In an increasingly competitive job market, job seekers have to go to greater lengths to make sure they leave a lasting impression on employers. Handing in a generic black and white resume that lists every ice cream server and American Eagle sales associate position you’ve had since high school will earn you a one way ticket to the trash bin.
A new form of resume, the digital resume, is steadily gaining popularity with job seekers as an innovative way to showcase your greatest strengths, especially those with experience in creative fields. A digital resume allows you to have your experiences and your portfolio in one easy to access location, and shows employers that you can think outside the box. A paper resume is just black type on a white screen, but a digital resume lets you put your own personality into it and it becomes your place to shine.
There are many websites out that allow you to create your own digital resume these days. VisualCV or WordPress are both good starting places for those who have not created a website before.
VisualCV specializes in digital resumes and offers ready-made resume templates that allows students to “show, not tell” their experiences. VisualCV’s portfolio option makes it easy to upload all of your relevant projects, writing samples, photos, videos, graphic design, and more all in one place! Additionally, VisualCV has its own job boards where over 700 employers can seek our your digital resume.
WordPress offers a variety of templates that users can utilize to create their digital resumes. There are many standard designs, or you can use those creative skills and create and upload your own template. The difference with WordPress is that it is a blog, so you will have the freedom to present your resume any way you like, but it does take away the ease of having a ready-made resume template where you can just plug-in information. Of course, there are many more places where you can create your own site, but these are two of the easiest for digital resume novices.
After you have chosen a site you now have the task of presenting yourself in your best light. Although it can be tempting to put every newspaper article and class project you have ever made on your page, you have to remember that this is what employers will be judging you on. Put only your best work on so that you don’t run the risk of them only looking at one of your weaker examples.
If you pride yourself on your photography skills, show those pictures! Have strong Flash or video editing experience? Put some examples on there! Seeing examples of your strengths creates much more of an impact then just hearing them described on paper.
For the truly creative and outgoing, a digital resume also affords you the opportunity to give a potential employer a taste of your personality with a video presentation. More job seekers are utilizing videos to give a personal touch to the job application. Videos can be funny, like this one by James Corne or serious like this video, as long as they are appropriate and professional. All should be kept short (90-120 seconds) and should definitely not be just a reading of your resume. A video resume should not be your whole history, but simply a teaser to get the employer interested.
In this technological age, a digital resume could be the push that you need to get your resume noticed and land your dream job!
Examples of Digital Resumes: