geek job guru – Page 7 – Steven Savage

50 Shades Of Resume #4: The Old-Timer

April 10, 2014 by Steven Savage

Let’s take a look at Kelly Weihs’ old-timey looking resume.

Kelly’s resume has an old-timey flyer look here, complete with fake aging and retro fonts. It’s a standard resume in many ways, it just is gussied up to look like a post from times gone by. There’s actually some subtle graphical work here to get the look just right, and the more you look, the more details you see. Take a few minutes to go over this one in detail.

So what are the high points of this old-school yet new-school resume?

It’s actually a full resume. Not sure it’ll scan with the fancy fonts, but it’s easily human readable and has everything one would need to show their work history.
It varies fonts which adds some visual richness. A standard font is always nice to use, but varied fonts (and font styles) can be very powerful when used right.
The use of a focused color scheme – red, black, and the cream-colored background – lets it call attention to important elements or to make text stand out. It uses colors without overusing them, and gives the resume a coherent color theme.
The use of colors to make things stand out deserves it’s own separate mention. This is a very powerful way to guide the viewer’s eye.
It’s got a retro charm which also stands out – as opposed to looking high tech the high technology is used to make something look old. That’s a clever show of talent without being blatant.
It’s surprisingly condensed. The use of side-by-side, different font sizes, etc. helps get a lot of information in there.
The mention of activities and interests is important, and the little red blurb on loving history adds a personal touch.

A few things I’d do:

The use of different font sizes may be overdone. It gets a bit distracting and some may be too small, others (like the Education heading) are too large
I actually think the resume could use a different order – I’m big on skills, then work experience, then education.
I’d put Work For Hire as part of Work Experience.

Steve’s Summary: If I got this resume, I’d be pleased. It shows skills and creativity while communicating information. The whimsy also gives me a good sense of the person’s personality and interests – they like history and they made this look historical.

[“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 #3: The Infographic

April 9, 2014 by Steven Savage

Next up in 50 Shades of Resume is an infographic resume from Martin Suster.

Martin’s resume goes landscape instead of portrait, and he uses the extra space to take an infographic approach to his career. It actually includes a lot of standard resume elements – skills, job history, hobbies – but in a different format. He tops it off with a simple, limited color palette, which is useful as it keeps it from being garish.

The high points of resume are:

It actually mixes standard resume elements with the info graphic approach, and can mostly be viewed either way.
The listing of the skills is actually very effective as it combines both a measure of abilities and general classifications to make it easy to read.
The use of the icons adds a nice, subtle bit of personality to the resume. This is something people could use on a variety of resumes.
A limited color palette keeps this from being garish.
The landscape layout allows this to be an effective one-pager.
There’s a good sense of “quantifying” here and of self-awareness. Despite it being a resume that uses an info graphic, I feel it’s about a person.

The limits of this resume, and suggested alterations:

On the skills, I’d list them in the order of ability from most to least ability, so there’s more symmetry.
Not sure the job history works. It could probably be reconfigured to give it more space.
The education graph is clever, but could probably be a bit smoother, going for a simple timeline.
It’s not a resume that’ll necessarily scan well. It’s probably well paired with a more regular resume – it looks great online or as part of a set of resumes.
This would go well paired with a regular resume – it’s a good, powerful personal snapshot.

Steve’s Summary: If I got this resume it gives me a sense of a person with a good sense of design and a real sense of self-awareness. I’d want some more job history though, and possibly a regular resume.

– Steven Savage

50 Shades Of Resume #2: The Splash

April 8, 2014 by Steven Savage

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.

– Steven Savage