the basic idea (and i'm not even sure my idea is original or not, it probably isn't) is that reading resumes suck. reading resumes is an investigation into what the person knows. even a C-student can make their resume look good. resumes suck; they suck so bad that we need phone screening, reference checks, 2-tier interviews., etc.
okay, so i just discovered that i'm not just visualizing existing information on resumes, i'm also expanding what's on a resume. the problem with the standard one-page resume is that you are bonded by space. on one page, everyone looks the same. that's why i like a academic curriculum vitae - they are very verbose and pretty much as everything. the more content the better. anyway, the reason why you can't hand in a academic CV is because its too hard for the employee to properly read and understand everything. ONE PAGE!!!! i think the ONE PAGE rule is really stupid, but nevertheless we must obey (haha, i almost always have more than one page).
anyway, getting back to the idea. i want to create a graphical resume that contains all the information that a CV has but all on one page. then the employee is basically looking for the "right" graphic. here is my 10 second prototype:
so the basic idea, is that the employee can quickly see my strengths and weaknesses. (haha. i guess i should have shown the differences a little bit better in my prototype). but you get the gist of it. basically, i could imagine this graphic on a resume site and it lets people drill down to get the data. after all, its always about the data.
i'm interested in what you guys think about my initial brainstorming. any thoughts, comments, questions, etc?
4 comments:
I like the idea of being able to visually see skills and qualifications, but I also still like the idea of a written resume. To me a resume is a reflection of the person. The subtle things such as formating, organization and explanations of past work experience says a lot about an individual.
[from jo]
Good idea if you need a way to weed out those who do not have the skills you are looking for.
Skills may be classified as -
Proficient
Working Knowledge
Basic Knowledge
No matter what, you still need list of roles/responsibilities, list of projects, references - better to get references related to projects they worked on and interviews.
"While that may be true, resumes suck; they suck so bad that we need phone screening, reference checks, 2-tier interviews., etc."
The funny thing is that even with a image of what their skills are, you will still need to do phone screens and interviews, reference checks etc.
After all if any student can make a good resume, why couldn't they make a good visual resume?
actually, i was thinking that the visual resume wouldn't be really created by the applicant. it would be created in something like monster.com or some other resume site. people would just enter everything they can about themselves (more than you can fit on a one page resume) and click on "generate visual resume" and out pops this cool little graphic. its like your own unique visualization of yourself.
chadk mentions a good point. the subtle things are important. i guess my idea doesn't really replace resumes. it just gives you access to more information quickly - at a glance.
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