How to Make a Visual Resume with PowerPoint in 3 Steps & Stand Out from the Crowd | by Jessica Drew
In: News
5 Jul 2010Almost every employer requires traditional CVs, but visual resumes are increasing in popularity and can make you stand out of the crowd and land the job. After looking at hundreds of visual resumes (there are thousands on YouTube), I can say that these types of resumes can either be ingenious masterpieces or flops (or at the worst case, something that’s just painful to watch).
Why make a visual resume? With the job market in a vice, the competition is fierce. Visual resumes are becoming more and more popular, but not everyone and their mom are submitting a visual resume along with their traditional one (yet) – so at the moment they can really help you stand out.
More and more employers are seeking to get to know a potential employee on a personal level and visual resumes can give employers this insight. Visual resumes tell a story and this can give potential employers an interesting snapshot of who you are – making them want to learn more and visit your website or blog, read your traditional resume or better yet, give you a call.
Job search engine sites are getting hip to the idea of visual resumes; Jobster.com allows users to upload visual resumes right onto their site, while MyWorkster.com has a place for a link to a visual resume on a user’s profile.
What Not To Do: Don’t be an Elle Woods or an Aleksey Vayner
In the feature film “Legally Blonde,” bubbly and blonde protagonist Elle Woods gets accepted into Harvard Law School because of her visual resume, which shows her flouncing around in a pink bikini. Sex appeal is something you definitely do not want to show off in your visual resume.
Secondly, don’t lie in your visual resume like Aleksey Vayner, a Yale graduate who was pursuing a career as an investment banker. Vayner’s resume, which he uploaded to YouTube in 2006, was full of outlandish lies and hilarious. The visual resume showed Vayner, who had a thin and lanky build, supposedly bench pressing a 495lb weight and hitting a tennis ball at 140 mph. The resume went viral – the entire blogosphere got a great laugh. MSN and several other national news organizations even picked up and broadcast the story. Bottom line; you don’t want anything even remotely like this happening to you. Showing your sense of humor in a toned down way is a good thing – looking ridiculous will just give everyone in human resources something to talk about around the water cooler.
Video vs. PowerPoint
This tutorial is about how to make a visual resume using PowerPoint, not with a video camera. There are a couple reasons why I think this the PowerPoint resume method is superior.
First, videotaping takes a lot of time. You have to get a haircut, dress up, find someone to film you, think long and hard about what you’re going to say (and more importantly – how you’re going to say it), re-record the whole thing since you’ll inevitably mess up at least ten times and then edit the entire piece. PowerPoint is simple, quick and easy.
Secondly, after viewing hundreds of video resumes, I came to the conclusion that…
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- Tags: business life, cv, powerpoint, ppt, resume, Video
Recruitment companies are recruiting again. The ‘war for talent’ has started once more (did it ever stop?) and thousands of recruitment consultant jobs are being advertised on the job boards and recruitment-to-recruitment specialist agencies are getting steadily busier.
It’s a sad and ironic indictment of our recruiting industry that the one universal role that we struggle to recruit for is the one of recruitment consultants for ourselves. Even recruitment-to-recruitment companies find it easier to locate and place recruiters at their client companies than to fill their own internal gaps – you work it out??!!
For a start, let’s tell people realistically how hard they need to work in their first year including what hours they need to work to be considered doing the job. If the culture in your business is that no-one leaves before 8pm at night it seems only fair to point that out during the interview and not reveal it to them in week 3 of their probation period. Likewise if there is an office bitch (most often a bloke) that makes rookies life hell for the first three months Warn them! If you as the boss only come in after 10am and frequently leave before 5pm (why??) tell them that’s the way it is. If you’re embarrassed to, then maybe you need shut up and change your hours to reflect how hard your team work. If their first three weeks are going to be spent cold calling to build up your client vacancy list then tell them to expect the worst, i.e., lots of rejection, low morale, wanting to give up, etc.
The way I see it is if you paint the job as the worst they could ever imagine but talk about the rewards once you get past the initial boot camp feel then you are getting someone whose job expectation is based in reality which ultimately will lead to job satisfaction. If you bullshit the job up, their expectation is artificially high and unreal and will definitely lead to job dissatisfaction and the churn and burn we have come to expect in our recruitment industry just keeps on rolling on. Tell it how it is and remember to keep it real!
It is imperative that we don’t make the same mistakes we made previously when re-staffing our teams. Forget about ‘double dip’ if you want to send your recruitment company or team down the swanee, then follow the ten most common mistakes we make when recruiting recruiters:
1. Hiring ‘experienced’ recruiters
They are on the market for a GOOD reason. Proceed with caution – you may just end up with someone else’s problem recruitment consultant.
2. Recruiting low energy people because we like them
If they’re low energy in the interview process how do you think they’ll be after 6-12 months with you? Do you really want to have to light a fire under people?
3. Not checking references
You may as well give them the keys to your house and car whilst you’re at it.
4. Making compromises when we take someone on (settling)
If you settle for second best, they will always be second best. Don’t you deserve ‘FIRST BEST’?
5. Hiring to ‘fill a desk’
The goal of recruiting is to find the right person at the right time. Logically, that means one source is never enough. You’ll want to tap into diverse mediums to find the best candidates. Social media is no exception. Each platform has its own unique demographic. You’ll want to consider that audience when making the decision about which applications to use for your recruiting efforts.
Regardless of the application, there are some common elements of using social media for recruiting. Here are six things to consider:
1. Create an online presence that reflects who you are.
Having a nice avatar, succinct bio and current contact information will make people want to connect with you. Be sure to organize your social media profiles to provide potential contacts with a better idea of who you are so they have a reason to communicate with you and form a relationship.
“It’s about being human”, explains Bill Boorman, author of the Recruiting Unblog. “People connect with people, not brands. Connect with everyone because you never know who will make that referral or connection for you.”
2. Make the most of your time.
A large part of any success with social media is involvement. This is especially true if you want to use social media for recruiting. While mobile applications can help with this, Boorman agrees, “It takes a big investment of time to build a talent community.” To target your efforts, he suggests asking people directly which channels they use and looking at what your competitors are doing. “Consider directing your messages to a single point, like a relevant blog or company website.”
3. Individualize your approach.
At some point, you have to connect with people you don’t know and become a part of their conversations. “I actually find it easy,” says Chris Havrilla, national recruiting manager for Hitachi Consulting, a global leader…
Ten Things You Can Do Today to Earn Respect in the Workplace | by WhatWouldDadSay
In: Biz| Communication
4 May 2010
Millennials, or Generation Y, are those individuals born between 1980 and 1995. These young adults are entering the workforce enmasse and, once baby boomers begin to retire, but only after our 201k/s become 401 k/s again, will become the new middle management working class. These young adults, in three years or so, will be the predominant factor in the next great companies. They will be doing the work. They will be prepared. Fingers crossed.
A precursor to career advancement is earning respect from your bosses and your co-workers. It is like the sophomore basketball player who might be good enough to make the varsity in a couple of years. He is earning the respect of his coaches and teammates even now, by working hard, attending extra practices, doing all the drills and so on. This respect, whether or not accompanied by an increase in talent, has earned him a place on the bench. I might well be wrong…“frequently wrong, never in doubt”…but I think some Generation Y workers could care less about “respect.” Instead they believe that charisma and sheer talent as they define it will serve them into the future. They believe that their place on the bench is assured, just ‘cuz.
Here are ten things to earn respect now in the workplace.
1. Master email communication. Learn every tool and technique there is to better communicate via email. To the point: write well. Don’t use “ur,” when you should use “you’re.” Get in the habit of re-reading your emails and editing them. I am not sure if sloppy spelling and poor writing can be switched off when you get that middle manager spot. Study a basic punctuation textbook again…the first time, chances are you didn’t see the value of it. Eats, Shoots and Leaves is my favorite.
2. Don’t complain. Or even whine. Have you ever noticed how performers hardly ever complain, they simply figure out a way to solve problems? If you complain now, you are setting yourself up for a lifetime of bitchin’ and moaning.
3. Learn new stuff. Trust me, you probably do not know everything you will need to know in the future. Get a mentor and find out what you don’t know now. Us boomers feel very paternal toward this group. We want to help. Taking charge of this process will earn you respect.
4. Don’t say stupid stuff. When chit chatting in the office, be careful what you say.
10 Reasons To Delete Your Facebook Account | by Dan Yoder
In: News
3 May 2010This work is licensed under a Creative Commons License. It was originally published on the author’s blog.
After some reflection, I’ve decided to delete my account on Facebook. I’d like to encourage you to do the same. This is part altruism and part selfish. The altruism part is that I think Facebook, as a company, is unethical. The selfish part is that I’d like my own social network to migrate away from Facebook so that I’m not missing anything. In any event, here’s my “Top Ten” reasons for why you should join me and many others and delete your account.
10. Facebook’s Terms Of Service are completely one-sided. Let’s start with the basics. Facebook’s Terms Of Service state that not only do they own your data (section 2.1), but if you don’t keep it up to date and accurate (section 4.6), they can terminate your account (section 14). You could argue that the terms are just protecting Facebook’s interests, and are not in practice enforced, but in the context of their other activities, this defense is pretty weak. As you’ll see, there’s no reason to give them the benefit of the doubt. Essentially, they see their customers as unpaid employees for crowd-sourcing ad-targeting data.
9. Facebook’s CEO has a documented history of unethical behavior. From the very beginning of Facebook’s existence, there are questions about Zuckerberg’s ethics. According to BusinessInsider.com, he used Facebook user data to guess email passwords and read personal email in order to discredit his rivals. These allegations, albeit unproven and somewhat dated, nonetheless raise troubling questions about the ethics of the CEO of the world’s largest social network. They’re particularly compelling given that Facebook chose to fork over $65M to settle a related lawsuit alleging that Zuckerberg had actually stolen the idea for Facebook.
8. Facebook has flat out declared war on privacy. Founder and CEO of Facebook, in defense of Facebook’s privacy changes last January: “People have really gotten comfortable not only sharing more information and different kinds, but more openly and with more people. That social norm is just something that has evolved over time.” More recently, in introducing the Open Graph API: “… the default is now social.” Essentially, this means Facebook not only wants to know everything about you, and own that data, but to make it available to everybody. Which would not, by itself, necessarily be unethical, except that …
7. Facebook is pulling a classic bait-and-switch. …
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- Tags: facebook, friendfeed, social-life, twitter
ss: expand your horizon on presentation
—–
In one of our previous articles, I put together a list of 7 must-see videos related to web design. Since then, I’ve come across a number of other videos from conferences and events, and I thought I would share some of those here.
The list includes a brief description of each video, some notable quotes from the presentations, and related links. So, sit back, take your time and enjoy some great technical insights and design principles from some well-known web designers, developers, and conference speakers.
[Offtopic: by the way, did you know that there is a Smashing eBook Series? Book #1 is Professional Web Design, 242 pages for just $9,90.]
The Influence of Print Design
Speaker: Jason Santa Maria
Part of the MFA in Interaction Design program, this is a candid and personal discussion of how print design and the technique of “storytelling” have affected the designs of the speaker in his professional career as a web designer.
Notable Quote:
“Over time I started looking at the way that publications look, and the way that web designs look, and I didn’t see that same connection, and I wondered why. So I want to go over some of the stuff I’ve discovered, and why web design looks the way that it does.”
Related Link:
Simplicity Sells
Speaker: David Pogue
Although not specifically about web design, this is an enlightening and entertaining TED Talk by New York Times columnist David Pogue. Pogue, who has authored many technology books, takes aim at technology’s worst interface-design offenders, and provides encouraging examples of products that get it right. To keep things interesting, he even occasionally breaks into song.
Notable Quote:
“I know one guy who spent $4,000 just on Photoshop over the years. Software companies make 35% of their revenue from just these software upgrades. I call it the software upgrade paradox, which is, if you improve a piece of software enough times, you eventually ruin it.”
Related Link:
The job interview is misnamed. Too many candidates think about the job interview in those terms—ie., the person with the job is going to ask me a bunch of questions and if I answer the questions correctly I may get the job.
What is really happening in the interview is actually quite simple. There are only two questions in the mind of the interviewer:
1. Do I like this candidate?
2. How can this person impact my department, company– can he/she do the job?
Most of the interviewer’s questions are designed to help them find out the answers to these questions. Smart candidates, on the other hand, will use every tool at their disposal to serve up the answers at every opportunity.
For example, if every job candidate would find out more about the company and what they do, they could be better prepared. They should bring a HERE IS EXACTLY HOW I CAN HELP YOUR COMPANY plan, documented with ideas and action steps. All it takes is a bit of work, and some presentation skills.
Same idea with the bigger question of DO I LIKE THIS CANDIDATE? But, even this is in the control of the candidate. I am not suggesting undertaking a personality transplant, but I am suggesting that you think a bit about how to come across in a more likeable manner during the interview. Here is one of my posts on making yourself MORE LIKEABLE.
Humans tell stories. We have since the first caveman told Thor where all the bears were hiding and how to make fire (again). What is your story?
What Makes A Great Cover Letter, According To Companies? | by Kat Neville
In: CV - Resume
27 Mar 2010Ah, the dreaded cover letter. Boring to write, difficult to get right, and you’re usually preoccupied by other things (such as the portfolio and resume, which are also really important). Unfortunately, your cover letter is a company’s first exposure to you, and it determines whether your application is trashed or fast-tracked to the company’s to-hire list.
The status of the cover letter is changing in the Web industry. While a well-formed cover letter still has a place, some companies believe that Web folk who rely on this archaic tool never make it to the next round. But what do I know? Let’s hear instead from some great Web and design agencies to get their advice on creating a great cover letter!
You may be interested in the following related posts:
- How To Create A Great Web Design CV and Résumé?
- Business Card Design: Better Than A Plain Ol’ Business Card
- Invoice Like A Pro: Examples and Best Practices
- The Art And Science Of The Email Signature
[By the way, did you know we have a brand new free Smashing Email Newsletter? Subscribe now and get fresh short tips and tricks on Tuesdays!]
The Old Way: Copy, Paste… Personality-Free
Anyone who has ever recruited for a job has received “that letter.” And it’s always the same: usually a “Dear Sir/Madam,” followed by some generic schpiel about how the applicant will fit in well with the company, no matter what the role or company. The text is boring, as if copied from a “How to get a job” pamphlet from 1980. The companies I spoke to overwhelmingly hated form letters. So, first and foremost, personalize your email or letter. Secondly, tailor the letter to that company. Here is the advice of some companies on personalizing cover letters.
No Sirs or Madams!
Addressing an actual person is so important. This was by far the most passionately made point by every company I spoke with. Companies want to know that you have taken the time to personalize your email. If you can’t find a name to address (which happens 10% of the time) or you’re not sure whom to address, at least use something like, “To the creative director at [company name]” (don’t forget to get the title and company right before sending!).
…
Structuring Your Cover Letter
Cover letters are your first contact with employers, so getting the length and content right is important. Most companies agree that you should include some links to your work, and definitely follow any instructions that they put in the job advertisement!
You’ve Got 20 Seconds… Short and Sweet, Please!
Any Web design agency worth its salt is too busy these days. They have to beat off new clients with a stick. Remember that talented people are busy people, and most Web people have the attention span of a gnat. The Web is all about scanning, so make your cover letter adhere to the standards you apply to Web writing. Every word counts!
…
12 Amazing Commercials
In: News
27 Mar 2010
We present a selection of 12 commercials that showcase highly creative concepts, executed flawlessly.
Nike Leave Nothing
Directed by Michael Mann
JC Penny Magic
Directed by Nicoli Fuglisg
Barclays Fake
Directed by Nicoli Fuglisg
Land Rover Freelander
Directed by Chris Cairns
Nissan Rogue Maze
Directed by Thierry Poiraud
HP – Eternal Dreamer
Directed by Oliver Gondry
Guinness Music Machine
Directed by Steve Cope
Phillips Carousel
Directed by Adam Berg
Audi Intelligently Combined
Directed by Carl Erik Rinsch
Barclaycard Rollercoaster
Directed by Nicolai Fuglsig
Levi’s Knockout
Directed by Michael Haussman
Audi Economy Drive
Directed by Ne-O
How do I handle being sabotaged by a colleague? | John McKee
In: Biz| Communication
27 Mar 2010Office politics can make even a great job go sour. Leadership coach John M. McKee advises a company VP who feels his position is being sabotaged by a colleague.
——————————————————————————————–
One of the nasty things about political maneuvering in the workplace is that you may not realize you’re the victim of someone else’s plot until it’s too late. Here’s one story that came to my attention:
John,
I can use your advice. While moving up the ranks from being 1 of many engineers to vice president of the company’s entire IT group, I’ve enjoyed a solid and satisfying career with the same employer for 12 years. Until now, I’ve never thought much at all about the “politics” that take place elsewhere. Until now.
About 8 months ago, a new VP was hired to oversee a new venture at my company. He’s an older guy; I’m 39 and he’s probably in his mid-50s. From the first day he arrived I’ve gone out of my way to let him know that I’d be happy to help him with anything that could help him succeed. Now, it seems, I was naive.
Over the past couple of months he’s made statements during our leadership team meetings that make me and my team look ineffective. In a company project review last week, he seemed to make a point of commenting about every issue or problem my department was encountering with our deliverables. After drawing attention to a few of them - in front of managers and department heads from several departments - he told our boss that he’d be happy to help me out by taking on the additional responsibility of overseeing all company-wide projects. He said that he has a lot more experience with this type of complexity than anyone else (implication being me), that he’s got extra time, and that it just made sense to lend his hand to ensure we don’t miss deadlines.
…
The Leadership Coach response
Well, it does sound like you’ve been out-maneuvered by the new guy. But you may not have to start looking for a new job just yet, Gerald. Before I give you my suggestions about your “next steps”; let’s take a minute to review what happened in your situation.
…
1. Measure twice — cut once.
2. Check the lay of the land.
3. Consider the Japanese management style.
…
Serhat SINE ?
Ip Security Engineer @ Alcatel-Lucent (will be updated soon)
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- How to Make a Visual Resume with PowerPoint in 3 Steps & Stand Out from the Crowd | by Jessica Drew
- Top 10 mistakes when recruiting recruiters | by Ripper On Recruitment
- 6 Tips for Effective Recruiting on Social Media | by Sharlyn Lauby (Mashable)
- Ten Things You Can Do Today to Earn Respect in the Workplace | by WhatWouldDadSay
- 10 Reasons To Delete Your Facebook Account | by Dan Yoder
- Seven Must-See Web Design Videos and Presentations | by Louis Lazaris
- Two Questions Behind Every Job Interview | blogs.jobdig.com
- What Makes A Great Cover Letter, According To Companies? | by Kat Neville
- 12 Amazing Commercials
- How do I handle being sabotaged by a colleague? | John McKee
alessandro pautasso
