resume – Page 9 – Steven Savage

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 #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

50 Shades Of Resume #25: The Board Game

May 1, 2014 by Steven Savage

A few years ago Kristian Walsh created a resume that made a game out of his career – literally. Based on the game of life, she charted his life, skills, and accomplishments as a board game that looks a wee bit familiar to all of us that remember those classics.

But Kristain isn’t conspiring to make some of us feel old (that happens automatically), this is a resume that uses a far different metaphor than the standard resume – which in a way is another metaphor. It’s interpreting the CV history as something different.

To boot, he even has a video version available.

Now in analyzing such a unique resume, one faces the challenge in that it “is what it is.” But there’s a lot we can learn

First, this is a clever use of one thing to portray another. That already speaks volumes to a reviewer because it uses an unexpected metaphor – and shows Kristain is capable of thinking outside the box (and into the game box).
It’s actually a timeline resume, and as you “play along” you can see his history. This is a more detailed and personal history than the usual resume, and thus adds a more intimate feel.
The resume also calls out skills as they are learned, giving some sense of skills.
The relevant skills and history are also summarized on the right side of the page, a smart idea given how unusual this is.
Major milestones are called out in the “life-flow” which adds a further sense of what’s going on.
Notice how the “life-flow” takes you to the contact information and the final summary.

It’s actually hard to find issues with the resume as it’s really a success – a complete take of one metaphor and moving it into the other. A few things:

I’d use different colors for the board titles. Maybe code them to show “learned a skill”, “achievement,” etc. It breaks things up and communicates more.
The contact info is just there as usual text. That’s dull, and should be offset, a different style, or made to look like something else (Manufacturers contact information?).

Really, though, its hard to find much negative here. It’s just a clever piece of work. Opens me up to wondering what other metaphors we can use for our job histories . . .

Steve’s Summary: I’d love to see a resume like this come across my desk. Not only does it break up the monotony, it’s witty and makes me think – and tells me the person can rethink things and re-intepret them. Adaptability and imagination are powerful traits . . .

– Steven Savage