Career – Page 37 – Steven Savage

50 Shades Of Resume #18: The Character Sheet

April 24, 2014 by Steven Savage

Taylor Smith is a bit of a character, and her resume is literally a character sheet. She’s got a cartoon-esque picture of herself, skill bars out of an RPG, and iconics indicating the technology she uses. You want a resume that gives you a sense of someone’s character, she’s got it, with a whimsical sense instead of the usually dead-serious resume.

Only this is also a full resume as well! Let’s take a look at what makes it work

First, let’s take a look at the cartoon-like character picture. This picture gives a sense of character, makes the resume seem human, and gives an idea of her artistic ability.
The use of icons and skill bars to show abilities is a nice touch. It saves the need for wordy descriptions and gives a visual reference.
The “tools of the trade” section is odd, but interesting, as it’s both skills and not. Not sure it’s a good idea, but the idea of breaking up and showing skill/talent sections differently is intriguing.
The Doctor Who quote at the top is a great idea, adds to the whimsy of the piece, shows character, and further humanizes the resume.
The “Fun Facts” section is interesting and humanizing as well – I always say show your hobbies.
The use of icons, of course, is great shorthand. She has a consistent style of using rounded icons that works well.
The use of the icons and the “skill levels” actually tells me the person wants to connect and communicate – paired with the humanizing image, that’s very powerful.
I like the color scheme. It’s friendly and professional at the same time.

Of course this is an ambitious redesign, and there are a few issues:

The lack of contact information. I’d probably put that below the picture.
The picture is nice, but uses a lot of real estate. It might be better about 75% of it’s current size.
I’d use a thicker Sans Serif font for the text, especially the section headers.
I’m not sure using offset boxes with rounded edges works with the corner boxes that display only one rounded edge as they’re partially “offscreen”
The skill section should be expanded to show more skills and abilities. It might combine well with the “Tools-of-the-Trade” section, though that is an interesting offset on its own.
The resume uses large icon and sections and thus may not be suited for finer details or expanded skills. It might need to have its sizing and layout changed to show more details.

I’m fond of this resume for it’s whimsy and use of multiple clever artistic ideas. If you try such a resume, here’s some thoughts:

In a resume like this, I’d update it constantly – and update the picture every 6 months to show improved skill. However, keep it facing the reader as that “eye contact” is effective.
Maintain consistency of icon design as we see here – maybe even make new ones as needed.
However you theme the resume, if there’s a portfolio attached, it should have similar themes.

Steve’s Summary: I’d love to see a resume like this come across my desk. I feel the person is really trying to make contact – and it tells me a lot about them.

[“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 #7: The Book

April 13, 2014 by Steven Savage

Some of us have resumes that grow and grow and get a little large. Andy Reynonds didn’t let this stop him and made his resume into a book after becoming unemployed. Yes, a book. An online (and offline) coffee table book about his career. Needless to say it’s been mentioned around.

Having handed out my book at interviews, I felt I had stepped into the presence of someone truly “taking it all the way.” So of course I had to include it in this series because I’d never forgive myself otherwise – and Andy is a very creative individual.

The high points?

It’s a resume as a book. Really this is a testimony to skill that’s hard to top. It shows serious graphical/publishing ability.
It also speaks of dedication. Again, he made a book – this resume tells people about your personality.
It also functions as a portfolio. This is very clever and may be an idea to use elsewhere – see how you can wrap your portfolio inside other resume ideas and metaphors. Some people put their resume in their portfolio, he did the revere . . .
It’s got some nice layout elements. It’s very professional.
The book design is something I think people could explore in various forms, and may be worth thinking about.

As for changes . . . well actually this is such a unique idea it’s hard to say. Mr. Reynolds pretty much out and did this his own way. A few things though:

I think the book may be a bit overlong. Though it’s also a portfolio, it may seem a bit much.
This definitely has to go with a regular resume or job search or interview to lead people into it. It’s not quite a supplemental resume, but is really a resume/portfolio fusion.
It may go well paired with smaller “book” resumes one could hand out.
Not everyone will “get” this resume. It has to be used carefully – though anyone who doesn’t “get” it may not be the kind of person you want to work for or with.

Additional thought: This could possibly be combined with other publications like ashcans. There’s a lot of possible experimentation.

Steve’s Summary: I admit if I saw this, I’d be impressed because . . . again, the guy did a book! I also would want to know more about him. Context may be important as it could seem a bit overdone, but I wouldn’t care.

– Steven Savage

50 Shades Of Resume #6: The Inverted

April 12, 2014 by Steven Savage

Morgan‘s resume here turns the usual color scheme around quite literally. It’s white on black not black on white as opposed to the usual color scheme. It’s interesting to see how that changes how you see the resume because in many ways it’s a standard resume with some twists.

So let’s take a look at what it’s got going for it.

First of all, the inverted look aside, this is a standard resume. Not sure it’s scannable, but it’s completely usable as a regular resume.
Because it’s usable as a regular resume and it’s creative, it’s a double-win. This shows both artistic skill and provides the usual resume information. This resume actually walks the line of “creative” and “contains all the boring detail” very well.
The use of the artist’s picture is a nice, personalizing touch. In fact I think it’s needed as the resume would be very impersonal otherwise.
Putting the artist’s picture in black and white works well with the color scheme, and maintains the theme – it’s also a good choice of picture with the wintry background.
There nice use of different font sizes to make sections stand out without overdoing it.
It’s another case of managing to get everything on one page, which is hard.

As for possible changes:

I’m not sure if it’s scannable due to the inversion – but at the same time you loose the impact if you change it. I’d frankly risk it.
The “dashes” around the skills may not be needed, but they might work better with some kind of classification system or being in alphabetical order.
I don’t think the italics work.
She uses some stock images in the background to keep the black from being totally black. Not sure if they’re needed or if they help.

One additional suggestion, just for kicks – this resume has a bit of a “wintry” theme. It’d be interesting to see other resumes using various limited color schemes do other themes.

Steve’s Summary: If I got this resume, I’d pay attention. It shows subtlety, tells me about the person, and is businesslike while displaying creativity. There’s something here I should pay attention to.

– Steven Savage