Creative resume: features and examples

Representatives of creative professions when compiling resumes most often deviate from the classical standards of black and white design. They translate into reality the most unusual ideas, for example, a resume in the form of a glossy magazine cover or drawn up on artificially aged sheets. However, their informative part is no different from the established requirements of office work.

A creative resume allows the applicant to stand out against the general background of presentation forms of the classical style. And this is not surprising. Going through a lot of similar resumes, the recruiter with great pleasure will dwell on a colorful document and carefully read the text.

First of all, it is necessary to consider the disadvantages of a creative approach:

• not every manager understands the essence of non-standard resumes;
• preparation of a presentation document may take more than one day;
• the internal concern of the applicant about the opinion of the management of the company in which he wants to get a job can negatively affect the creative design;
• Creative resume format is not suitable for all specialties.

But the list of advantages of a non-standard approach has many more points.

• Screening companies. Managers and recruiters can criticize the CV provided. Different views and competing opinions indicate the impossibility to work together with the boss and the staff of the company as a whole.
• Creative approach helps compensate for the minimum work experience of the applicant.
• Creative format summary gives the chance to the applicant to make a stunning career. In a short period of time, a non-standard document may appear in the database of all creative companies in the city. So, job offers will begin to come to the applicant.
• Managers of creativity-related companies favor candidates with non-standard thinking.
• A job seeker with a creative resume will certainly be invited to an interview. At the same time, communication will take place not on a sluggish note, but with a smile and a laugh.
• The team of the company quite often sees the resumes received by the company. And such an unusual approach to the preparation of a presentation document will quickly fit into the team.

Creating a creative resume is actually very difficult. Creative thinking and knowledge of graphic programs is only the first step to creating a presentation masterpiece. To attract the attention of the employer, it is necessary to come up with an unusual concept of this document.

Recruitment specialists shared information on which models of creative resumes are more to the liking of company executives.

• Infographics. A fairly common method of self-presentation among creative professions. The text of this document necessarily contains all the points of the classic resume. As for the background, here the applicant just needs to be creative.
• The envelope. Nowadays, recruiters and business leaders receive resumes from applicants by e-mail. But this is not always successful - such letters are most often deleted. Avoid such situations will help “live letter”, delivered by courier or transferred to the personnel department with his own hand. At the same time, the resume itself should have a non-standard design.
• "In contact with". Today, social networks are an integral part of human life. You can’t help using this when creating a creative resume. Presentation questionnaires made in the design of a personal page look very interesting and unusual. In addition, this method allows the applicant to reveal their talents, thereby demonstrating them to potential leadership.
• Cover. A great option for a creative resume in the form of a glossy magazine cover. Here you can put the printed information and insert a few portfolio elements.
• Pyrography. An unusual method used extremely rarely. It is a wooden board over which the necessary textual information is burned. In fact, there are many options for designing a creative resume. The main thing is to connect creativity and find an acceptable document model for a quick job.

To create an original resume, some important tips should be heeded.

• The design of a creative resume should correspond to one position of interest. Concrete is needed. Options such as “I’m ready to work as a programmer or advertising manager” or “I want to get the position of a courier or call-center operator” work inefficiently.
• Creative resume models, as well as rigorous versions of this document, should be moderately informative. The recruitment manager or manager initially focuses on the design of the presentation questionnaire, and then gets acquainted with the text. And here the main thing is to tell the truth about yourself, without revealing it to the end. For example, "in my last job I was able to increase the volume of products without additional funding." These words will interest the employer, and he will surely want to know everything in detail.
• Even in creative execution, the resume must conform to the generally accepted structure. In general, the original design of the self-presentation questionnaire stands out against the general background of strict documents. But with text content, many make mistakes. Some skip some points, others - on the contrary, focus on minor details.
• Particular attention should be paid to the work experience section. In this case, the chronology should consist of the last to the first.

In the resume of each applicant there is a section “work experience”, which indicates the name of the enterprise, position and list of functional responsibilities. But employers, in general, are not interested in this information. The future leader should see what the potential employee could achieve. For this, it is appropriate to supplement the structure of the resume with the achievement section.

For creative resumes, it is better to slightly adjust the “work experience” section, supplementing it with achievements. It is further proposed to consider with a few examples what an unusual bunch looks like in contrast to common phrases.

Main responsibilities:

• making cold calls;
• creating presentations;
• conclusion of contracts.

On the one hand, the text seems understandable, easily accessible. However, the future leader does not see what the applicant was able to achieve. Therefore, it is necessary to bring some clarity:

• Concluded 10 agreements with international companies in the amount of $ 1 million each;
• within 3 months it increased its customer base by 128 units, 46 of them became regular partners;
• over the past 22 months has exceeded the plan for the sale of products.

You may not even ask what text the potential boss “pecks” at.

A prerequisite for any creative resume is to supplement its structure with the section “Skills and Technologies”. For example, if the applicant is looking for a copywriter, it is extremely important for him to indicate the presence of public speaking skills. This is not about karaoke, but about lectures or training new employees.

When filling out the section on technological knowledge, it is not necessary to paint a detailed acquaintance with the program. It is enough to indicate “experienced user”. In general, it is better to make a marking list and show which programs the applicant knows well and which are not.

In each strict resume model habitual words are indicated, applicants only change their places. For example, sociability, stress resistance, responsibility. These words can even be called cliches that potential leaders do not even pay attention to.

Information of a secondary nature in a creative format resume should be presented with an unusual twist, and for this you need to connect imagination, talk about principles, beliefs. You can briefly mention your favorite book, blog, or other interests. On the one hand, this may seem ridiculous, however, it is this information that reveals the inner world of the applicant, talks about his personal qualities. In addition, if at least one interest coincides with the hobby of a potential leader, an imperceptible emotional connection will arise between him and the applicant. Thanks to this nuance, the chance of the owner of a creative resume to get the desired position increases significantly.

If the applicant does not want to share personal information, you can use the usual cliches, only present them in a more detailed presentation:

• the characteristic "stress resistance" can be replaced by the phrase "able to withstand high emotional stress and remain calm in emergency situations";
• "responsibility" preferably painted with the phrase "I have the ability to quickly analyze the situation and make independent decisions, bearing full responsibility for them";
• the phrase "I can quickly find a common language with strangers" easily replaces the "sociability" template;
• “I independently deal with new information, after which I easily apply it in practice” - we are talking about "fast learning."

The submitted document is an obligatory part of any creative resume. Today, applicants are trying to attach a small postscript to the presentation questionnaires, in which there are several proposals related to the company and the position you are interested in.

In the text of the greeting and indicating the purpose of the applicant regarding employment, the manager recognizes the subtleties of the character of the potential employee and his temperament. However, the composition of the cover letters is entirely dependent on several important factors:

• level of qualification of the applicant;
• position of interest;
• The final opinion of the hiring specialist or hiring manager.

For the basis of a creative resume, you can take the templates presented on the World Wide Web. The second sample is brighter and more saturated. A job seeker with such a profile will want to get many advertising companies.