I'm Alive!

It is thought that a picture says a thousand words. Coincidentally, a typical two page CV amounts to roughly one thousand words in which you outline education, relevant skills, work experience and so on. I've yet to come across a picture which I would consider to be detailed enough to dispense with a traditional black and white resume, but wouldn't it be nice if it could?

Perhaps though there can be some sort of compromise. I'm quite a recent convert to Pinterest, and having got past the initial stage of drowning in pictures of dogs and cakes (sign up for an account and you'll see what I mean) I've been looking into ways of using pinboards for career purposes. Some of you will already be familiar with the page I created to help students identify placement opportunties but rather than just using Pinterest to slap some gloss onto a page of links, what about using the system to create a more aesthetically pleasing CV?

I'll happily confess I'm not the first person to try this (hat tip to Gail McGuigan for providing inspiration) but what surprised me was just how easy it was to create a Pinterest resume. In about 15 minutes I was able to throw together something which introduces me, my professional working experience, achievements, a link to my blog and social media contact details. I even managed to throw in some personal interests for good measure. Take a look for yourself and let me know what you think.

I'm not sure that I'm quite ready to advocate ditching the traditional CV in favour of something more creative. However, in future when I am asked by my students 'how can I make my application stand out?' I will suggest they consider using Pinterest as a means for providing colour context to supplement their application. Behind each CV there is a person with a story to tell; why not show recruiters that you are alive and more than just some text on a couple of sheets of A4.