How to Create a Polished Infographic Resume [Infographic]

August 17, 2016

What is an Infographic Resume?

An infographic resume is a visual representation of your skills and experience that leads to higher engagement from hiring managers and recruiters. If you are in a creative industry like advertising or marketing, infographic resumes are not only the best way to get your resume noticed but will also ensure that you makes it to the top of that neverending pile of applicants.

Our brains are hardwired to respond to visual stimulus over dense bodies of text or metrics. By translating large quantities of information into a picture or illustration, it allows for the recruiter or hiring manager to grasp a lot of information at a glance.

How Do You Make an Infographic Resume?

1. Choose the best structure

In order for your resume to tell the story in a cohesive and concise manner, you have to uncover the theme. An infographic resume can help to illustrate the key elements of your experience you wish to highlight while bringing your personality and expertise to life. Some examples include:

  • Contact information
  • Key areas of expertise
  • Related experience
  • Achievements / awards
  • Volunteer experience / education
  • Other skills (languages, hobbies, sports)

It’s also important to pick an appropriate layout style to make the most of the space.

Vizualize.me is a software that transforms your LinkedIn profile into an infographic.

Simple & Animated

In this style, you are animating your more traditional resume. The layout is very similar to that of an ordinary resume but you are incorporating icons, illustrations and graphs to accentuate your personal brand. Not overly elaborate but polished.

How to Create a Polished Infographic Resume [Infographic]

Source: Inforgraphic World

Detailed and personalized

If you are applying for a graphic designer position, this layout style is your best bet because it requires you to demonstrate your creativity and design sense. Matching different fonts, colors and designing custom graphics will surely catch the eye of a creative recruiter, but remember not to get carried away and dilute the design with too many elements! While you are taking a more creative approach, you still want your number one feature to be clarity.

How to Create a Polished Infographic Resume [Infographic]

Source: Read To Teach

Authoritative & minimalist

In instances where you might be applying for a corporate gig or a more formal position, it helps to keep that audience in mind. Where an advertising agency may welcome more personality and color, corporate environments may favour a uniform style resume like the one below.

How to Create a Polished Infographic Resume [Infographic]Source: Venngage

Classic Infographic

For a style that combines all the standard elements of an infographic (charts, graphs, timelines, etc) you will want to stay within the same color family using just one contrasting highlight color.This will help to avoid distraction and draw the eye to the most important aspects of your resume. More traditional infographics will be highly detailed and are a good choice if you have had a long career in various sectors of an industry or multiple industries. They can be helpful when trying to display large quantities of data in an easy to read fashion.

How to Create a Polished Infographic Resume [Infographic]Source: Venngage

2. Know Your Tools

For those of us who are not graphic design professionals it can be daunting to undertake a total revamp of the resume style you are used to. Not to fear! There are a number of really great (and free!) tools you can use to add texture and dimension to your resume even if you’ve never drawn so much as a stick figure.

Vizualize.me

This is a free tool that syncs up with your LinkedIn and/or e-mail to create a web-based infographic. With it you can apply themes, language maps, experience timelines, skills bubble charts and more!

How to Create a Polished Infographic Resume [Infographic]

Kinzaa

Kinzaa is a tool that populates an infographic resume based on your prior experience that delves into further detail around your specific responsibilities in each role. Unlike most tools, it also outlines preferences regarding your work environment like company size, culture, challenge level and workplace personality.

How to Create a Polished Infographic Resume [Infographic]

For more detailed and technical specifics on creating infographics from scratch see this guide on infographic design.

3. Color Matters

Color schemes should be suited to your theme but also aid in communicating a particular feeling. It is often said that many companies choose particular color themes for their logos, retail environments and advertising to subconsciously influence their consumers – so why not use these principles with your resume? After all, you are selling your personal brand! If you are applying for a particular company, it can be useful to match your application to reflect the colors of their branding and even more useful to understand the subtle meanings behind them so as to communicate those themes throughout your infographic resume.

How to Create a Polished Infographic Resume [Infographic] - 07

Source: elcomcms.com

Why Infographic Resumes work

For recruiters who are used to getting hundreds of resumes for any given position, often times a well thought out resume that catches the eye and relies on design elements to tell a story is a welcomed change from the humdrum standard resume. It communicates that you understand the industry you are applying for and know how to effectively engage your audience. When done properly, it demonstrates so many of the desired and hireable qualities like creativity and attention to detail while telling the story of your experience in a time-saving manner, which almost any hiring manager will appreciate.

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Author: Nadya Khoja

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