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