It doesn’t matter if you are looking for a job in a corporate world or if you are working as a freelancer. When on a job hunt, you need to standout in order to find a perfect job for yourself. Now, we all know that resume is the first impression of yours so you need to have a very impressive resume. When you are in the design field, your designing skills should not be limited to brochures, flyers, post cards or business cards only. Your creativity should do wonders with you resume and this will help you in setting your resume apart from the lot.
The first thing that you need to do is create a unique resume. Now, a unique resume does not mean that you should make a resume with too many colors or strange stuff to make it stand out. Be reasonable but still there are hundreds of ways to get creative with your resume. The main essence of your resume is in its content so you need to make sure that its main emphasis is on showing your skills, experience and also your personality. Catching an eye of the employer is something that you need to do and following article will help you in achieving your goal. Make sure the contact information on your resume matches what is shown on your printed business cards.
The Inevitable Benefits of a Creative Resume
Ever since the recession era, there are fewer jobs and more jobseekers in the market which is why unemployment has risen to a risky level. Even if the economic condition was not this bad, still one has to face a lot of competition for a good job position. Not only in the corporate world and freelancers are also facing a lot of issues in attracting good clients towards themselves.
If you put yourself in a recruiter’s shoe, you will realize that finding the right person for a job is not at all an easy task. A recruiter has to go through hundreds of plain resumes which have nothing exciting to offer. Your duty is to make a resume which can catch an eye of a recruiter even from the piles and piles of resumes. Honestly, most of the resumes look the same so you need to be a little creative.
When a recruiter has been through so many plain resumes, if he comes across a resume which has some creativity to offer he will definitely give that resume some extra time. There is no doubt in the fact that you have instantly impressed the recruiter by taking a chance and daring to come up with a different, unique yet impressive resume.
This was for someone looking for a job in corporate world. Now let us talk about freelancers as they face difficulties in finding clients as well. Have an about or resume page different from regular websites. Remember you have to stand out instead of blending with everyone. Also, as a freelancer if you do something unique and creative, you are more likely to get more projects.
Bottom line here is that even if you do not get a job, your creative resume will definitely act as a call-to-action and will at least get you towards an interview call which assures you that you are heading in the right direction.
Initially, Create an Ordinary Resume
You do not have to put in all of your creativity in the beginning. They key is to start with a regular resume which contains your basic education information and professional experience. Yes, creative resume is a lot different than a regular resume but you need to start off with basics and later on you can do changes here and there to make your resume a different one. Once you have given your basic information, you can then share your extra activities and skills.
Differentiating Between a Hard Copy and a Soft Copy
You need to have two separate resumes one for real world and other one for virtual world. You need to decide first on how to find a job. Are you dropping off hard copies of your resumes to the employers or are you applying online only. Freelancers mostly apply online so they need to have a soft copy of resume saved in their computer. However, keeping a hard copy is not a bad idea.
A Mix of the Both
The good decision on your part would be to have both kinds of resumes. You never know which resume you might want to use. Doesn’t matter what sort of a job you are looking for, you may have to submit a hard copy or send a copy of your resume online so always have print outs of your resume with you.
Consistency in Both Designs
Both of your resumes should have some consistency in them. Also, you need to be very careful with your designing skills. When it comes to the print world, you need to take care of a lot of things. You even have to make a decision if you want to use a professional printer or if you want to use your own printer. A professional printer will enhance all the colors and designing on your resume.
A normal printer might have some affects on your resume which you may not like. So you will have to design it accordingly. Also, in virtual world, you need to design you resume according to your field. If you are a flash designer, you need to show your skills in your resume. Also, as a graphic designer, your resume should be a representation of your creative skills.
Develop and Follow a Theme
Deciding a theme for your resume can help you a lot in making a unique resume. As mentioned earlier, if you are a designer, the theme of your resume can revolve around your special skills so that an employer gets to know what you are capable of. You can also go for generalized theme but make sure you do not go over the top with anything. A little bit of creativity is fine but too much of creative depiction can have a negative impact on employer.
It Is Important To Stand Out So Be Different
Since it is very hard to stand out these days you need to dare to be different. The reason why creative resume are becoming popular is that they stand out and it makes things easier for employers. You do not have to be afraid of trying something new bet it online resume or be it real resume.
What Makes You Different
If you are unable to come up with unique ideas for your resume, you need to analyze yourself and understand what makes you different from others. You can showcase these differences in your resume then. Sometimes a creative background is all you can do to make your resume different and if you are lucky enough it might work for you. If you have special skills for instance, web designing or graphic designing, do show your skills on your resume because that is going to be a plus point.
Final Thoughts
A creative resume is an immediate call-to-action in your way of a job hunt. If you do not find ideas for becoming creative with your resume, things around you can help you a lot. You can get inspired by anything around you and from there you can take your creativity to another level by implementing your inspirations in to your resume.
Creative Resume Showcase
Curriculum Vitae by Jonny-Rocket
Michael Anderson (Infographics Resume)
Resume by Pau Morgan
Yingzhu Luqiu Creative Resume
Life Chart Resume
2009 Resume SID Santos
My CV Pages
Resume Passport
Krista Gregg (Graphic Designer Resume)
Curriculum Vitae
Server Resume by Matthew Villalovos
Curriculum Vitate by Sofiane42
Curriculum Vitae by AkiDesign
Visual Resume by Oona
This was stolen from a previous blog post i have read. It doesnt even make sense to make your portfolio all arty! When someone reads your resume they want clear type. Keep the graphic design for the actually portfolio
Some cv are very beautiful, but if we do it too much graphic, it s not always at your own avantage
Wow thank you for these really nice samples! I especially love oona’s resume because it’s defInitely something that i haven’t seen before plus i love her style and wit!
In my opinion the resume is almost dead in today’s world. There are many services that allow you to post your work like signtalent.com or deviantart so why bother?
innovative!
Some of them are very nice! 🙂 … And just had to leave a link to mine:
http://www.funky4thmonkey.com/personal-cv-as-infographic/
Thx 🙂
I have a friend who is actually a recruitment executive and he says this is very much at your own risk right now. He said he has seen this idea of having creative resumes land people jobs and he has seen it blow up in peoples’ faces. When we were talking about his he said if you do this, you better have a design that not only stands out but seriously impresses people. I’ve been contemplating the idea of creating a creative resume just to see what feedback I get. Good article.
As far as this being stolen, I don’t know. I have read an article similar to this but it was not the same. But, I see many articles that talk about the same subject every day and have never seen anyone call them stolen.