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This may be the best resume I have ever seen

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Re: This may be the best resume I have ever seen

#11
post #8
post #3

Not good. * Has a graphic which must be interpreted simply to find the last few projects the candidate worked on. * Uses a proportional diagram scheme that is (a) worse than pie charts (an achievement) and (b) requires a color coded legend to illustrate the simple clause: "[Project Name]: Rails, CSS, jQuery". * Straightjackets the candidate's work experience into "technology used" instead of "accomplishments earned".…

If I was hiring a programmer for a creative business though, and I didn't know too much about programming (like most employers), this would definitely set her apart for a number of reasons.

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Re: This may be the best resume I have ever seen

#12
post #9
post #3

Not good. * Has a graphic which must be interpreted simply to find the last few projects the candidate worked on. * Uses a proportional diagram scheme that is (a) worse than pie charts (an achievement) and (b) requires a color coded legend to illustrate the simple clause: "[Project Name]: Rails, CSS, jQuery". * Straightjackets the candidate's work experience into "technology used" instead of "accomplishments earned".…

I agree with your assessment, but it is an interesting try at presenting the information, and the linked png did at least have template for a link to the plain text version.

Willingness to experiment and try new things is an asset for a developer. Inability to edit oneself, or to walk away from an experiment when it has clearly failed, is a dealbreaking liability.

Infographics ON a resume, good or mediocre: OK.

Infographics AS a resume, if amazing: OK.

Infographics AS a resume, if not amazing: VERY BAD.

Re: This may be the best resume I have ever seen

#13
post #8
post #3

Not good. * Has a graphic which must be interpreted simply to find the last few projects the candidate worked on. * Uses a proportional diagram scheme that is (a) worse than pie charts (an achievement) and (b) requires a color coded legend to illustrate the simple clause: "[Project Name]: Rails, CSS, jQuery". * Straightjackets the candidate's work experience into "technology used" instead of "accomplishments earned".…

If I was hiring a programmer for a creative business though, and I didn't know too much about programming (like most employers), this would definitely set her apart for a number of reasons.

Set apart, perhaps, but not necessarily in a positive way. There are a number of parts of the resume that don't make sense - why would I care if someone uses Textmate, the technology chart is horrendously hard to understand at a glance, the subway-style bit for command-line vs. web service tools is odd, etc.

Re: This may be the best resume I have ever seen

#14
This sort of CV is going to exclude this person from certain positions and companies - probably exactly the companies and positions this person does not want to be hired at. Jamie is doing her own filtering by being "in your face" about what sort of worker she will be, and you can instantly tell whether or not to exclude her from consideration. Whether to hire automatically, that's would take more time to determine.

She'll instantly get discarded from consideration for most 'sit in a cubicle all day and take directions from 5 committees' jobs, and that's probably exactly what she wants.

Re: This may be the best resume I have ever seen

#15

This sort of CV is going to exclude this person from certain positions and companies - probably exactly the companies and positions this person does not want to be hired at. Jamie is doing her own filtering by being "in your face" about what sort of worker she will be, and you can instantly tell whether or not to exclude her from consideration. Whether to hire automatically, that's would take more time to determine.…

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Re: This may be the best resume I have ever seen

#16
post #7

If I were hiring someone to make infographics, this would be a useful (but not necessarily positively received) resume. For anything else, particularly development, it'd be in the discard pile pretty quick.

Also mindbending: Rails/jQ developers command an enormous premium in this market, but my understanding is that the people who actually lay out and draw those cheesy infographics make peanuts.

Re: This may be the best resume I have ever seen

#17
This infography resume scores high points for standing out and being memorable, which is important as many companies receive many CVs.

It completely fails as a tool for communicating how good she is at what she "does". I guess it's Rails? The CV is confusing.

Also, it gives the impression that the person is more interested in style than substance. I guess that's okay if you're an artist/designer (?), not so good if you're a programmer. The CV gives me the feeling this person is a programmer, but probably not a good one, she should really be a designer.

Overall, I think the problem is what's communicated in the programmer /\ designer Venn-diagram. She's trying to communicate that she's a designer programmer, but it comes across "forced". Her designer part made this infographic, which isn't very good, and we can't really tell if she's a good programmer, and suspect that she's not.

Re: This may be the best resume I have ever seen

#19
In my opinion, this still doesn't solve the problem of beefed-up resumes. Or one can spend 40% of his time working on PHP doesn't tell exactly how good he is in PHP. The best is still to have the candidate really showing how good he is, for example to have the candidate work on customized puzzle targeting the skills an employer needs.
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