While most employers look for conventional resume formats that show simplicity and professionalism, there are some situations where a more unique and creative resume can help you stand out. This article will cover everything you need to know about a creative resume when it’s appropriate to use it, and a few tips to get you started.
What is a Creative Resume?
It’s an unconventional resume that goes beyond the traditional layout in design and style. A creative resume uses unique design and formatting choices to highlight your professional achievements and skills.
Using a creative resume often depends on where you’re applying. However, some tech careers best suited for using creative resumes are UI/UX designers, graphic designers, illustrators, animators, etc.
Why Use A Creative Resume?
The purpose of any resume is to get an interview, and with a creative resume, you get to grab a recruiter’s attention at first glance, stand out and make an excellent first impression. Also, creative resumes can help to give a visual illustration of your skills and qualifications, especially if you are applying to a job that relies on visual information, such as graphic design, UI/UX designer, etc.
9 Tips On Creating A Creative Resume for A Tech Job.
1. Add Color.
Although, for a non-creative tech job, black-and-white resumes work fine. However, for tech jobs that have to do with design roles such as UI/UX describes, illustrators for graphic designers, using color to add dimension to your resume is alright too. Adding colors also show how well your design skills are.
To show our research and attention to detail skills, you can go the extra mile by using the themed color of the company on your resume. However, don’t go overboard with the colors and shapes; keep it simple if you can.
2. Use Interesting Fonts.
Generally, it’s advisable to use a plain, easy-to-read font for the body text of your resume. However, you can experiment with more creative fonts or even the company’s themed fonts for your name, the headings, and subheadings of each section; but, make sure it’s readable.
3. Use a Simple Layout.
For your creative resume, your layout should be simple and easy to navigate and skim through quickly. Most recruiters encourage that your designs and layouts shouldn’t outshine the relevant information on your resume. So, give enough white spaces between sections to give your resume a clean look and to allow the employer to skim through the information quickly. You can also choose to rotate the page layout from vertical to horizontal to give you more space to add relevant information about your skills and experience.
4. Keep Your Content Relevant.
While building a creative resume, you must add information about your experience and skills relevant to the job description. Your creative resume should also include essential information in a detailed manner that would be expected on a traditional resume, such as your name and contact information, work experience, education, skills, and any other relevant but additional information.
5. Include Data and Numbers.
33% of HR and recruiters say that another most extensive resume ‘deal-breakers’ that can cost a candidate the job is when you fail to demonstrate and quantify results. So, enhance your creative resume by adding numbers to your achievements instead of simply listing the details of your roles and responsibilities at previous jobs.
Many recruiters want to see how you use your skills to produce results, and you can do this creatively by providing critical metrics of your accomplishments. You can even go the extra way to use an appealing graphic or chart that displays a visual representation of your experience and results.
6. Include Relevant keywords and Action Verbs.
Using the right colors, fonts, and graphics on your creative resume is not enough. So, you need to strategically use the necessary action verbs and job description keywords in your resume to help you score another goal and get past any Applicant Tracking Systems (ATS) used to disqualify unsuitable candidates.
Fortunately, industry keywords can be found in a job description or even on the company’s website. Once you can locate them, look for ways to include them in your creative resume experience and skills section, making your resume more suitable for the job.
7. Use The Company’s Themed Design.
A creative resume won’t work for every tech role or company. So, if you’re so confused about creating a creative resume and don’t want to use the traditional one, you can start by appealing to the company by using elements of their branding, such as the color or font similar to their logo or website.
8. Ensure Quality.
80% of HR and recruiters say that having spelling and/or grammatical errors in your resume is another resume ‘deal-breaker’ that can cost a candidate the job. Hence, even with your creative resume, it’s essential to proofread and edit your document to ensure it’s free from errors and easy to read and understand.
Also, avoid including incorrect or missing contact information and an unprofessional email address. Repetitive words or phrases used in multiple job descriptions should also be avoided to ensure that your creative resume is unique, free of plagiarism, original, and of high quality.
9. Make Sure It’s Printable.
When submitting a creative resume with infographics, shapes, and colors, make sure that it’s still legible and in a suitable format even after printing it in hardcopy. It’s going to be sad if, after printing out your resume, the recruiter finds it hard to read it because colors are contrasting, shapes are bolder than text, and fonts are just small.
Key Takeaways
Creative resumes are a way to show off your design, attention to detail, and sometimes your research skills. So, make sure you use appropriate colors, fonts, and layouts, include relevant information and make it suitable for the tech role or industry you’re applying to. At the same time, you don’t have to go overboard with the design or clog your resume with cliche buzzwords and irrelevant industry keywords that may not be ATS-friendly.
As a job seeker looking to land that interview, the end goal is to impress the recruiter within a few seconds. Hence, you should arrange all your creative efforts in a manner that will convey your skills, experience, and the results of your achievements over the years.
Frequently Asked Questions
What are some disadvantages of a creative resume?
23% of HR and recruiters say that a resume factor that can cost a candidate the job is when a resume’s format and/or design is too elaborate. This also means that a creative resume design can often work against you even if it may be eye-catching.
A creative resume format often changes the whole layout of the document, making it distracting and somewhat hard for recruiters to quickly find critical pieces of information. And, if you’re concerned about ATS scans, you may consider submitting a traditional written resume instead of a creative one because, more often than not, a creative one doesn’t play nicely with ATS.
When should I be using a creative resume for a tech job?
Consider using a creative resume if it’s appropriate for the job role and tech industry you’re applying to. While creative resumes are attention-grabbing, it’s not applicable in all tech companies, so, It’s advisable to research the company culture of your prospective employer to assess which type of resume format is more appropriate. For example, if you are applying to an IT security role, a creative resume with too many colors and infographics wouldn’t be appropriate and would likely hurt your chances.
What are some creative resume ideas for a tech job?
An infographic format can be an excellent creative resume option for graphic designers, web designers, and other people who work in IT. A video resume also works well if you’re applying to a visual or performance-based role, and is most successful when it’s between 30 seconds to a minute long. You can also show your animator skills by building your resume informing of a mini-game with the theme of the company you’re applying to.
Alongside these, a resume designed with the theme of the company you’re applying to says a lot about your research skills and can help you stand out. However, the main focus of your creative resume should be on the content and relevant information of your experience and skills but shown in a more visually appealing way.
What information should you include in your creative resume? Reach out to our team via our candidate site to get more information on how you can build a creative resume that is ATS-optimized for any tech job.