50 Shades Of Resume #9: The Amazon-Alike

Resume 9

So Phil Dubost created an online resume. But he decided to make sure his resume online didn’t look like a resume. Since people shop around for employes . . . he made it look like Amazon.

Yes, this is basically job applicant as product. On a site you recognize. Down to a redone logo, ratings, and recommendations. Phil went out of the way to put in an insane amount of detail.

What can we learn from Phil, beyond his love of running shoes? Here’s what I take from this resume:

  • It’s funny. Frankly very funny, because as you look at it you see more detail. it makes it almost relaxing to read, like a kind of puzzle or a treasure hunt.
  • There’s a sense of personality, from the humor it takes to do this to the large personal picture. There’s a sense of personal contact here – draws people in.
  • It’s clever. Phil shows his abilities, references, career, and so on in different formats. It’s all there, but in a different way.
  • It is, in the end, a full resume. So you get the entire story to boot.
  • It shows visual and technical skills. But what’s neat is you realize it after the fact – which adds more impact.  You see this, think about it, then go “ooooh!”

Now do I have any issues with this one? Not many, frankly.

  • It’s a bit of a “one-stunt” resume – clever, but essentially it has one major stunt and that’s a show of wit and design. The content in the end is important.
  • Obviously this has to go with a regular resume on a job search.
  • Updating it may be a pain because you have to match new designs.

One thing that might be useful with the resume is to devise it as a web site that lets you re-skin it as a number of other site designs. That’d show off technical skill, design skill, and builds on the humor of it. It’d also be educational as one maintained it.

Steve’s Summary: I’d definitely get a kick out of seeing this – especially as the humor and skill produce an immediate sense of the person. As Phil found a job it must’ve worked!

[“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