/Let's relook our Resumes. It's time.

Culture.

You know. My personal portfolio and C.V. has been in a state of complete and utter chaos ever since day 1 of my career as a web designer. How I managed to get this far in life is a damn mystery to me, as much as it's probably to you. I admit that, so it's time to move on.

This website is all about fixing this. Most of the sites I have done is lost forever, but now is as good a time to start over. I love my current work, and have no desire currently to move on, let's be clear about that. But that's the point isn't it. These things should be made awesome and ready BEFORE you need them.

Your standard portfolio is about as settled and talked about as it comes. Everyone knows you should put some good work in there and display it in a nice way. The more creative you can get with your display the better. Go nuts. I haven't. I kept it simple (baby steps right?), straightforward with a little css weirdness here and there. It's also incomplete, out of date and yes, I am working on that. Gimme some time.

However, when it comes to your resume, or C.V., it's a pretty unexplored realm. I am convinced to make mine different, original, unique and give the future employer some experience while he is learning more about me. I want to use the space to not just tell my story, but also to really show off some of my skills in css and html. It is after all my profession to do interesting things with the web.

So while mine is still a work in progress, check out some of these really inspiring ideas for the age old resume...

Print

Even your standard printable, mailable resume don't have to be a collection of paragraphs and bullet points. Check out some of these lovely ideas.

A clever use of the rapidly growing QR Code to direct prospective people to your personal site or portfolio.

I love how the wheel graph appears to be a unique form of a thought bubble. Such a lovely way to illustrate your ideas. She obviously enjoys a good graph in the morning!

This is leaning a bit more towards the more standard, but great use of pictograms to illustrate a word rather than have to write a paragraph about it. 

Video

Now this is my absolute favourite. I started experimenting a bit with a short looping video clip instead of a simple muggshot, but this dude just takes it to the very next level. It's a damn shame I have no camera personality, and even more of a damn shame that this dude thought of this before I did. blah, en shit.

But yeah, this guy has it spot on. The way in which we speak has changed, and in a big way. So why are we still speaking to each other in old ways?

Let's get trendy

The trend seems to be to illustrate your level in a particular skill out in a graph form. Sure, it works and is still fresh enough I think to keep on working for a while to come. I think, most of the things you see people do with their resumes will remain a cool and fresh idea for a while still. It's defenitely a slow adopted idea to go off-centre with your resume.

I got all of the above from CV Parade (BTW, thanks guys. If it's an issue just let me know!). I know that sites like Smashing Magazine and the flurry of other such sites are also showcasing people doing wonderful things, and it's clear that work is being done to promote and push the trend further into the minds of today and tommorow's designers. This post and this site is not meant to become another showcase site (hence the little showcasing), but more a conversation piece.

I reckon, watch this space. Things are coming and it's going to get hectic!

But what do we take from this?

Firstly, very few people are really brave enough to push the limits when they are looking for a job. That makes loads and loads of sense. You want to prove you are awesome, but you don't want to annoy your future boss in ANY way, at least not before you sign your contract.

I firmly agree that we shouldn't do straightforward, boring old black and white 1 pagers. Sure, by all means keep it concise, to the point and above all - easy to digest. But that's the challenge to us as creative people isn't it. We are expected to take the mundane and boring stuff and make it go wild, while still keeping to the rules. What better place to play with that freedom than with your own personal stuff. Show your boss you are keen to experiment and wild about crazy ideas. I think.

For the moment there is risk involved, to some degree. Sure, people expect creative people to be a little bit off centre, and they expect to see lovely things from us, but on the other hand we all still live in a world steeped in tradition and there is always a "way of doing things" and you "should" always stick to it, because that's how we do things, and expect things to land on our desk. That perception is being challenged now, and the more people are exposed to the different, the more they will begin to think of it as "normal". I expect soon enough the traditional resume style will become the way NOT to get a job, and it will become the norm to go outlandish and wild. This will of course open up the area again to the traditionalists and the minimalist and they will begin to push the simple again.

Such a lovely and interesting world we live in, don't you think? I love it!

I guess that for now it comes down to you, yourself. Let's talk about it though. What is your opinion? Have you got any other ideas?

Now let me go rework my about page. again.