker, blogger, and job coach.  He blogs on careers at http://www.musehack.com/, publishes books on career and culture at http://www.informotron.com/, and does a site of creative tools at http://www.seventhsanctum.com/. He can be reached at https://www.stevensavage.com/.

50 Shades Of Resume #49: The Coordinated

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Resume 49

Alexander Parker’s resume and business cards are part of a coordinated project – the design of each reflects the other. Alone that’s pretty neat, but the resume design is also pretty impressive.  Together it’s a serious job search combo.

Let’s discuss the coordinated idea first – it’s basically a good strategy (and one I’ve been emphasizing over time in this project). The use of the “Alex icon”, the font, the “funnel” border designs, all unify the look. What I like about that:

  • It shows planning and consideration.
  • It’s a clear, effective design, showing talent.
  • The card functions almost as a mini-resume.
  • The effort is also subtle – it’s not “in-your-face” and I think that makes it effective.

But let’s look at the resume:

  • This is another good example of a two-column resume – employment on the left, skills and education on the right. It works quite well – and using borders to offset the skills/education are adds some additional division.
  • The Work Experience section is a classic piece, with detailed descriptions.
  • I like the “iconic” picture of the creator. It adds personalization while still maintaining the simple ensign. Speaking of . .
  • This is a good, effective, precise design. It’s got some color to jazz it up, smart design, but it’s not aggressive about it. It’s very effective.
  • The chosen color scheme works well – the lime green stands out without overdoing it.

Any suggestions? Only one . . . well, related ones.

  • As usual, I’d put skills higher up. There could probably be more skills as well. I might add more or categorize them.

Steve’s Summary: The kind of resume I like to see – I can share it with anyone, it shows creativity and thought, and innovation as well as tradition.

[“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 #48: The Emergency Sticker

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Resume 48

Jonathan Wong would like to warn you. Namely, he’d like to warn you he’s an awesome artist.  Fortunately he’s got a big sticker for that.

This emergency sticker is actually the cover to a more standard resume (in the lower right hand corner). It’s sort of part of the resume, a portfolio, a cover letter, and more. I wanted to include it for sheer unusualness.  Also it’s really cool.

What he did was create an emergency sticker, treating himself as a kind of emergency resource (and apparently biohazard, but hey, artists are biological). It’s an amazingly detailed creation for a kind of preview/lead-in, so what can we learn from it:

  • It’s a giant punch in the face of pure talent. A lot of work went into this, from design, to aging it, to putting in little details, to making it look right. You really don’t doubt this guy has talent and an eye for detail.
  • Remember, this is the cover.  With this kind of lead in your resume is almost secondary.  In fact, that could be an interesting combo – deliver an amazing cover letter with a more standard resume.
  • It’s interesting how it leads into a more standard resume – a heavy one-two punch and then the detailed, regular information. He literally uses his “finishing move” first – not always something I recommend, but in this case he does it right.  This is a massive statement.
  • * It shows a sense of humor. At first it looks dangerous, then you get the humor involved. That says a lot about his personality as well as skills.
  • * It’s unique. I doubt you’ll have seen anything else like this in your day.  Or year.
  • It makes me wonder about ways to rethink the resume, portfolio, and cover letter.  By turning his cover letter into a statement of talent (and thus a mini portfolio) it plays into the resume by showing his abilities  What other ways could we recombine the elements of our job search?

Any criticisms? Actually, not any. This is straight up clever and effective. I’d just note that if you try something similar, do it your own way.

Steve’s Summary: I’ll want to interview the guy based on seeing this.  You just don’t do something like this and not have a bunch of talent – and that’s before I get to the resume (and part of the reason it’s in this series).

[“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