Fun With Résumés: A Job Search Experiment

Ever have one of those weeks where everything seems to just pile up? It’s like the universe has aligned in some conspiratorial way, and suddenly every test, paper, project and presentation that could possibly be assigned is due within a 72-hour window. That was this week for me, and just when I thought it couldn’t get any more stressful…I checked the due date of a very important job application and realized that it, too, was due smack dab in the middle of “Panic Attack Week 2011.” Great.

After realizing that I needed to quickly figure out which work samples I would submit, it hit me that I needed to update my résumé. It had been awhile since I had touched it, and it was due for a pretty drastic overhaul. So, instead of going to bed at a decent hour on Monday night, I stayed up crafting something new. I had been trying to figure out how to spice up my résumé for quite some time, so I was pretty pleased with what I came up with. It spoke to my creative side while at the same time still informing the potential employer of my skills and experience. Below is the first draft, which I completed around 1 a.m. on Tuesday morning.

Like I said, I was pretty happy with it. It was unique and inventive, colorful and creative. It showcased my design skills well, too, which was a bonus since the position I was applying for required a lot of that kind of thing*. My next step was to do what any reasonably plugged in journalism student would do: poll the masses via the Internet. I posted a link to the picture in a tweet, and quickly got a lot of good feedback. I even had a friend who works at the campus design center and sells some of his art on Etsy give me a call to talk things over. He was also kind enough to send me a few nice, new fonts.

After considering everybody’s opinions, I sat down last night and made some significant revisions. I was able to incorporate all of the suggestions I received while still keeping the original spirit of my design. Below is the current draft, which I finalized this morning around 12:30 a.m.

It’s a lot less in-your-face, and I think the blue has a nice calming effect. I also lost the drop shadows and gradients, which gives it a cleaner look overall, and I swithced up the font to something a bit blockier.

So, what do y’all think now? Do  you miss the Taste The Rainbow color scheme of the original? Or do you prefer the Ocean Breeze theme I’m rocking now? I’m always open to comments and criticism, so feel free to share your thoughts.

*I don’t plan on using this résumé for every job application, as I don’t really think it’s an appropriate “all purpose” résumé. For more traditional positions I have a more traditional résumé, which you can download as a .pdf over on my personal website.

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