#SWDchallenge: visualize your resume
“Visual resume” results from Google image search
The new year is a great time to reflect on accomplishments and acquired skills, set new goals, and even dust off our resumes.
One benefit of honing your data communication skills is that they are completely transferable. In fact, we often encourage people to apply lessons like decluttering and thoughtful use of color and words beyond traditional data scenarios. Recall last years' think like a designer challenge.
This month we challenge you to apply your data visualization skills to your resume. Feel free to go wild and experiment within the safe confines of our community challenge. Or, if you're looking to build something more practical for the real world, consider the following questions.
Who is your audience? Spend time thinking about your desired company or team. Are they more traditional or are they likely to appreciate a novel view? If possible, consider the individual browsing your resume. An HR employee who is quickly scanning to see if you have the necessary skills versus, an analytics manager interested in seeing examples of your work may have different opinions on using charts in a resume.
How is your resume going to be shared? Are you posting on social or sharing your skills on a website? Maybe you plan to send your resume via email to a small company, where a person will review it. You might also upload your resume to a form, where a software program will parse it for relevant details. Consider how each of these situations might require a different approach.
What sort of role or culture are you applying for? Identify the skills required for the job. If it’s a data role, it may make sense to show off your data communication skills early on. Interestingly enough, this is how Elizabeth secured her position at SWD back in 2017. After attending a workshop, she leveraged SWD principles and visualized components of her resume, which caught Cole’s attention—and subsequently landed her a new job!
How are you using words? In our workshops, we talk about the importance of words and how they make graphs accessible. Without effective titling and descriptive text, a chart is exploratory. You don’t want your audience to have to spend time analyzing your resume to determine your skillset. The visual component should aid understanding—not detract.
Now, it’s time to turn to your resume and leverage those design skills!
the challenge
Create and share a visual resume that tells a story about your professional experience. Feel free to design a single chart or tackle the entire document. It should make sense for you and your current situation.
For inspiration, check out the related resources section below. Upload your submission to the community by January 31st at 3PM PST. If there is any specific feedback or input that you would find helpful, include that detail in your commentary.
We are excited for you to show off your talent this month and look forward to building a diverse bank of visual resumes in the community.
related resources
Here are some additional examples for inspiration. This is a starting point, but certainly not a comprehensive list (if there are other great examples you’d like to share, feel free to include links in your submission commentary).
An SWD example of preattentive attributes in text
Amy Cesal’s website
Catherine Madden’s visual resumes & SkillShare class
Joseph Rosas’ visual resume from the diagram challenge
Lindsay Betzendahl’s Tableau article on building a visual resume
Pinterest's infographic visual resumes
Tableau’s interactive resume gallery