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One of the most difficult tasks associated with searching for employment is getting your CV to stand out above the rest. Having the right experience is of course important, but one way to make your CV shine is to completely reverse the typical style and layout of a CV – if you can’t hook them in with facts, you can at least get them with visuals.
Here is a selection of the most eye-catching CV ideas circulating the internet:
1) The Movie Poster CV
If you take the most common features of a movie poster – the stylised fonts; the striking backgrounds; the illusive images; the taglines that leave you on a cliff-hanger; etc – it doesn’t instantly scream ‘CV’. But in 2007, media specialist Joe Kelso designed his CV around a retro horror movie poster, titling it “Joe Kelso presents: Resume! The Reckoning”, using an image of himself screaming, suited and bound with rope.
To describe his experience and education, he used bold and ghoulish fonts dotted around the image, finishing with the tagline, “He was safely locked up – But now he’s out!”. That’s certainly going to get your attention, but an idea like this could possibly send off the wrong signals…
2) The Data Visualisation CV
Those of you with a scientific and statistical mind will love this CV idea – everything about you, your skills and hobbies; the length of your time in education; your experiences within a job; everything, is displayed as visual data. Using any chart or graph you can think of, you are able to display your history in an incredibly pleasing way.
Why ramble on about your time in secondary school, when that entire period of your life can be compacted into a minimalist pie chart?! What do you mean, that’s a bit depressing?
Image by Wilgengebroed
3) The Facebook CV
If ever there is site that is instantly identifiable and received positively, it’s Facebook. This is why, Sabrina Saccoccio, a film producer and photographer, decided to design her CV in the form of a Facebook profile. With the site’s logo at the top, Sabrina filled in all the information you’d typically find on a CV in the style of how Facebook presents people’s bios, likes and dislike, and so on. In terms of references, Sabrina chose to arrange their opinions of her in the form of Facebook wall comments. All in all, I couldn’t possibly imagine how anyone could dislike that CV.
4) The QR Code Reader CV
This is perhaps the most interesting and unusual idea for a CV – embedding parts of your CV into a QR code.
Imagine the look on your potential employer’s face, as they finish reading your information on one side of your CV, only to turn over to find they can be spoken to by a picture of you. With a simple scan of the QR code, you’re allowing yourself the opportunity to fill them in on anything you were not able to include in writing. Furthermore, you’re allowing them to see how you present yourself, and just how modern, awesome and intelligent you are to pull off something like this.
5) The Fabric CV
Getting noticed in the fashion and textiles industry can be incredibly difficult when there are so many people wanting to make their mark. It makes sense therefore, to show just how passionate you are about the design of fabrics by submitting a CV made out of fabric. Melissa Washin, hoping to convey her love of everything fabric, decided to print her information onto white fabric, and then sewed that to a sample of her favourite fabric designs. She even sewed her logo onto the fabric CV – it was a definitely a wise decision to not sew on all her information, that’s for sure.
If you have the time and skill to really flourish in the design aspect of your CV, it is certainly worth it to try and make it as eye-catching and different as possible. But for those who don’t have that creative flair within them, perhaps you should try to improve your writing and use language and expression to really show just how unique and special you are to your potential employer. I wish you the best of luck!
Ben Kettlety is a recent graduate, who is well aware of how difficult it is to make your CV stand out above the rest. He writes for the GKBC Writing Academy.
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