Today is Theme Day #2 of the 2013 WordCount Blogathon, where bloggers in the event are encourged to post on the same thing. For this theme day, we’re trying something new — asking everyone to record and post a video. I did a video last week to explain how to embed a video in a post, so today I’m trying something a little different — creating an interactive resume that includes video and other elements. — Michelle R.
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Online resumes have been around for a long time — I’ve had one since I joined LinkedIn in 2007.
Today, though, there are many other options for creating interactive resumes with a lot more sex appeal than a static profile page.
Interactive resumes are a smart option for freelancers or anyone else going after gigs where you need to show you’re social media savvy, or want to show potential employers that along with writing, you can take photos or produce video.
One option is Vizify, a Portland startup that pulls material from your social networks to create an interactive resume. Set up an account, follow the directions, and you’ll end up with an infographic-style webpage with basic information on your location, work history and education, plus status updates, photos and videos. The resume also creates a 30-second multimedia slideshow from your Twitter feed that you can share with friends online. Here’s a link to mine: Twitter Video – an animated portrait of my Twitter account.
In order for Vizify to populate your interactive resume with all that data, you have to agree to allow it to access your social media accounts; the more accounts you connect, the more data Vizify has to work with.
Customizing Your Interactive Resume
The basic Vizify resume looks like the picture at the top of this post — my headshot in the lefthand corner, along with seven interconnected blue bubbles that represent the seven other pages of my resume on the site. Click on any of them and you’ll get additional details about where I’ve worked, where I’ve lived, what I’ve shared on Twitter and who I’ve shared it with.
You can use Vizify to customize how your resume looks. I used the edit tools to change the background and colors of my resume’s front page. I also used it to tweak the information that shows up on what I share on Twitter, and who I interact with, so it’s more in keeping with how I use Twitter for work. You can also add more photo and video pages, and change the background music that plays with your Twitter video.
Here’s what my customized page looks like now:
Start to finish, creating my interactive resume, using the edit tools to customize it and then sharing links to it on Twitter took about 30 minutes – nowhere near as much time as I’ve spent creating other online resumes.
Speaking of other online resumes, Vizify is by no means the only online interactive resume-building tool out there. In recent months, LinkedIn has added the ability to link to portfolios, projects and other material to a basic profile. I’ve also created a resume on Contently, the publishing management platform, because it’s an easy way to keep my clips updated. Here’s a story I did for SecondAct.com on different types of interactive resumes: Do you need an interactive resume?
Have you created an interactive resume on Vizify or elsewhere? If so, share the link so other freelancers can see it by leaving a comment.
Hi Michelle,
I am blown away by all of this information. Sharing (of course) and sending to someone that might be interested just now.
How you manage all of the content you do, run your business and then give us so many great tools I will never know. I had to make a special bookmark list, and it’s all you! I should just set up an IFFT triggers for all of your newsletters and tweets 😉 Thanks so much.
Lee Tyler, you are officially my BFF. Seriously, thanks. Glad I can help. I’ve worked as a tech reporter for a long time (longer than I even care to think about), so explaining how apps and other gizmos and gadgets work is second nature. I love the fact that I can use what I know to help other writers — thanks for the validation.
Michelle Rafter
Thanks for sharing. I’m (sort of) establishing a freelance writing and blogging business and am in the midst of working on a site (separate to my blogs). I’ve added this feature cos it looks SO fabulous.
I actually read your posts ALL OF THE TIME… just rarely comment. So… a big thanks from me.
Deb
This resume could be three or more pages long and the bullet points should cover any direction that you could go. If you are considering opportunities in training, project management or a technical position make sure that you.making a resume