The standard resume being boring and...well, standard isn't something that I want to go away. Putting one together is soul-sucking enough, it's even worse if you expect me to put serious creative...
The standard resume being boring and...well, standard isn't something that I want to go away. Putting one together is soul-sucking enough, it's even worse if you expect me to put serious creative consideration into it. I desperately hope the people pushing these fail miserably.
I don't want an arms race of eye-poppingness when I'm applying for a teaching position or something. Please let them remain more or less equal. As the article sorta starts to touch on, this could be a massive step backwards for anti-discrimination in employment as well.
For something like a design position, I understand and might even encourage. Though I agree with your point about pictures and discrimination. For everything else though, I'd prefer to stick to...
For something like a design position, I understand and might even encourage. Though I agree with your point about pictures and discrimination.
For everything else though, I'd prefer to stick to the standard ways of making your resume stand out: git gud.
Marketing people apply marketing skills to marketing resumes. This is not a new thing in the slightest. I have been hired on the basis of finding bugs in software - that's a non-traditional resume...
regional marketing and site coordinator
Marketing people apply marketing skills to marketing resumes. This is not a new thing in the slightest.
I have been hired on the basis of finding bugs in software - that's a non-traditional resume if ever there was one. Now I'm in academia, and the way resumes need to be done in that area is precise like you wouldn't believe, and come with associated interview processes that would make a Microsoft Interview 2.0 seem like a cakewalk (and sometimes this resume and interview process is just going through the motions because you had a beer with the head of the department at their last conference, and THAT is the real hiring process).
Back in the day, I had an industry-relevant cartoon at the top of my resume (a 3cm strip of colour across the top of the page), but everything else was bland and boring and functional. The idea...
Back in the day, I had an industry-relevant cartoon at the top of my resume (a 3cm strip of colour across the top of the page), but everything else was bland and boring and functional. The idea was to show a bit of personality (the cartoon was not only a splash of colour, but also said something about how I work), but not so much as to be off-putting. Underneath, I needed to outline my relevant skills and experience, and show I know how to present myself professionally.
If you work in marketing, then your resume becomes an example of your work. But, for the rest of us, less is more.
Photos are out. There are already studies which show that attractive people are more likely to get hired than unattractive people. By putting your photo on your resume, you're possibly allowing a recruiter to (unconsciously) exclude you from the shortlist just because they (subliminally) find you unattractive - which means you've cut yourself off from the opportunity to sell yourself at the interview.
To be fair, if you know yourself to be generally considered of above average attractiveness, surely the smartest (and most cynical) thing to do is to capitalize on that? A similar scenario - my...
Photos are out. There are already studies which show that attractive people are more likely to get hired than unattractive people.
To be fair, if you know yourself to be generally considered of above average attractiveness, surely the smartest (and most cynical) thing to do is to capitalize on that?
A similar scenario - my university has a system of marking codes instead of names to be written on exam scripts. The purpose of these codes is supposedly to give us the right to have our exams marked without being subjected to unconscious biases. Supposedly, if we forget our codes, we should write our names instead, and 'lose the oppertunity to have our exams marked anonymously'.
Although I have always written the code, it always crosses my mind that with my obviously white and male name, I would potentially fare better if I abandoned my anonymity, since if anything the unconscious biases would work in my favour.
By what you've said here this is a reason TO put your photo on your resume - because you can use a filtered and retouched photo with a Myspace Angle on it, and get a leg up on attractiveness that...
By putting your photo on your resume
By what you've said here this is a reason TO put your photo on your resume - because you can use a filtered and retouched photo with a Myspace Angle on it, and get a leg up on attractiveness that might not be there.
The bigger issue is a lot of places I know will automatically remove names, genders, and images because of the threat of a discrimination lawsuit, and now your resume has a big hole in it or the formatting is whack.
Maybe I'm not fully awake, but this phrasing was really funny for some reason. I get your meaning, but I don't recall ever hearing it phrased that way before. My mind immediately conjured an image...
colorism
Maybe I'm not fully awake, but this phrasing was really funny for some reason. I get your meaning, but I don't recall ever hearing it phrased that way before. My mind immediately conjured an image of a bright purple person looking at photo of a canary-yellow person while saying "oh fuck THOSE people".
Which I guess goes to show just how absurd racism is in the first place.
In some cultures, South Asia and Korea especially, darker complexions are considered lower class and do deal with some discrimination that’s totally independent of their ethnicity or actual...
In some cultures, South Asia and Korea especially, darker complexions are considered lower class and do deal with some discrimination that’s totally independent of their ethnicity or actual socio-economic background.
I suppose that adds a whole new angle to massaging your resume! Also, how do you know what a particular recruiter finds attractive? ;) I thought it worked the other way around: I thought the...
By what you've said here this is a reason TO put your photo on your resume - because you can use a filtered and retouched photo with a Myspace Angle on it, and get a leg up on attractiveness that might not be there.
I suppose that adds a whole new angle to massaging your resume!
Also, how do you know what a particular recruiter finds attractive? ;)
The bigger issue is a lot of places I know will automatically remove names, genders, and images because of the threat of a discrimination lawsuit, and now your resume has a big hole in it or the formatting is whack.
I thought it worked the other way around: I thought the software extracted the relevant experience and qualifications to do data-checking against. But I don't work in recruiting.
However, they did a study right here in Australia which showed that names matter. The researchers prepared some standard resumes them out in response to various job ads. The education, the qualifications, the experience... everything on these resumes was exactly the same. The only thing they changed was the names: some had Anglo names and some had non-Anglo names. They found that the resumes with Anglo names had a higher chance of being picked for interviews than the non-Anglo names ("Algernon" would be more likely to be picked than "vakieh"). If you're someone with a non-Anglo name, wouldn't you want your name removed and to have your resume assessed purely on the basis of your relevant experience, rather than having someone exclude you due to conscious or subconscious racism?
I've never worked in HR, but I have hired people, and HR has given me resumes with images and names taken out. Note that this was done by a human just going in to a pdf and dragging white boxes...
I've never worked in HR, but I have hired people, and HR has given me resumes with images and names taken out. Note that this was done by a human just going in to a pdf and dragging white boxes over things then flattening the file, presumably they had their own scraper software to cull people without listed skills etc.
Names can be removed without messing things up too much as it's just 1 line, and since everyone includes them it's a normal thing to see. Photos are big and very much a noticeable gap when they're removed.
I'm open to the idea of creativity in your résumé, but if I were in the position to hire someone, a bitmoji would just scream, "I'm too cheap for a professional headshot."
I'm open to the idea of creativity in your résumé, but if I were in the position to hire someone, a bitmoji would just scream, "I'm too cheap for a professional headshot."
(If the paywall occurs, disable JavaScript. This article also partially mirrors the WSJ article.) Although the WSJ has no figures for how common this is, it's an interesting article.
(If the paywall occurs, disable JavaScript. This article also partially mirrors the WSJ article.)
Although the WSJ has no figures for how common this is, it's an interesting article.
If you're applying to any moderately sized company, I don't see the point of doing stuff like this on your resume, since they all get fed into systems that automatically pull out only the relevant...
If you're applying to any moderately sized company, I don't see the point of doing stuff like this on your resume, since they all get fed into systems that automatically pull out only the relevant information. How many of these custom formatted resumes even get seen by the HR people at these companies? I'd assume they just see the extracted data.
Maybe for a smaller company that has a specialized field (like marketing) it makes sense.
Side note: It drives me nuts when a job application allows you to upload your PDF/Word file version of your resume and then the next page asks you to type all of the information into preformatted boxes. What's the point of me uploading my resume?!
The standard resume being boring and...well, standard isn't something that I want to go away. Putting one together is soul-sucking enough, it's even worse if you expect me to put serious creative consideration into it. I desperately hope the people pushing these fail miserably.
I don't want an arms race of eye-poppingness when I'm applying for a teaching position or something. Please let them remain more or less equal. As the article sorta starts to touch on, this could be a massive step backwards for anti-discrimination in employment as well.
For something like a design position, I understand and might even encourage. Though I agree with your point about pictures and discrimination.
For everything else though, I'd prefer to stick to the standard ways of making your resume stand out: git gud.
Marketing people apply marketing skills to marketing resumes. This is not a new thing in the slightest.
I have been hired on the basis of finding bugs in software - that's a non-traditional resume if ever there was one. Now I'm in academia, and the way resumes need to be done in that area is precise like you wouldn't believe, and come with associated interview processes that would make a Microsoft Interview 2.0 seem like a cakewalk (and sometimes this resume and interview process is just going through the motions because you had a beer with the head of the department at their last conference, and THAT is the real hiring process).
Back in the day, I had an industry-relevant cartoon at the top of my resume (a 3cm strip of colour across the top of the page), but everything else was bland and boring and functional. The idea was to show a bit of personality (the cartoon was not only a splash of colour, but also said something about how I work), but not so much as to be off-putting. Underneath, I needed to outline my relevant skills and experience, and show I know how to present myself professionally.
If you work in marketing, then your resume becomes an example of your work. But, for the rest of us, less is more.
Photos are out. There are already studies which show that attractive people are more likely to get hired than unattractive people. By putting your photo on your resume, you're possibly allowing a recruiter to (unconsciously) exclude you from the shortlist just because they (subliminally) find you unattractive - which means you've cut yourself off from the opportunity to sell yourself at the interview.
To be fair, if you know yourself to be generally considered of above average attractiveness, surely the smartest (and most cynical) thing to do is to capitalize on that?
A similar scenario - my university has a system of marking codes instead of names to be written on exam scripts. The purpose of these codes is supposedly to give us the right to have our exams marked without being subjected to unconscious biases. Supposedly, if we forget our codes, we should write our names instead, and 'lose the oppertunity to have our exams marked anonymously'.
Although I have always written the code, it always crosses my mind that with my obviously white and male name, I would potentially fare better if I abandoned my anonymity, since if anything the unconscious biases would work in my favour.
By what you've said here this is a reason TO put your photo on your resume - because you can use a filtered and retouched photo with a Myspace Angle on it, and get a leg up on attractiveness that might not be there.
The bigger issue is a lot of places I know will automatically remove names, genders, and images because of the threat of a discrimination lawsuit, and now your resume has a big hole in it or the formatting is whack.
Maybe I'm not fully awake, but this phrasing was really funny for some reason. I get your meaning, but I don't recall ever hearing it phrased that way before. My mind immediately conjured an image of a bright purple person looking at photo of a canary-yellow person while saying "oh fuck THOSE people".
Which I guess goes to show just how absurd racism is in the first place.
In some cultures, South Asia and Korea especially, darker complexions are considered lower class and do deal with some discrimination that’s totally independent of their ethnicity or actual socio-economic background.
I suppose that adds a whole new angle to massaging your resume!
Also, how do you know what a particular recruiter finds attractive? ;)
I thought it worked the other way around: I thought the software extracted the relevant experience and qualifications to do data-checking against. But I don't work in recruiting.
However, they did a study right here in Australia which showed that names matter. The researchers prepared some standard resumes them out in response to various job ads. The education, the qualifications, the experience... everything on these resumes was exactly the same. The only thing they changed was the names: some had Anglo names and some had non-Anglo names. They found that the resumes with Anglo names had a higher chance of being picked for interviews than the non-Anglo names ("Algernon" would be more likely to be picked than "vakieh"). If you're someone with a non-Anglo name, wouldn't you want your name removed and to have your resume assessed purely on the basis of your relevant experience, rather than having someone exclude you due to conscious or subconscious racism?
I've never worked in HR, but I have hired people, and HR has given me resumes with images and names taken out. Note that this was done by a human just going in to a pdf and dragging white boxes over things then flattening the file, presumably they had their own scraper software to cull people without listed skills etc.
Names can be removed without messing things up too much as it's just 1 line, and since everyone includes them it's a normal thing to see. Photos are big and very much a noticeable gap when they're removed.
Well, there's a reason to leave your photo OUT of a resume! :P
I'm open to the idea of creativity in your résumé, but if I were in the position to hire someone, a bitmoji would just scream, "I'm too cheap for a professional headshot."
(If the paywall occurs, disable JavaScript. This article also partially mirrors the WSJ article.)
Although the WSJ has no figures for how common this is, it's an interesting article.
If you're applying to any moderately sized company, I don't see the point of doing stuff like this on your resume, since they all get fed into systems that automatically pull out only the relevant information. How many of these custom formatted resumes even get seen by the HR people at these companies? I'd assume they just see the extracted data.
Maybe for a smaller company that has a specialized field (like marketing) it makes sense.
Side note: It drives me nuts when a job application allows you to upload your PDF/Word file version of your resume and then the next page asks you to type all of the information into preformatted boxes. What's the point of me uploading my resume?!