50 Shades Of Resume #26: The Personal Infographic

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ElliotHasseresume

We’re familiar with infographics that get impersonal – in a way, they sort of straddle the line, but many get a bit cold. Elliot Hasse takes a standard few-colors infographic look and makes it his resume – and then makes it about himself, providing intimate details and humorous commentary. It’s a mix of a different metaphor for resume and a different approach to infographics – with commentary on culture to boot.

It’s a very different approach – frankly it surprised me a bit when I dived into it because it really is a different approach.

What stands out for me?

  • Elliot gets himself. This kind of resume shows he knows who he is, what he’s done, and that he’s looking on where to go.
  • There’s a sense of humor throughout the piece, which says a lot about his personality. It is, for its infographic look, highly personal.
  • Elliot goes for intimate detail and it does add a personal sense as well. This isn’t just bullet-pointed lists, but when he went to school, his love of beer, a side business, and so on.
  • He uses icons throughout which gives a consistent visual sense – and shows his design skills.
  • He also has a consistent color scheme, further showing his design skills.
  • The resume uses differing font sizes effectively.
  • The skills section is very clever – use if icons (while keeping the color scheme) and using a vertical graph to show skill levels. That combines two metaphors into one and says a lot in a small space, very cleverly.
  • The Frank Zappa quote is a firm statement of his personality.
  • There’s little wasted space. It’s a tight infographic.

And no resume is perfect, there’s a few issues I find:

  • This is a gamble as the resume is very non-standard flow-wise, and very heavy on more intimate details. Not everyone will appreciate this.
  • The font size in the “detail” column is a bit too small – mostly though, the font sizing works.
  • I’m not sure the timeline and the “detailed timeline” at the top need to be separated. If keep separated, I don’t think the dates and elements quite line up. They might work merged as a series of rows.
  • * As I often note, I prefer skills go earlier. In this case I may make an exception as the intimate detail is part of the goal.
  • I wouldn’t make a weapons reference in skills – that may go over wrong.
  • I also might put the skills in “descending order of ability,” though I suspect he wanted to have different groupings.
  • I also would have liked more sense of skills, but this was done while he was in school.

Two big takeaways are the interesting timeline at the top and the icon-and-vertical skill listing. Those are unique approaches and may be ones people can use or try out.

Steve’s Summary: If a recruiter gave me this resume, I’d get a kick out of the personal detail – I feel I really do get to know Elliot right away. I also like his sense of story – he knows who he is and where he wants to go.

[“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

You’re Already Dead Which Is Why You’re Alive

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My friend Serdar chews over the issue of coping with death and that some people discuss death as a “change of form” for the sake of comfort.  That’s something I’ve considered, much as he does, from the various Buddhist points of view.

As Pynchon notes, we’re made to be immortal and we die, it’s really kind of strange to us.  We can vaguely conceive of a forever we don’t get, and face the inevitables on the road of life: old age, sickness, and death.  It’s in our media, from Walter White discovering nothing is permanent to a young Bruce Wayne facing the brutality of death.  I think we’re weirdly fascinated by death because of the icky, sticky, inevitable quality.

In many Buddhist teachings, from which I’ve learned much, one may be further stymied by both talk of reincarnation and of the fact there is no permanent self, of the importance of morality in an ever changing world.  What seems to be paradox in one way, I think, is a a sign that we’re happy by reconciling things – the Middle Path, as it were.

We’re going to die.  It’s inevitable.  We know it early on and we fight it until our dying day.  Everything dies – and we know this.

At the same time, we change.  We’re always dying.  The child you were twenty years ago is as gone as you will be when you’re put in the grave.  Death is just The Big Change on top of a life of change.

When we look at that change that’s always happening, we find we’re really fuzzy around the edges.  Where “I” begin and end, who “I” am isn’t that well defined.  Defined enough to discuss and to be, but still a bit fuzzy.

We’re aware of how we became the way we are, and vaguely aware of how our actions have repercussions – in short, how they live on after us. We’re not some little man holed up in a castle in our heads – everything, everything we do has an effect.  The term “Projected Karma” – that which forms – seems quite an apt term for it.

We’re always changing and always making changes yet have this sense of “I”.  We’re incredible fragile and yet we can have huge repercussions with a single action.

I find that the more we look into the fact we are impermanent creatures who are always leaving their mark on the world, one can find a peaceful reconciliation in our own humanity.  We don’t have to take ourselves so seriously, and in turn we can live our lives because what we have now is valuable; with our barriers down we can also find our social instincts to be more satisfying and find some sanity among people.  We also can take responsibility for our actions, live consciously, knowing that we’re choosing the results to come from what we do.  We can really live, even if we don’t like all of what’s going on and how it’s going to end.

Contemplating our own, inevitable death is troublesome and raises many paradoxes – but exploring paradoxes helps us resolve them.

– Steven Savage

Steven Savage is a Geek 2.0 writer, speaker, blogger, and job coach.  He blogs on careers at http://www.musehack.com/, publishes books on career and culture at http://www.informotron.com/, and does a site of creative tools at http://www.seventhsanctum.com/. He can be reached at https://www.stevensavage.com/.

 

50 Shades Of Resume #25: The Board Game

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Resume 25

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 . . .

[“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