Think Resume Design, Think Twitter Style, See This

Written By: Karthik Rajan (@KarthikRajan)

In late 2006, when I first heard about Twitter, I was enamored with the simplicity of the idea of  public text message with 140 characters or less. The world agreed. The tweets caught on like wildfire. In this day and age of social media, circa 2015, resumes are still around – people still ask for them. What happens if you bring some of the tenets of Twitter into a traditional resume? Can we bridge the gap between attention span of hiring managers and the candidates wanting to stand out with their resume?  This fun yet key urge is the genesis of the pictures below that shaped my success.

Compare and Contrast: Traditional Resume

Below is the most common template within Microsoft Word. Scan it and then close your eyes, assume you are a hiring manager and think through what sections your eye looks for in the first few seconds.

Twitter Inspired

Now think about Twitter – what is the structure of the string of characters that make it powerful. As Twitter matured, here is the trend of characters I have seen in a tweet.  First comes a context/thought with hashtags and then a link to the source for more details. When it comes to the link, there are tools like Bitly that can condense the string. Can this eye-catching idea catch on in a traditional resume? Here is a template with my explanation.

Does it work?

• If you think Google front page works, there is more white space in this new format beyond the top and bottom margin.
• It is still closer to the traditional resume on the right side. Yet, it covers two types of audience – one type who wants to know what you bring to the table at a high level and the other who is drawn to the crisp details on the right side. Yet, both types are contextually connected from left to right, like a tweet.
• The one line tweet at the top forces the resume writer to focus on the essence and yet gives a one line takeaway to the hiring manager without the overused  adjectives at the top!

Takeaway: Resume Design in Context

Content and conversation are kings, resume design is positively a crown that embellishes the King’s persona.  On design, I drew inspiration from elements of  Twitter’s phenomenal success: Simplicity, Constraints and Craftsmanship (Jack Dorsey, founder of Twitter’s  three words).

Think simplicity with context, think resume design. Interested in your thoughts.

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Republished with permission. To read the original on Karthik’s LinkedIn blog click here.

About The Author:

I enjoy writing at the intersection of analytics and human relationships.

Karthik Rajan’s Blog Page