50 Shades Of Resume #39: The Wheel Graph

Resume 39

There’s changing resumes a bit or trying something different, and then there’s throwing the whole thing out. Scott Stedman pretty much did the latter and re-envisioned a resume as a wheel including color-coded elements for the kind of things he learned and did. It’s a timeline bent round to form a circle, and frankly, one of the more outrageous takes on resumes I’ve seen.

Like some of our previous resumes, it’s almost hard to start because it’s really its own thing. But I’m glad to analyze it to see what we can learn. Here’s my takeaways

  • This is a gutsy move, period. Doing this is risky, but also shows that Scott seriously thinks outside of the box, probably as he threw the box out of the window.
  • It’s also a resume that screams “I have talent.” Not many people do a resume like this.
  • The “Start Here” is smart. He clearly knows not everyone would get this.
  • The color graph of just what he did is an interesting touch. It adds more to the wheel and gives you an idea of his involvements – and their ebb and flow.

Being an experimental resume, I do see some issues:

  • First, this is really a radical departure. Not everyone is going to get this or like it. It may work well with a more standard resume OR a list of skills and so on that was still creatively laid out.
  • I think having the text lie across other elements of the wheel is a bit much. That’s disruptive.
  • I’d also want the descriptive text larger.
  • The use of the wheel should probably be used to communicate cycles or something similar – it might work best if there was a “what’s next” gap at the end.
  • I’d make his portfolio links larger.

One thing I take from this resume is its so radical that if paired with a well-designed standard resume, it would speak to even more skill. The unusual and the standard (but artistic) paired together could be real powerful.

Steve’s Summary: I love graphs and charts, so I’d get a kick out of the resume – and it tells me this guy gets data visualization. I’d want something much more standard to show other people 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