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Side Project: 1 Month, $10,000

blog.doddcaldwell.com

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Re: Side Project: 1 Month, $10,000

#31

Post by ErrantX »

They look nice.

In my experience clean/light CV's are by far the best for almost every job - particularly engineering jobs. The exception being designers.

What sort of CV's are you seeing come in?

I know quite a few HR types who will find a snazzy looking CV and instantly demote it, on the basis that the sizzle is probably hiding some inadequacy (this is not necessarily a bad marker in my experience).

It would be interesting to see if the investment in this pays off for the candidate - whether the really high quality of the design flips it over that danger marker.

Re: Side Project: 1 Month, $10,000

#32

Post by dcaldwell »

adamio wrote: post #10

Any feedback from users on how effective these are?

We just launched about a month ago and have been doing our best to keep up with orders so haven't had time to do proper surveys. That's certainly something that we want to do in the near future. I think it would really help from a marketing perspective - having some great success stories. I actually got the idea for the business because a friend of mine hired a graphic artist to design his resume and he ended up getting a ton of call and interest - many of them saying that they were impressed with his designed resume.

Re: Side Project: 1 Month, $10,000

#33

Post by Katelyn »

joeld42 wrote: post #11

Hey just a free idea if anyone want to build it, I think a web app that generated stylish resumes automatically from your LinkedIn profile would be great. It could make watermarked ones for free preview and then charge you a few bucks if you wanted to download a real one. I can't tell you how many times I've heard "Well, my resume's a bit out of date, but here's my linkedin.." Also, if you are LinkedIn, you could do…

http://zerply.com/ does something very close to this.

Re: Side Project: 1 Month, $10,000

#34

Post by dominikb »

ErrantX wrote: post #30
dominikb wrote: post #29

Earlier quoted context omitted.

1. You're a geek, you prefer computers. Random people who need help with CVs don't see it that way. They take whatever they find. 2. They find the app because it's cool to try and use. Websites are boring and obstruct. Apps generate huge traction way faster. The in-app payments are also easier for users, no credit card forms. 3. Smartphones outsell computers by 20% every day. 4. Once you find a way to make the interf…

I think a CV is something you have more investment in; I don't think as many people would be searching on their phones for an app... especially as writing a CV generally happens on a PC. You're more likely to be sitting in front of a word processor bleakly wondering how to prep it up - and go do some Googling for CV tips...

What's more likely - that you go to a resume builder website when your mate recommends, or download an app? What would you recommend - a cool app, or a website?

Apps are physical and cool. CVs should be fun to do. That's the future. Assuming that the desktop is a primary device for people in 2012 is just wrong. Also, CVs don't need to contain huge amounts of text; better keep it simple.

Re: Side Project: 1 Month, $10,000

#35

Post by dcaldwell »

ErrantX wrote: post #31

They look nice. In my experience clean/light CV's are by far the best for almost every job - particularly engineering jobs. The exception being designers. What sort of CV's are you seeing come in? I know quite a few HR types who will find a snazzy looking CV and instantly demote it, on the basis that the sizzle is probably hiding some inadequacy (this is not necessarily a bad marker in my experience). It would be int…

We've been surprised at the variety of professions coming in. There haven't been any real trends yet - we've had everything from CFOs to college students to marketers to folks in the legal field. We originally thought we'd see mostly careers that had an appreciation for design but where the job seeker wasn't necessarily a designer (like photographers or people in the music industry) as well as marketers. I guess that goes to show you don't always know your customer until you start selling

Re: Side Project: 1 Month, $10,000

#36

Post by dcaldwell »

justauser wrote: post #27

Congratulations on the launch and the beautiful work you're producing. I'd love to hear your feedback on the very popular discussion from a few days ago here ( http://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=3804134 ) on Raganwald's blog, "I don't hire unlucky people" ( http://raganwald.posterous.com/i-dont-hire-unlucky-people ) . Specifically, I'm curious as to how much you as the creator of this service think making a resume s…

I read that post on Raganwald's blog the other day. I think there's a difference in having a "professional" resume format in standard Word document black and white and having a resume that's been designed by an artist. My guess is that in that story, Ernestine would at least give a Loft Resume a good look - sometimes that little bit is enough - you've stood out and gotten noticed. That can be half the battle if an employer is looking through hundreds of resumes.

Re: Side Project: 1 Month, $10,000

#37

Post by underwater »

ErrantX wrote: post #31

They look nice. In my experience clean/light CV's are by far the best for almost every job - particularly engineering jobs. The exception being designers. What sort of CV's are you seeing come in? I know quite a few HR types who will find a snazzy looking CV and instantly demote it, on the basis that the sizzle is probably hiding some inadequacy (this is not necessarily a bad marker in my experience). It would be int…

Interestingy filtering results like that is the complete opposite of what the recent "I don't hire unlucky people." post suggested (http://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=3804134).

This is also the stuff that gives job seekers nightmares. The whole process is already a black box and knowing that some (or all?) employers penalize resumes that are trying too hard just adds more noise to the many conflicting pieces of information candidates have to consider.

Re: Side Project: 1 Month, $10,000

#39

Post by underwater »

dcaldwell wrote: post #35
ErrantX wrote: post #31

They look nice. In my experience clean/light CV's are by far the best for almost every job - particularly engineering jobs. The exception being designers. What sort of CV's are you seeing come in? I know quite a few HR types who will find a snazzy looking CV and instantly demote it, on the basis that the sizzle is probably hiding some inadequacy (this is not necessarily a bad marker in my experience). It would be int…

We've been surprised at the variety of professions coming in. There haven't been any real trends yet - we've had everything from CFOs to college students to marketers to folks in the legal field. We originally thought we'd see mostly careers that had an appreciation for design but where the job seeker wasn't necessarily a designer (like photographers or people in the music industry) as well as marketers. I guess that…

I'm not surprised you aren't seeing design types. A prebuilt template for that kind of position would be and instant red flag. Not to mention a merely "pretty" resume template would look bland amongst bespoke, polished portfolios and resumes.

Re: Side Project: 1 Month, $10,000

#40

Post by coderdude »

dominikb wrote: post #34
ErrantX wrote: post #30

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I think a CV is something you have more investment in; I don't think as many people would be searching on their phones for an app... especially as writing a CV generally happens on a PC. You're more likely to be sitting in front of a word processor bleakly wondering how to prep it up - and go do some Googling for CV tips...

What's more likely - that you go to a resume builder website when your mate recommends, or download an app? What would you recommend - a cool app, or a website? Apps are physical and cool. CVs should be fun to do. That's the future. Assuming that the desktop is a primary device for people in 2012 is just wrong. Also, CVs don't need to contain huge amounts of text; better keep it simple.

Probably the website since it's more useful for the task. Plus apps aren't cool or physical (unless you mean the touching your phone part). I could see the word-of-mouth factor being higher for an app, but the app would have to work very well for the task and I don't think that's something that would be easy to achieve with the form factor and the fact that most devices deny you a physical keyboard. So maybe something that only requires light editing and pulls most of the data from outside sources?
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