50 shades of resume – Page 9

50 Shades Of Resume #28: The Blurbs

May 4, 2014 by Steven Savage

Resumes are both ways to describe ourselves but also advertise ourselves. Briana Higgins ran with this idea to create a resume that “blurbs” her personality and traits while mixing them with her background and job description, with some infographics to boot. It’s a bullet-fast bang-bang of information with specific details when you drill down.

Needless to say it’s also a non-standard resume, though works a lot of standard elements into it. Let’s analyze what we can learn:

Mixing the personality traits (“Dependable”, “Versatile”) in with the regular resume background like education is an interesting choice.
There’s use of text running in various directions that’s a real change of pace from other resume – and also saves some space.
She uses different fonts, colors, and sizes to make the resume more interesting.
The use of icons in the left side is a clever idea that drives how what the sections are about before you read them.
The skill section is really unique – using the labels as major categories with a “ring” of specific skills around them. That’s a take that saves space and is visually interesting.
The resume then goes from the “Skill blurbs” to a linear measure of experience, which actually is a mix of skill and job history display. That’s a fast way to communicate knowledge and experience that’s efficient and easy to understand visually.
When you look it all over, the resume says a lot, but each part is different.

Now a few critiques:

I like the interleaving of personal traits in with the resume, but sometimes that can be overdone. it might be good to mix the “trait bars” with background elements relevant to said personality traits.
I think the “blurb” text may be too large – you could free up more space.
References are probably not needed, nor is the quote from a previous manager. Though the quote is clever, it’s usually not needed – it could be replaced with a personal or philosophical quote. However, it does fit the overall “show my personality” trait.
I’d have liked to see more job history Since she has a lot of skills, I’d want to see something showing what she’s done.

What I like with this resume is each part is different, so it doesn’t get dull, and there’s some ways to portray backgrounds that are clear, but also different. It also has a friendly, funky look that’s non pretentious.

Steve’s Summary: Hand me this and it definitely tells me we’ve got a person with skill, and I get some fast-and-easy summaries of what she’s capable of on top of the talent that went into the resume. It’s also enjoyably non-standard. I would want some job history though.

[“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 #27: The Super Simple

May 3, 2014 by Steven Savage

Eric Ghandi likes simple, which is a virtue for any visual designer who has to be sure pages and graphics work with phones, tablets, game consoles, and probably telepathic reception. So he’s got a straight up website and a very straightforward resume.

Its actually one of the simplest resumes I’ve seen in ages. It’s almost minimalist while still being visually interesting and engaging. So of course I’m analyzing it.

Here’s what I found works:

This is really, delightfully straightforward. Yes, it lacks details, but at the same time that’s literally its style. It obviously has a goal.
It’s uncomplicated. He goes and gets things done.
He further condenses the skill section into lines of skills, not categories. Normally i’m not for that, but in this case it works with the style.
The use of different font sizes works in this case – as the resume is so simple it’s probably needed to add some detail.
A good use of inverted color schemes (though see below)
Having the header a different background than the text is an interesting choice, it stands out.
I like the dashes of color for the internet connectivity, it ads some pizzaz.

A few issues:

I think the header is a bit large for such a simple resume. It could be reduced.
Not entirely sure the black-on-white text works for the section headers. I might have used different text colors instead.

This is a resume that gets me thinking. It’s so simple it makes me wonder how simple one can go . . .

Steve’s Summary: A solid resume that shows a desire to get things done and is free of BS. I’d like to get this one – but I would want a portfolio.

– Steven Savage

50 Shades Of Resume #26: The Personal Infographic

May 2, 2014 by Steven Savage

We’re familiar with infographics that get impersonal – in a way, they sort of straddle the line, but many get a bit cold. Elliot Hasse takes a standard few-colors infographic look and makes it his resume – and then makes it about himself, providing intimate details and humorous commentary. It’s a mix of a different metaphor for resume and a different approach to infographics – with commentary on culture to boot.

It’s a very different approach – frankly it surprised me a bit when I dived into it because it really is a different approach.

What stands out for me?

Elliot gets himself. This kind of resume shows he knows who he is, what he’s done, and that he’s looking on where to go.
There’s a sense of humor throughout the piece, which says a lot about his personality. It is, for its infographic look, highly personal.
Elliot goes for intimate detail and it does add a personal sense as well. This isn’t just bullet-pointed lists, but when he went to school, his love of beer, a side business, and so on.
He uses icons throughout which gives a consistent visual sense – and shows his design skills.
He also has a consistent color scheme, further showing his design skills.
The resume uses differing font sizes effectively.
The skills section is very clever – use if icons (while keeping the color scheme) and using a vertical graph to show skill levels. That combines two metaphors into one and says a lot in a small space, very cleverly.
The Frank Zappa quote is a firm statement of his personality.
There’s little wasted space. It’s a tight infographic.

And no resume is perfect, there’s a few issues I find:

This is a gamble as the resume is very non-standard flow-wise, and very heavy on more intimate details. Not everyone will appreciate this.
The font size in the “detail” column is a bit too small – mostly though, the font sizing works.
I’m not sure the timeline and the “detailed timeline” at the top need to be separated. If keep separated, I don’t think the dates and elements quite line up. They might work merged as a series of rows.
* As I often note, I prefer skills go earlier. In this case I may make an exception as the intimate detail is part of the goal.
I wouldn’t make a weapons reference in skills – that may go over wrong.
I also might put the skills in “descending order of ability,” though I suspect he wanted to have different groupings.
I also would have liked more sense of skills, but this was done while he was in school.

Two big takeaways are the interesting timeline at the top and the icon-and-vertical skill listing. Those are unique approaches and may be ones people can use or try out.

Steve’s Summary: If a recruiter gave me this resume, I’d get a kick out of the personal detail – I feel I really do get to know Elliot right away. I also like his sense of story – he knows who he is and where he wants to go.

– Steven Savage