At Artisan we see quite a few resumes and most of them are in a variety of standard formats. On occasion, however, we will receive something especially creative or unusual, some more successful than others. What do you think of these non-traditional resume formats?
The Infographic—We’ve heard a lot about these. There is even a website that helps you take your resume information and turn it into an infographic. If the information on your resume can be easily thought of as a timeline or a pie chart, this might work for you. If your experience is more varied, it might end up being too busy and hard to interpret. Remember the purpose of your resume is to tell enough of your story that a hiring manager will want to meet you and find out more. If an infographic tells that story well, it might work.
The Video—A way of jumping the queue a bit, a video resume is a mini-interview of a sort. A hiring manager or recruiter can hear your voice, evaluate your presentation and spend a few minutes with you before meeting you in person. If you do a professional job on your video resume, it can definitely be intriguing, but if you’re not sure exactly how to produce your video resume, stick to paper. Be sure to rehearse and do more than one take to get the best possible result.
The Brochure—Especially if you are a Marketing Professional, using well-designed marketing materials like a brochure can showcase your skills tangibly as well as providing information.
There is definitely room for creativity in your resume, whether it is in clean design elements or an less traditional format. However, the same rules apply to these as to more common styles: proofread, have as many people look at what you are sending before you send it as possible, proofread, use keywords for the job you are seeking and—of course—proofread!
Wendy Stackhouse, for Artisan Creative