Spice Up Your Resume: Create a Visual One

In this highly competitive job world, it is very important to sell yourself through an eye-catching resume. And developing a visual resume can provide you the chance to create a lasting first impression. But what is a Visual Resume and why do you need one? Here is a complete article dedicated to these questions and a tutorial on how to create a great visual resume for yourself.

What is a Visual Resume?

Before we go further into the topic, let’s talk what a visual resume is and how is it different from the traditional resume.

A visual resume is an appealing piece of information which looks versatile and describe yourself in the same way as done by its traditional counterpart. Some people turn their traditional resumes into powerpoint presentations or some take it to the next level by converting it into a video or an interactive webpage. In a nutshell, a visual resume can be anything other than a traditional text document.

Why use Visual Resumes?

Visual resumes are welcomed as the next thing in the recruitment world. Still many people do not use them for their job hunting. This means that if you use them, you still have chance to stick out a mile from the crowd in the swarm of traditional resumes. You can beat the fierce competition and become an instant favorite for your potential employers. Moreover, visual resumes allow employers to learn about their potential employees at a better pace. Thus, the chances of them looking at your traditional resume, your blog or giving you a call will be more.

Note:- Make sure that the organization you are applying does not have an issue with visual resume or else it will affect you negatively.

Some Examples

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How to Make a Visual Resume (using Adobe Photoshop)

1. Open Photoshop and open a new document through selecting File>New.
2. Click the Presets drop down menu and choose U.S paper. Choose the standard size of the paper: 8.5 * 11 inches.
3. Select your preferred background. It is recommended to select a simple background which is covered by bold stripes at the side or top.
4. Now you can enter the text through Type tool. Put the cursor in the bounding box and start type your resume. Use different fonts, boldness, sizes and colors to highlight your data to make them appealing and readable. Hence, your eye should move smoothly through the resume from point to another. You can give small fonts to the lines in between but they should be readable.
5. Afterwards, check your content thrice. Check for any typo errors, grammatical errors or any flaws in the flow of the content. As there are good chances of a visual resume getting spoilt, you should be extra vigilant while making one. Your resume should be visually well balanced. To analyze your resume, split the resume into four different quadrants. Now, analyze the black-white balance in all the four quadrants and make sure that they are even.
6. Now, export resume. Open File > Choose Save as > Choose Select as PDF. You can reduce the size of your visual resume by selecting Minimum File Size from the preset so that you can easily email them to your potential employers. You can select the version of PDF to increase compatibility.

Note:- The steps are written according to Adobe Photoshop CS6.

You can also use Canva to create a stunning resume. There are many templates available in Canva which are well suited for visual resumes. Here’s an example which I carved out from my favorite tool Canva:-

Well, you can also use these FREE tools to have a seamless resume creation experience:-

• Kickresume
• Vizualize.me
• CV Ease builder
• Atbox
• Slash CV
• Hashtag CV

Create your own resume and share your experience in the comments below.