Career – Page 34 – 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 #27: The Super Simple

May 3, 2014 by Steven Savage

Eric Ghandi likes simple, which is a virtue for any visual designer who has to be sure pages and graphics work with phones, tablets, game consoles, and probably telepathic reception. So he’s got a straight up website and a very straightforward resume.

Its actually one of the simplest resumes I’ve seen in ages. It’s almost minimalist while still being visually interesting and engaging. So of course I’m analyzing it.

Here’s what I found works:

This is really, delightfully straightforward. Yes, it lacks details, but at the same time that’s literally its style. It obviously has a goal.
It’s uncomplicated. He goes and gets things done.
He further condenses the skill section into lines of skills, not categories. Normally i’m not for that, but in this case it works with the style.
The use of different font sizes works in this case – as the resume is so simple it’s probably needed to add some detail.
A good use of inverted color schemes (though see below)
Having the header a different background than the text is an interesting choice, it stands out.
I like the dashes of color for the internet connectivity, it ads some pizzaz.

A few issues:

I think the header is a bit large for such a simple resume. It could be reduced.
Not entirely sure the black-on-white text works for the section headers. I might have used different text colors instead.

This is a resume that gets me thinking. It’s so simple it makes me wonder how simple one can go . . .

Steve’s Summary: A solid resume that shows a desire to get things done and is free of BS. I’d like to get this one – but I would want a portfolio.

– 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