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Vizualize.me: Transform your resume into a cool infographic

Myriam Robin

Tue Aug 16 2011

AshtonKutcherVizualize.me

IT’S February 2011, and the resume of an American journalism student has gone viral. Chris Spurlock’s creative attempt at getting noticed sparked an idea in Eugene Woo’s mind. A few months later, Vizualize.me was launched.

The resume-maker pulls information from your LinkedIn account, displaying it in a choice of several infographic styles. The rationale behind it is simple: today, most resumes are a dime a dozen. Most employers admit to only glancing over them, so why not display the information in a manner more conducive to, well, glancing.

To garner interest, Vizualize.me released a sample. Actor Ashton Kutcher’s resume. It displayed his education and work experience on a double-sided timeline, with boxes below for his proficiencies, twitter followers, various claims to fame.

Having scored myself a beta account, I can tell you now, my attempt at a resume doesn’t look anywhere near as cool as Ashton’s. A lot of functionality just isn’t there yet, but given the site only launched about a week ago, I’m assuming more things will be added over time.

So let’s say I can figure out how to add a twitter follower count to my resume, would I then consider sending it to employers?

To be honest, I’m not sure.

If I want to be taken seriously by employers, is sending them a picture the best way to do it? Will they be frustrated by the overlapping job squares and tiny writing? Will they want more information? Will they question the rigour of my awarding myself three stars for ‘wordpress’?

The biggest weakness of Vizualize.me I can see is how quickly it could become cliché. There are currently six themes available. Even if you change the colours and background, you still only really get six looks. A lot of the impact of  a visual resume is the creativity and flair it shows. If everyone has one, with a Vizualize.me icon down the bottom, that impression doesn’t mean as much.

That said, almost against reason, I hope this takes off. Because it looks a whole lot better than my current alternative. And I’m a sucker for pretty things.

What do you think of visual resumes? Have you played around with Vizualize.me? Let us know.

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