In talking about the creation of my “infographic resumé,” or
a visual document of my background and experience, I think it’s important to
give a little of the “backstory” of the challenge, prior to talking about
specific reasons why I chose the
visual devices used in the layout. Please excuse the length, but between
details of the story, and the relevant process examples, it was impossible to
pair the post down…
This resume (and
relevant discussion) is being included in the soon-to-be-released book from
Wiley & Sons Publishers: Look for “Stories That Move Mountains” in online
and brick-and-mortar locations this fall!
The Story
It seems that as I worked my way through the field of design
education and graphic design, I entered the mid-2000’s desiring something new
and different that combined my experiences in a new way that would take my professional
career to the next level. In 2005 I was working in textiles with Tommy Bahama
and ready for something that more fully utilized my skills and talents. I had
been teaching for 10 years, and knew I loved numerous aspects of design and
design education.
I decided to enter a grad program at Antioch University in
Seattle. The “Whole Systems Design” program fine-tuned my context-based problem
solving skills, and educated me more fully on systems thinking and analysis –
it was holism (or “wholism”) in a whole new way – very heady “big-picture”
stuff. Everyone in the program was
responsible for applying learning to their own specific area(s) of interest.
Mine was learning/development, design, and creative and effective use of
technology. This was reflected in numerous papers and projects, including an
internship at Youngstown Cultural Arts Center that had me looking at all the
stakeholders involved in the use of a performing arts space that used technology
and a wide range of users to harness an amazing opportunity to express people
talents. I also wrote a final thesis on leadership and creativity. It was an
expansive time for my own learning and considering “the new.”
I also put together numerous career “maps” that connected ‘parts’
of my experience within various careers and various documents methodologies in
areas like coaching, management, leadership, learning and consulting. A few
examples are included here—essentially, when it came to my background,
experience and interests, I was really exploring how all the “pieces could fit”
in different ways, since I was really looking to take life to the “next level.”
Note I said ‘life,’ not just a career… I have always attempted to integrate the
‘whole person’ whenever possible.
Where was the gap between where I was, and where I wanted to be? You can
imagine it was a pretty involved process.
I finished grad school as I continued teaching as full-time
faculty. I was very busy with these two things, it’s amazing I had a personal
life in the process – I met my wife during this time! Anyway, after I wrapped
up my M.A., I considered what was next professionally. I had many leads, but
nothing solid yet, and my new challenge…
Has how do I attack an old problem? Yes, the resume –
something that never fully represented me, and here’s why: I had worked many
amazing short and long-term projects over the years, and I had realized that I
needed to be very strategic about how I represented a large quantity of diverse
projects and situations. Design education was my greatest area of “regular”
experience. When it came to graphic design, it seemed like my skills were never
deep enough in any one area for all the ‘specialized’ out there, and I kept hitting
this same roadblock with HR people and recruiters again and again.
Well, I am not really
a specialist… the challenge: clarifying variety in a way that is not construed
as “job hopping.”
I had approached this many times with a “traditional”
resume, new a chronological format was definitely
not an option for me, and also realized that since I am doing more and more
data visualization, that it might only make sense to depict my experience on a
resume as visual data – I needed to give different audiences another way to experience
my experiences – as a compliment to my traditional (text-based) resumé. Why not
give them an option to do that?
My infographic resume functions for three main reasons, and
any results beyond these could be considered positive unintended consequences.
A huge realization at this time, was that I was catering to the wrong audiences…
they just weren’t getting it, and I was looking in the wrong places. My new
approach needed to function as:
1.
A way to connect with a targeted and more appropriate audience (i.e. IT stakeholders and
anyone dealing in statistics and data) a way to “experience my experience,”
with a subcategory being the connection with anyone interested in
organizational learning. Infographics help people not only experience data, but learn
from it in their own way. In the case of a resumé, the ultimate goal is to sway
the hiring manager (decision-maker) to bring you onboard.
2.
An illustration of my abilities with data
visualization (i.e. a portfolio piece).
3.
And to have the opportunity to tell a story of
where I have been, and what I have done – inways seldom done (or possible) on
a traditional resumé.
The infographic resume has also apparently been able to not
only showcase ability and style, but it’s apparently showcased my personality –
let’s just say I can be a little silly at times.
The Design Process
Lead by my determination, I was very fortunate to have a few great people (authors on the book
presently being co-authored, “Stories that Move Mountains”) available to give
me feedback as I drafted several versions of my new visual approach to my CV.
Imagine: these people were a great representation of my target audience! Now
THAT is fortunate!
The First Design
Challenge
I must say I did not start out with too much of a ‘formalized’
plan of attack. Unlike my usual approach, I did not start out in black and
white to get a solid overall approach—OOPS. Not sure if that helped or hurt,
but color did seem to be important
right from the start.
Apparently ‘thinking outside of the box’ also required getting
through lots of ‘inside-the-box’ ideas. Let’s just say I started pretty traditionally,
meaning it was more like a slightly modified version of a text-only resume.
I started out by breaking down my experience into two primary
areas: Education and Experience.
The process itself,
started to formalize the approach.
During the process of designing, and getting feedback from
said audience, I realized I didn’t really know what I wanted to say – or more
specifically, what story I wanted to tell. I realized I was trying to tell too
many stories, including elements of my personal life, exercise routine, health,
education from as far back from as far back as high-school, etc.
I fine-tuned what I
was communicating, and how it was
being communicated. I used different types of visual representations and
timelines for work, tools, skillsets, etc. It was coming along, but just wasn’t
there yet. It got more and more complex,
and the information became quite dense from a visual standpoint. I took chances…
some failed, some succeeded—ahhh process!
But there just wasn’t
a “story that stuck.”
There were too many “side-stories” going on, and too many
things I was trying to communicate. It was ‘muddying the message,’ and diluting
the water. The layout was also relatively “divisive,” splitting up the content
too much, with directions and boundaries that were far too strong. I believe it
also limited the experience. I wasn’t able to make the kinds of connections I
wanted, or show the relationships between
things well enough.
Do over.
Reboot.
New layout.
The Journey
I finally hit upon a story I could build on. My experiential journey was also my physical journey – after all, I was quite a traveler… moving across the
country, and traveling whenever possible. This could be something “thematic”
that could help tie things together.
I fine-tuned the content by unifying all experience and
education as simple four different kinds of experience: yes, I believe that even
education is experience. Color-coding was going to be a key device for breaking
down all content.
I broke down the four areas, and explained what came out of
each of those areas.
I quickly realized that the four organic circles and their skillsets
would not be as specific as some people might like, so I added the timeline
back in as a track for the map, color coding them accordingly, based on the
colors of the four areas. It was deemed appropriate that broad, specific,
professional and personal elements were all needed to represent the whole person:
generally, this is a hard thing to represent in a traditional resumé, and I
wanted to make every attempt to infuse my approach with as many elements of the
whole person as possible, without ‘muddying the message,’ or telling too many
stories.
I realized that a big part of representing the whole person
was also about drawing relationships: so I made a brief statement about how
each area helped to inform the other areas, drawing connective arrows between
them.
I also address skillsets, personality style, and a
geographical ‘map’ of the United States, to depict the journey. I gently drew
dotted lines to where the four areas connected to basic geography. This is what it looks like today; ready to go until the next shifts in life...
The Final Question Mark
So in closing this chapter of sorts, I continue to reflect
on the question of “how much data is too much data?” Pieces of my personal life
were thrown out of the visual equation along the way, and I now look back upon
my finalized solution and still ask: how much should I be highlighting other
things? My experiences such as a professional touring and recording musician
are relevant for representing the ‘whole person,’ but feel it is a little hard
to work into the layout. This whole thing is a work in progress, and to be a
true representation of the person, it needs to be able to grow, change, expand
and evolve over time. Can that (or should that) be done through the telling of
the same story? Maybe, maybe not, but perhaps soon the question may be:
Not a reboot…
but perhaps an upgrade?
lol
m
