Career – Page 28 – Steven Savage

50 Shades Of Resume #48: The Emergency Sticker

May 24, 2014 by Steven Savage

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

50 Shades Of Resume #47: The Path

May 23, 2014 by Steven Savage

Remember when we saw Scott Stedman’s “wheel” resume earlier? Well he’s done other experiments in resumes as well – in this case he went from the wheel to a path, showing his education, experience, and skills. and how they intersect. It’s not one path – it’s several coming together in a very unusual resume.

What can we learn and what stood out for me?

It’s really different – an attempt to go both nonlinear and linear. I’m not entirely sure it works, but it’s very ambitious, and is food for thought.
The colors of the paths also seem to tie into the various text headings. A good way to help people understand it.
Despite having a lot of graphics and less text, he actually says a lot with his limited text. He choses his words well.
These precise descriptions also have a bit of an informal feel – which works with a resume that uses an abstract concept. It keeps it human.
He chose his color schemes and stuck with it, and works with the limited color set.

I do think it has some issues:

This is creative, but also a bit too busy. It’s going to overwhelm some people.
The resume seems to be indicating how this “came together” in 2014, but I think that could be indicated with some notes, larger text, etc.
I think the fonts would work better bolded, and there might be a bit too much text – just a bit.
The aside about one of his photos becoming popular could be made larger – or left out.
I like how he calls out his title as a photographer, and could use that concept elsewhere in the resume.

Definitely am ambitious resume. I have to wonder what his next experiment will be. Then again, I’ll probably share it with you.

Steve’s Summary: A clever resume, but does need to be paired with a regular one. It also shows bold choices – I admit if I hadn’t met him through email I’d want to discuss his ideas with him, because this level of “rethinking” makes me want to know more about him.

– Steven Savage

50 Shades Of Resume #45: The Multi-Stage Infographic

May 21, 2014 by Steven Savage

Michael Anderson’s resume is one of the infographic styles we’ve seen, though he’s actually merging several different info graphic styles together. There’s timelines, circular graphs, and even some humorous self commentary in graphic form.

The result is pretty information-dense and rather colorful – what he did was put most of the common parts of a resume into different formats, using a consistent color scheme. He committed to infograhpics, and stuck with them.

What have we got going on here?

As we’ve seen before, he uses a progress graph that’s merges both employment history and his education – employment on top, education below. This is an effective method as it it provides a timeline while saving space.
The employment/academic info graphic also has an interesting touch – he describes it as a measure of energy expended.
He keeps the text elements of the Employment/academic infographic to a minimum, keeping it from being overcrowded and maximizing space.
The skill set circular graph is interesting as it mixes time investment and professional development into one graph. That’s ambitious, and though I think it might be a bit too complex, it is at least clever.
He actually made humor an info graphic as he discusses his “daily consumption” – and includes coffee. He thus says things about himself as a graphic, keeping it constant with the entire resumes style.
There’s a consistent color scheme to the resume – and that’s a lot of color. He made the rainbow selection work – and it’s not blatant.
He clearly loves good infographics and it shows.
Though unusual, he really does show most of the information a resume needs to do in a different form.

I do have a few things that could be changed:

Not sure the “effort expended” idea of the employment/academic graph works. It’s a nice idea.
The skill graph, as noted, is a bit unusual for what most people are used to.
The humorous graph in the lower left doesn’t seem to add much. It’s a nice touch to put personal information and humor in info graphic form, but I think something different could be done.

This is a good example of picking an idea and sticking with it. Though I have some issues with it, it has a consistency and commitment that really says something about him.

Steve’s Summary: A pretty good resume, especially considering his unusual approach. It’s one that I can show people who aren’t into creative resumes and they’ll “get” enough of it. Also I’m biased towards good graphic presentation.

– Steven Savage