Digital resume help

Replies to This Discussion

Permalink Reply by Chris Amico on February 7, 2008 at 9:45pm

I did a similar thing a while back but made it a separate wordpress install from my blog, mostly for organizational purposes. I wanted to separate out resume, clips and bio. Here's the result: www.ChrisAmico.com/work.

I'd say it's the easiest way to get something online and decently formatted. I hand-coded one before, with fewer clips, but without a CMS I had to keep editing an increasing number of HTML files every time I added something new.

Permalink Reply by Wendy Withers on February 7, 2008 at 10:07pm

I really like how you separated your skills from the rest of your resume. I might decide to do that. I think I might go for a more streamlined approach for the text, too. I'm graduating in May, and the job hunt is beginning to stress me out.

Permalink Reply by Chris Amico on February 7, 2008 at 10:47pm

I remember finding the job hunt more stressful than the job itself when I got my first gig out of college. This time around (just got back in the country, hence job hunting again) I'm trying to stay calm about it. But I might still be pulling my hair out next week.

Good luck.

Permalink Reply by Greg Linch on February 8, 2008 at 12:15pm

Here's my online resume. I have clips and links to clips on separate pages.

I have a hard link to the resume and clips from my blog.

Permalink Reply by Wendy Withers on February 8, 2008 at 12:31pm

I've thought about getting my own domain name, but part of me is wondering if it's worth it, because Wordpress offers so much.

Permalink Reply by Greg Linch on February 8, 2008 at 12:36pm

I bought it before I started my blog just to be sure no one else took it. You can still use WordPress and set your domain to forward to it--that's what I did with Blogger.

Permalink Reply by Wendy Withers on February 11, 2008 at 11:28am

I guess I should get off the fence about it and just do it.

Permalink Reply by Meranda Watling on February 14, 2008 at 11:35pm

You get bonus points for the frog. I love frogs.

These are my initial thoughts on the actual resume/layout. I'm by no means an expert or a hiring editor, but these are things I've been taught, told and can speak from a user perspective about. Not meant to be harsh but helpful. Hopefully they come off as such:

1. I'd uncenter the text. Resumes should be easily scanned. It's harder to skim centered text looking for relevant items like job titles, job dates, etc.
2. I'd make the "my e-mail" link your actual address. Someone may want to print this out or store it away, in which case a link won't do them much good. Plus, they can probably put 2-and-2 together that someone@somedomain.com is an e-mail address. Link that text.
3. I'd probably make the name smaller and maybe consolidate those three links onto one line so you can get to the meat of the resume sooner. As it stands, I almost have to scroll before I see anything beyond the word Objective. You want them to be sold on you and WANT to look further.
4. Your objective doesn't tell me much. It also confuses me. "To earn my place in the ranks of the world’s brave few who dare to write about it." What is the it referring to? I realize (I think) you mean the world. But that's not how the sentence is structured. I read "it" to mean "place". The rest is just prepositional phrases. If you wanted to keep the same idea without adding anything, perhaps this would be more effective: "To earn my place among the brave few who dare to write about the world." But I still think that is a flimsy objective. If you don't have a specific objective, maybe you don't need an objective line? If you do have a goal in mind, make it obvious.
5. I'd list your intended graduation date not your class. I had senior class standing first semester of my third year on campus but wasn't near graduation. Your graduation is more important to employers. It lets them know when you will be available. I see your line says -05/2008, but that's easy to skim over.
6. I think the professional skills section could be reworked. Some of those journalism skills are also computer skills and vice versa. I wouldn't separate them out. Also, I'm not sure what you mean by "basic filming" and "film editing" like shooting video? Film is kind of a dying term. The future (now?) is digital.
7. Your experience explanations aren't parallel. In one you say "wrote..." and the others it's "writing..." I say either is fine, but you should be consistent.
8. Speaking of experience. You have some good ones. Why bury it so far down? I was always taught to lead with the experience. Your education and your skills tell me what you've been taught and what you're capable of doing. But your experience is living proof of what you've actually done, which is the biggest indicator of what you will do.
9. You're missing a comma in the Tampa Bay Illustrated section where it says "Tampa FL"

Like I said, I'm not an expert. But I think at least considering some of those changes will improve your resume.

And for what it's worth, here's mine: http://merandawrites.com/resume

I didn't do much adaptation to the Web. That's pretty much what it looks like on paper only in different fonts. For the record, I also think my resume could use some work, specifically in the wording. But it did produce results when I was hunting. (My top portion is a bit long, but I can tighten it when I'm actually in the market for a job again.)

Good luck!

Permalink Reply by Wendy Withers on February 15, 2008 at 9:10am

I've read the same thing on Poynter's "Ask the Recruiter." Joe Grimm wrote that the objective statement and references (or, the silly "references available upon request" line weren't necessary. That's one of the reasons I have a BS objective statement on my online resume, on the one I email and print out for people, I usually just write some muckety muck about dynamic news organizations, although I might take it out and just let my qualifications speak for themselves. I also think I will reorganize with my experience up top.

Permalink Reply by Wendy Withers on February 16, 2008 at 10:38am

I just reformatted my hardcopy resume with a lot of your suggestions and will try to do the same with my online resume later today or tomorrow. I realized that I formatted the resume due to a professor's suggestion about a year ago, even though I didn't like the ways I had to change it. (She had connections to a newspaper org VP and said she wouldn't forward it unless it looked exactly the way she wanted it.) My new resume looks a lot like my old one, except it uses color and has a lot more experience on it. I'm really happy with it.

I also deleted the objective and have two copies, one with references and one without.

Permalink Reply by Kathleen Haughney on February 17, 2008 at 3:19pm

I think your objective might raise a few questions from recruiters, but overall it looks good. Maybe add a pdf or word document that someone could download if they want to print a copy.