Show HN: What Do You Think Of My Resume?

http://on.fb.me/foaQCC

by KleinmanB • 15 years ago

141 79 15 years ago

on.fb.me

I was initially curious, thanks to the novelty, but that quickly wore off. There's a cost involved in parsing the chalkboard text that doesn't exist when you're reading computer-generated text. A lot of clicks, too.

At the same time, it's less dull than a standard Word resume template, or something, so maybe you're on the right track.

My suggestion: Tell a more compelling story. You're rattling off a bunch of historical points, which, fine, that's how resumes work, but as long as you're breaking the mold, break the hell out of it. Start with a hook. Start by saying something so wildly compelling I cannot stop clicking until my curiosity is satisfied. Prove your worth by grabbing attention.

olsaintpaul2• 15 years ago

I think this is pretty solid on advice. At first I thought "wait, where does he want me to put my mouse and what am I supposed to be reading?" Still, better than a word doc by a wide margin.

I appreciate that you are trying to be statistics driven and creative at the same time. Keep it up

anthonyb• 15 years ago

Maybe do the links/mouseovers in blue chalk? :)

ibdknox• 15 years ago

Telling a more compelling story is definitely a big part of it and another thing to consider is doing something simlar, but not on Facebook. If you can control the surroundings and the interaction mechanism, you can create a much better experience (hopefully with fewer clicks/hopping around).

Being unique and visual is a good way to get "noticed", but you have to weigh that very carefully against being overly taxing on the reader. In this case, the amount of increased interest is not worth the effort it takes to get through it.

Lose Facebook, tell a story, and make me care.

thorax• 15 years ago

I like the Facebook spin because it hints at what they want to see-- social media savvy.

robeastham• 15 years ago

Apologies for hijacking this thread a little. I have a lot of ideas about this subject. Just before Christmas I got to thinking about how it was about time someone refactored the résumé format. So I've been building a service called Mighty CV to scratch that itch.

It has some cool features like being able to create a résumé in seconds if you use the LinkedIn profile importer. You'll have a web address for it to live at along with a nice clean readable design. You can also generate a PDF of your current résumé whenever you need to email or print it for traditional channels. I'm just putting the finishing touches to the cover letter/video feature that will allow you to pitch potential employers with text and/or video using a unique private URL that integrates with your résumé page. This is how I intend to send out my résumé in future.

It's a little earlier than I had planned but this thread seems like a good place to launch the private beta sign-up. I'm giving away 1 year free to the first two hundred private beta users at:

http://www.mightycv.com/

The service will initially be aimed at the sort of people who hang out here at HN. If I get traction I'll open up the service a little more broadly.

I'm still a week or two away from my MVP and being ready to send the invites out. I have lots of other features I want to add in the future. This is primarily to be a platform to help you manage the process of finding your next dream job along with making it easy to create a killer résumé. I'm not planning to run any sort of job board or recruitment service off the back of your information either. Hope you like it when your invite comes through.

marcamillion• 15 years ago

This is wonderful, but I would have used less words on the chalkboard as danilocampos points out.

Nice and creative though.

chrisclark1729• 15 years ago

I like what danilocomaps said. I would also add, put your e-mail address and phone number at the bottom of every chalkboard. No sense alienating someone who likes it but is too busy to get to the end.

KleinmanB3• 15 years ago

Thanks for the tip. I will throw it in the comments.

dododo• 15 years ago

i cannot read it. apparently you need a facebook account to see it.

alttab2• 15 years ago

I have to log in to some arbitrary thing to know who you are. Why?

16s3• 15 years ago

Perhaps they believe that FaceBook is the Internet? Many people actually think that. I recall the days when Grandma swore that AOL was the Internet. Facebook has displaced them.

jmulho• 15 years ago

I think I am not going to open a Facebook account just to read it. Number one rule of resumes: don't get yours thrown in the trash unread. In the immortal words of Donald Trump "You're not hired!" Or if you prefer Paul Graham, I clicked your link, and waited for your resume to load with finger poised over the back button. If I had immediately seen some magical chalk board I might have spent a minute learning about you. But instead I got a login screen.

16s3• 15 years ago

Seconded. Several billion of us don't use FaceBook.

olsaintpaul2• 15 years ago

you probably aren't his target market.

whiletruefork• 15 years ago

Perhaps the type of people that would employee a man of this skillset are more likely to have a facebook account than the general population. It's also not that far off to imagine that those folks would be logged in already via cookies. For that target population the user experience probably works.

robryan2• 15 years ago

This is targeting someone trying to employ him for a digital marketing position, if they didn't have some sort of Facebook account I don't think that's where he would want to work.

pmcginn• 15 years ago

Is "I don't have facebook" the new "I don't own a TV?"

Congratulations on avoiding a popular website you crazy unabomber.

ma2rten• 15 years ago

I don't have a TV, but I do have facebook. Am I too old fashioned ?

klbarry• 15 years ago

Very impressive credentials, well put together. I think it helps to see your smiling face, in a subconscious level. I have to ask, how did you get from 0 to 250,000 unique monthly visitors per month for linfo?

KleinmanB3• 15 years ago

email me and I can talk about it

danilocampos2• 15 years ago

Is "shakeshake" a sockpuppet?

(For context: The above comment was originally authored by "shakeshake",

http://news.ycombinator.com/user?id=shakeshake )

This, uh, wouldn't happen to be the secret to your social media success, would it?

stilldavid• 15 years ago

Not to be nit-picky, but do you really mean 0.03 cents, or 0.03 dollars on the Slingshot Labs slide?

wccrawford• 15 years ago

3 cents would be $7500 for 250,000 people. That seems like a lot to pay for getting visitors to a free site, so I'm guessing he really did mean .03 cents, or .0003 dollars.

numlocked• 15 years ago

I like it. Visually interesting. It also helps that you know how to write a resume (use numbers, focus on results) and that you have some real accomplishments to talk about.

starpilot• 15 years ago

This is a powerpoint presentation written in chalk. No thanks.

bvi• 15 years ago

Yes, but do your presentations have a guy smiling and winking in them?

I thought so.

Leopeptards• 15 years ago

It utilizes social media and is interactive, while still providing core information to the reader. It definitely catches my attention.

gjm11• 15 years ago

Account created 10 hours ago, no other comments or submissions.

So far, that makes two completely new accounts (Leopeptards, Halos04) commenting here to say how good this resume is, plus one instance of someone "else" answering for KleinmanB (shakeshake, see elsewhere in the discussion) ... and the somebody-else in question, with whom KleinmanB "occasionally shares" a laptop, just happens to have submitted a link to the same resume with the title "The Most Creative Resume I Have Seen In A Long Time".

If anyone with HN superpowers is reading this, they might want to take appropriate action. Unfortunately, all that's in my power is to flag it and express my hope that anyone reading KleinmanB's resume stumbles across this discussion and considers carefully whether they should trust someone who engages in such sockpuppetry.

Halos04• 15 years ago

This is a brilliant idea. I wish I thought of it first. Its creative and gets the point across perfectly. Resumes need to be more creative and this is an amazing start!

jarek4• 15 years ago

> I wish I thought of it first.

> created: 2 hours ago

stevenbrianhall• 15 years ago

This method displays personality too often lacking in standard text-based CVs, so I like the idea of breaking the mold, but also agree with comments about not taking the idea far enough.

Facebook just recently changed the way Facebook pages operate, and you can now embed a media within an iframe. http://developers.facebook.com/blog/post/462

I say keep FB (because, as you say, people will be checking for it) but throw in an intro video and some links to a CV and past work, and you'll be able to make the experience that much richer.

sammcd• 15 years ago

I'm a a bit curious about "Apple's TextPlus" I don't think Apple has an app called TextPlus.

michaelschade2• 15 years ago

I agree, I found that a bit misleading. I would reshoot that slide with different wording (unless Apple does indeed have some product called TextPlus, then go with it!)

vandalizeit• 15 years ago

I third this. The way you have that slide written is misleading, and frankly, lame. You don't need to make it appear like you "worked at/for Apple" and that is the way it is written. Reshoot that slide.

Otherwise, I like the FB resume deal, this one time. If I ever see anyone else do this, that is a different story.

tommusic• 15 years ago

As far as I can tell, TextPlus is an app made by someone else that is distributed via Apple's iOS App Store.

Claiming it is an Apple product in such a case is probably a bad idea.

fmgg• 15 years ago

well done. This definitely wouldn't work for most people, but it is a creative way to sell yourself as a social media guru, and I think potential employers will respond to that.

reason• 15 years ago

I don't find the facebook login page a terribly compelling resume.

amorphid• 15 years ago

I that resume is perfect for applying to Blackboard :) On a side note, I'd forgotten they even still make blackboards.

gchucky• 15 years ago

My only concern is that some of your friends have commented on the pictures, and it kinda detracts from it. (example: second picture, comment at 9:30 am) What if someone were to say something negative?

robryan2• 15 years ago

Isn't that good though? He's not projecting some type of censored/ideal version of himself like what you would normally get from a resume.

michaelschade2• 15 years ago

Sure he is (though not intentionally, I'd bet). Although logged in, I could not comment on his photos, and I doubt he's connected with people on Facebook that are going to actively criticize him in the comments. So, they'll tend to be more positive than not.

SeoxyS• 15 years ago

He can delete unhelpful comments…

ajaimk• 15 years ago

What strikes me about this is the positions he is looking at would be great with a creative thinker on board. And this shows his creativity.

It might not be as efficient as some of the other ads for being hired but it does the deal in being interesting and catching your attention. In the end, does anything else matter?

hansef• 15 years ago

The naysayers below aren't part of your target audience. As someone who is, I think it's brilliant.

radicaldreamer• 15 years ago

Clever, but maybe perhaps too clever for people who don't have that much time to look through all those photos right away.

Add a link as a caption for all of those photos to a nicely formatted resume created with LaTeX or something similar and you've got the best of both worlds.

Alex3917• 15 years ago

Ignore the haters, this is great. Obviously it won't resonate with everyone, but you're still going to do way better with this than with a traditional resume.

JohnnyBrown• 15 years ago

In fact, he already has. His resume is on the front page of Hacker News

patio11• 15 years ago

I am much more impressed by the contents than the presentational aspect. It buries the lede that you're a social marketer who empirically, repeatably gets measurable results.

astrofinch• 15 years ago

Yes, please share your secrets!

mrphoebs• 15 years ago

You should really run funnel analysis to see how many people loose interest at each successive screen.

requinot59• 15 years ago

Thanks for sharing a link only Facebook users can access. In the pure hacker spirit: open, transparent access for anyone.

dolinsky• 15 years ago

Not sure about the resume, but you should probably put a shirt on in your profile pic if you want to be taken seriously. http://profile.ak.fbcdn.net/hprofile-ak-snc4/161257_6809274_...

bkaid• 15 years ago

And the new one isn't much better: http://profile.ak.fbcdn.net/hprofile-ak-snc4/187533_6809274_...

Keyframe• 15 years ago

Nice, creative. But, Imagineer as an intern for writing a document? I don't think so.

ddkrone• 15 years ago

I can't see your resume because it's on facebook.

jarin• 15 years ago

I love how so many people feel the need to point out that they are too cool for Facebook.

I rank that up there with people who love to point out at every possible opportunity that they don't own a TV. Congratulations, here's a cookie.

To Mr. Kleinman: awesome idea :)

jarek4• 15 years ago

Because the only reason not to have a Facebook account is because you're too cool for it.

rimantas• 15 years ago

Cannot you see the difference between not having Facebook account for whatever reason, and bragging about not having Facebook account?

cryptoz• 15 years ago

Area Man Constantly Mentioning He Doesn't Own A Television

http://www.theonion.com/articles/area-man-constantly-mention...

stonemetal• 15 years ago

I think the idea is to give him feed back on how many people can't read his resume, not some desire to point out how they are not on facebook.

middlegeek• 15 years ago

Great job! But I just would have gotten someone with better handwriting to do the board. Also, change that profile picture!

T-hawk• 15 years ago

What the naysayers are missing is that it probably IS a good way to get hired. Yes, he's going to get dismissed by a sizable chunk of resume readers for all the reasons listed: no Facebook account, doesn't fit into HR's straitjacketed process, harder to mentally parse the handwritten low-contrast text, the focus on presentation buries the content, or just plain crackpot. But he needs to connect and stand out sufficiently to just one hiring manager to be a success.

He may have lowered his mean perception among readers of the resume, but he blew the variance through the roof. And that's what you need to be picked as the one best candidate for a job hire. Your mean perception has no relevance when you need to be 3 standard deviations above the population mean to get your desired result of being the top 1 out of 300 candidates.

krisrak• 15 years ago

Very creative Bro, if you were a developer/coder you would have gotten lots of offeres for being creative, business/marketing guys do not have much credibility especially in this community, good luck!

callmeed• 15 years ago

I like it. A lot. We actually need someone like this. You should email me.

ErrantX• 15 years ago

For a certain type of job; this would be good (but definitely supplement it with a real resume!!)

For most jobs it is useless.

For a certain other type of job it is an instant turn off.

With that said; marketing is one of the only areas I actively advise people to be creative with their CV's because it can pay off. So good idea.

jqueryin• 15 years ago

I, for one, believe your resume has worked out quite well for you considering the publicity on HN.

TeMPOraL• 15 years ago

A M A Z I N G. I was really impressed :).

kschua• 15 years ago

Nice.

Brilliant way to use Facebook to filter off people you don't want to work for. If they don't have a Facebook account, you probably wouldn't be happy working for them

fezzl• 15 years ago

Why is your Facebook profile private?

Show HN: What Do You Think Of My Resume?

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