One of the first things job-seekers will hear is that a recruiter is only going to spend about 30 seconds reading your resume. This seems overstated. With the average job posting getting dozens of applicants, you need to communicate your background effectively.
It’s difficult to process decades of achievement in under a minute, especially when those achievements are scattered across bullet points and personal statements. What if there were a better way?
Vizualize.me will pull from your LinkedIn profile to create an infographic which you can then edit. But it does a pretty good job without additional work.
As an example, here’s mine with no editing.
Putting your profile through Vizualize.me emphasizes the power of visualization. Here are some takeaways on the importance of visualization when applied to a resume.
1. It is hard to think across periods of time. We’ve all been in an interview where we had to walk through our career timeline as the interviewer mapped out the progression. A visualization does this for you.
The timeline allows you to add scale to your work history. You can easily compare and contrast your tenure in different roles.
2. “Data” is broader than you think. The word “data” makes me think of a block of columns and numbers. But really, “data” is any collection of facts. So a resume is data just like a sales transaction log. Traditionally, it has been more difficult to visualize qualitative research. But new software has made this easier. So consider the power of data vizualization for all kinds of information — not just numbers.
3. Interaction is key. Data has moved from static reports to interactive dashboards. Users want to be able to ‘play’ with their data through drilldowns, dicing, etc. A resume is a static list of your achievements. It is difficult to zoom out on all your work experience and then focus back in on certain jobs. With the above timeline, you can a wide-angle view of work history, and then hover over certain points to view more detail.
Data visualization helps us process resumes more quickly and powerfully. But things change slowly in the professional world, and handing in a visualization rather than a resume may not go over well in some industries.
While a Vizualize.me resume might not be possible as a primary resume, consider it as part of a “portfolio” that you can show at interviews along with samples of your work.
So skim wisely — and visualize your resume.
Thoughts? Comment below or email: george@georgejmount.com
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