Steven Savage – Page 501

50 Shades Of Resume #11: The Doodle

April 17, 2014 by Steven Savage

Liagi Ramilo takes an interesting approach with her resume – making it look like something doodled on a piece of notebook paper, with her picture attached. It’s almost a reverse of the usual resumes people design, with carefully beveled lines and calculated fonts – she goes out of her way to make it look almost aggressively informal.

When I first saw this resume, I confess, it was unexpected – and that shock is part of the charm. Some people think out of the box, she decided the box needed to be more casual and personalized.

Looking over this resume I see several things it has going for it:

It has marvelous personality, and paired with the picture, gives a sense of whimsy and informality. It’s almost comforting in its casualness. The job search is a formalized affair, and she brings a welcome informality.
It still gets in all the things a good resume needs, but in a more casual sense. As you look it over, you see how much detail there is, and it speaks to real talent in design.
It’s also a good example of her design work in that she had to go out of the way to make it look informal and put in the right information.
The little doodles really sell it – it makes it look much more like what it’s supposed to – a piece of paper someone scribbled things on. Without them it really wouldn’t “sell” the design.
Including a picture adds a personal touch that works well with the informality – and it’s not a formal picture, which is appropriate.

Now a few issues with the resume:

This is definitely not a scannable resume – it’s something that probably has to be paired with a more formal resume.
The clever “doodle” look does come at the expense of readability – it’s not exactly the clearest resume in some areas, such as where the text crosses one of the blue lines. That might annoy some people.

I could see this resume being used as the basis of a portfolio – imagine several other pages of doodles with pictures of her other works, creating a portfolio with the casual theme. Such a themed portfolio would add power to the resume, and vice versa.

Steve’s Summary: If I got this resume, I’d really enjoy the fact I felt I got a glimpse into the personality of the artist, and appreciate the effort. I’d want a formal resume to scan or send to less creative people.

[“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

Geek As Citizen: Hashtag, Crashtag

April 16, 2014 by Steven Savage

I assume that you heard about the #CancelColbert hashtag on Twitter. I’m going to assume you did but the rough summary is:

Colbert did a skit mocking racism in the name of the Washington Redskins.
Part of the joke was retweeted, including his mockery of racism towards Asians.
The joke on its own looked hideously racist (it was removed).
Hashtag activist Suey Park tweeted the #CancelColbert hashtag.
The internet had an intelligent discussion of racism, parody, and society.

I’m joking about #5 of course. I’d say the conversation degenerated, but the conversation never really generated. I watched a lot of the back and forth, which took on the air of a tennis game with grenades instead of balls. Eventually it got bizarre, snipy, weird, and in fine internet debate tradition, people directed racist and sexist comments at Suey Park and others.

As you may have guessed nothing good came out of this that I can find.

50 Shades Of Resume #10: The Iconic

April 16, 2014 by Steven Savage

Robert Blankenship’s resume is a colorful affair, yet is also a standard resume. In fact, the more you examine it you realize that he’s actually got a literally iconic resume – it makes strong uses of icons, from the software he knows to even “iconifying” a logo for himself. He’s using them stylistically and as a kind of shorthand – and going with a kind of series of circular designs. That makes it stand out and I was glad to analyze it.

What are the advantages of this style – and the other design elements?

The icons are an interesting kind of shorthand. Between what they say, the unified style, and the fact it’s clever it quickly stands out.
The use of multiple colors is very appealing. This is a resume where the color doesn’t detract from the content.
It’s obviously scannable – and again is one of those one-page resumes I rarely see (oddly it seems artists are good at doing them).
This is a colorful resume that is also a good, solid, resume. It does the job.
Aside from the icons the columnar divisions for his experience are interesting ways to show a lot of information in a small space.
Getting this resume to work, from selecting icons to doing layout, shows real attention to detail.

A few things that may be problematic:

As I always say, I’d put skills at the top. This would work really well with this approach. It also would establish his “style” early.
The use of the icons is fast, but it may say a bit too little about his skills. he clearly has more skills, and this may undersell him.
There’s a bit too much white space on the left column.
The “Find me column” doesn’t actually provide all the contact information. It’d be best with links.
The use of rectangular icons seems a bit disruptive to the rounded theme. Not sure that’s an issue as it goes with the rectacnular dividers.

I like the idea of using icons and logos on resumes, and Robert takes that pretty far. This is something to explore in designing interesting resumes.

Steve’s Summary: If I got this resume, I’d appreciate the clear design and effective communication – and the attention to detail. I’d want to know more about his skills.

– Steven Savage