Back To The Basics: Is Your Resume Crazy With Graphics?

Is your resume appealing? You’ve done a good job of writing a resume. You’ve used powerful verbiage, showcased your accomplishments, and highlighted your expertise – it’s great, right? It is if you’re getting interviews!

If you’re not getting interviews, take a look at your graphics usage. Is the resume easy to read? In a stack of 50 or 100 resumes, is your resume still easy to read or does it cause visual fatigue. In other words by the time the HR Rep has finished reading your resume, are his/her eyes bleeding?

I actually commented on a blog http://www.webdesignerdepot.com/2009/05/30-artistic-and-creative-resumes recently about creative/graphically styled resumes. My comment was: ” I would love to hear if these resumes generated interviews or not. Wonder how many HR reps actually took the time to read them.”

The resume designs posted in the above mentioned blog were beautiful but were they effective? Would you be able to read 50 or 100 graphically designed resumes or would you start pitching them?

I write and design resumes that are on the conservative side. It has been my practice and it has been successful. Even if a client is a fashion designer, a graphic artist, or another creative type, I generally write and design resumes that are conservative. These resumes don’t have to be complete duds – I simply err on the side of caution.

There is no right or wrong here. It is really about what is effective and what generates interviews. A great work around might be to simply send both the graphically designed resume and the more traditional resume. The HR Rep will be able to read the document of choice, maintain 20/20 vision, and still get a sense of the applicant’s creative abilities. It is a more cautious approach but I like that idea better than sending out just the graphic resume.

Again, there are no hard-fast rules on this. I like the idea that the essence of the applicant shines through in the resume, and a graphic resume would certainly do that. However, it is important for the applicant to remain in contention and not get eliminated from the applicant pool.

What do you think?

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