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Do you use an online resume

Catwell
The online resume was once a gimmick, interesting, but not taken seriously. But is that the case anymore? Is it time to post a rather creative and engaging resume online? With various tools that make it easy to product professional websites, posting a flashy resume online can be a reality.
 
I recently found some online resumes that I thought were pretty interesting. Some were interactive, others were just showing information in a new way. Here are a few:

http://theportfolio.ofmichaelanderson.com/portfolio/resume-infographics/

 
I like how they look, but I question whether anyone will actually spend the time to read it. 11 seconds is how long most employers will spend on a resume. And how would the online resume site integrate  with all the job boards like monster, careerbuilder, etc? I personally believe there will be a tipping point, and online resume's will be predominant in the job hunt world. Much like Facebook took over the social media world.
 
What are your opinions about online resumes?
 
Cabe

  • 0

    It's a new age, and I am thinking the website resume is the way to go for all job seekers.


    I am afraid of posting such valuable information, or am I just being too cautions?

     

    Cabe

     

     

    Engineers are more than just designers, talk about your day to day here in the EDE Discorse group.
  • 0

    For some industries like computing, engineering, art etc, I do see a need for them. Quite what you put in them is up to you. Personally I keep the information basic and relatively vague in places and rely on a contact form for anyone who wants to use more. I tend to rely on it more as a portfolio than anything else. It is all well and good to say you can write x, y and z or did a and b in your spare time, but this could mean anything. By using my website as a portfolio, I can provide examples of skills I have talked about. Even if these examples are relatively basic, they are better than nothing. It works for say graphics designs, why can't it work to provide evidence of skills of engineers etc? All else fails, who doesn't want to show off one or two personal projects that may prove useful to others?

     

    Even with this, I do not believe the traditional resume is outdated yet. Posting some personal information online is still risky and most likely will be for years to come, having a traditional resume (PDF or paper) that you can send to employers is still much more private and as a result potentially safer.

    Just my thoughts on it.

  • 0 in reply to cookieglitch

    John,

     

    I agree on the safe angle. If your personal information is there, you'll soon be barraged with people asking for help and money from some far away country, I'm sure. Do you have an online portfolio?

     

    I used to buy expensive resume paper 10 years ago, and send those printed resumes in a large envelope so it wouldn't get folded. A waste of time, effort, and resourses. Since then, I have only applied online with a digital copy. But now I think it is time for the next step in my online representation.

     

    Although I have a job, I am always in the search of the next, better, career path. Some say that is a bad thing, but I believe if you have a picture in your mind of where you want to be, you should do everything you can to get there.

     

    Posting a resume/portfolio online is definitely a good way to showcase yourself in a new way. Why be at the bottom of a resume stack when you can entertain them [employers] with a website about yourself. Am I wrong in this view?

     

    Cabe

     

     

     

    Engineers are more than just designers, talk about your day to day here in the EDE Life Discourse Group.

  • 0 in reply to Catwell

    Hi Cabe,

     

    I do indeed have an online portfolio. I started out doing web development (Sort of) on personal sites and one or two companies/artists so the move to having my own portfolio was a logical step at the time. Since moving to focus more on embedded systems, I've simply moved things around and tried to move the focus to the projects I am working on. Granted it is a tad of of date in areas, but the amount of interest it currently gets means it is not such a concern currently.

     

    Even with the increased ability for anyone to get a site up to represent themselves in say five minutes, I still think there is a place for paper resumes. Coming from a softeware background, I find it is nice once in a while to have something physical to represent someone with rather than just a PDF etc. It is personal preference at the end of the day, but with the way many companies are going, only online applications will be accepted eventually. For example, out of all the jobs I've looked at over the past few months/years, only two have allowed applying with a resume.

     

    You are right, an online portfolio is a good way. No matter what you try, a paper resume is always going to be limited in what it can show. By having an online presence you are not as limited. Why restrict yourself to just a list of points about what you have done and who you are when you could show them through graphics or video or pretty much whatever you can think of? You are just marketting yourself so why keep it so formal? Consider the examples you gave, they are more like adverts than resumes. Why limit that to artists and co? After all, engineers/developers are all artists anyway! May as well show off some of your creations or take the time to give more detailed descriptions of the work you have done. Long story short, online presence is good!

     

    John