I’m Now Writing for Mac’s List

Thrilled to announce that beginning today, I’ll be writing original content for Mac’s List, based in Portland, OR. This is a great site for job hunters – lots of relevant local job postings, good content articles, and much more with a distinctly Oregon emphasis.  Today’s article is: How Headhunters Hunt.  Here’s the link: http://www.macslist.org/how-headhunters-hunt/

 

Resume Graphics: Nice or Lice?

Should you use graphics of any kind on your resume?  A photo? Line art? Text Boxes? Decorative flourishes of any kind?

I’m not one who likes to see graphics of any kind on a resume.  There are many reasons, but on a very practical note, jobhunters need to recognize that resumes are input on large-scale into a whole variety of applicant tracking systems (ATS) by recruiters and HR departments.  Sometimes, they just turn the resume into a searchable PDF, but often the format is changed, and information extracted to fill a variety of field in the corporate database.  In the process, information is sometimes not interpreted correctly, or the resume comes out looking terrible – just the opposite of the candidate’s intent.

The standard in the recruiting industry is to strongly discourage graphics in resumes.  A new article just published on recruiter.com is taking another tack on the issue.  Read it, and see what you think:  http://bit.ly/eUQTks .  It does the best possible job of explaining why, in some cases, some graphics might be effective.  And, it does a great job of outlining the traditional rationales offered on why graphics of any kind are frowned upon.

Your thoughts? Post a message below and let’s get a discussion rolling!