Resume website or creative CVs: helpful or harmful?

Post Reply
FabFour
Posts: 13
Joined: Tue Sep 20, 2022 8:07 am
Location: New England, USA

Resume website or creative CVs: helpful or harmful?

Post by FabFour »

For any of you who have ever been in a position to hire: what is your opinion on creative resumes, like a classy infographic? (Example here... really wish I could hyperlink: https://masterbundles.com/wp-content/up ... oad-90.jpg)

What about a resume website (in addition to the paper one of course)? https://business.tutsplus.com/articles/ ... -cms-25761

I am a visually creative teacher (science, not art) and these approaches represent my style very well. I'd also love to create a short video about my teaching style and classroom culture. It probably depends on the eye of the beholder, but in general, are these viewed as obnoxious or helpful?

Also, your thoughts on photos on resumes? I've read that they're abhorred in the US/Can/UK, but encouraged in Europe and Asia.

Thanks for your input.
Heliotrope
Posts: 1167
Joined: Sun May 13, 2018 1:48 am

Re: Resume website or creative CVs: helpful or harmful?

Post by Heliotrope »

I'd urge you to post this question on forum 1: viewforum.php?f=1
It gets a lot more traffic than this one (forum 2).
PsyGuy
Posts: 10789
Joined: Wed Oct 12, 2011 9:51 am
Location: Northern Europe

Response

Post by PsyGuy »

In IE what you are hinting at is called an Ichiro. An Ichiro is named after a long lost member of the forum, who was a very valuable contributor, much like the Reisgio effect.
An Ichiro is essentially an alternative resume to describe marketing any type of flashy/gimmicky/creative method of introducing yourself to recruiters. It would generally involve color photos of you teaching, amazing students projects, etc and a more limited amount of text. Some people go all out and mimic advertising flyers, brochures, wanted posters etc (kind of a high risk/high reward approach).
During signup your only going to have about 10-30 seconds to make contact with a recruiter and get an interview slot. A resume doesnt convey the highlights of you as a candidate. You want to convey the top three bullet points of what makes you special or at least worthy of consideration. Enter the Ichiro, which in its basic form is a flyer (in color) with basic contact information, some visual representations of your work, and a few bullet points of what makes you special. Ichiros are also good for slipping under doors and in school folders. A three fold brochure or business cards allow you to carry your resume everywhere without being cumbersome.
Ive seen a number of Ichiros from business card resumes with a photo, contact info and a few stared bullet points with a QR code leading to a digital portfolio, to printed CDS, coupons (Good for one amazing teacher, time limited must be redeemed at [web address] and currency bills for a "1,000,000 teacher", 3 fold "sales" brochures, a couple teachers have done commercials and one did a full 22minute "info-mercial" that included a staged interview answering 5 pretty common questions, that was distributed on flash drives (you get a couple of flash drives from schools in your invite folder). The best one I ever got was a full, professionally bound magazine on slick paper stock it was 62 pages long and had articles discussing their teaching philosophy, a center fold with their bio and resume, articles about differentiation, their approach to the whole student, special needs, learning support, a couple stories about past schools and what they learned, and what they wish theyd known. It was extremely well done. The most recent unusual one were bottles of wine the candidate had created custom labels for that had a photo superimposed over a vineyard, a mock review to one side and a short list of bullet points describing their strengths in a “Quality Profile”, and were more of a 'Thank you note'.

Youre first sample is fine, though its not likely to do very much for you when submitting an electronic application. If its printed its going to be printed on a laser printer in B&W on econo-mode. It also takes up WAY too much space with the profile section. There are three components of an ITs resume what they can teach (degrees, credentials, certificates, qualifications, etc.), what they have taught (experience, exam scores, etc.), and special skills. Of the three experience is king. There are two systems when recruiting screening, which consists of increasing the applicant pool and selection which is reducing the applicant pool. During screening you want to make the key points of your resume as easy to find as possible. Youre resume is going to get seconds to determine if it goes into the bin or goes into the in pile. That means putting the most relevant of the three components on the first page. Does the candidate have a degree, is the degree in the teaching field, do they have a credential, have they taught the subject before and when. Your samples design elements are reducing and limiting the amount of information you want to convey and increasing the difficulty of finding whats important. Once you get to the interview list, then that type of resume is something to send to the recruiter/leader thats going to conduct the interview. So its worth having as a second resume but not before.

As to your second sample, that would be something youd incorporate into a digital portfolio. Having one is great. There are mixed opinions how valuable they are but if youre willing to spend the time and the resources with the understanding that no one may ever look at it, than thats all you, but it wont hurt you. Aside from conventional and traditional agencies, boards and services IE doesnt use mediums like LinkedIn, etc. very much for recruiting. Having a digital resume in your digital portfolio youve done in Canva, etc. also wont hurt you. You should have two videos in your portfolio at a minimum a teaching demonstration and an introduction. Teaching demonstrations are becoming more common as new ISs are created that take their lead from the ES market.

Photos also have mixed opinions. One is that you include a photo as the first attachment in your email so that the thumbnail is prominent. The benefit of this is that it creates more space on the front page of your resume and when printed out wont be a mess. The other view is to include it on your resume so that it puts a face to the information.
FabFour
Posts: 13
Joined: Tue Sep 20, 2022 8:07 am
Location: New England, USA

Re: Resume website or creative CVs: helpful or harmful?

Post by FabFour »

PsyGuy, this is *incredibly* helpful. Thank you so much!
sid
Posts: 1392
Joined: Sat Dec 02, 2006 11:44 am

Re: Resume website or creative CVs: helpful or harmful?

Post by sid »

the concept is fine, but in practice many of these that I've seen do not truly deliver. If the content is not there, no shiny delivery will get the job done. If the delivery isn't shiny, it's just a mess.
The skinny: a good one is slightly more impressive than a traditional CV; barely enough to make a dent. A bad one is worse than a traditional CV, because it proves you believe your skills are good even though they aren't.
PsyGuy
Posts: 10789
Joined: Wed Oct 12, 2011 9:51 am
Location: Northern Europe

Discussion

Post by PsyGuy »

I dont agree entirely with @Sid there is some value to style that can compensate for some small lack of substance, and that amount varies. There are simply ISs that cant get substance at all in any meaningful form. Bottom third tier ISs in undesirable hardship regions that get a handful of applications in which none of them are meaningfully qualified. An IS needing a maths IT and all they get are a few ETs, none of them with a background in maths and it becomes a matter of who looks the most organized and the most able to fake it. In that case a polished empty lesson works better than a poorly conceived and delivered but topical lesson.
Post Reply