The future of resumes?

[rhosk]

http://213.186.36.10/~al/alstudio/cv/en.htm

or not

Entertaining though.

[TJ_Tigger]

I guess that is one way to do it. . .

[Desmond]

I think that's great! Provided employers would be convinced to visit the website and view the flash . . . it'd certainly be a way to have your image stick in HR's head.

It's like the westjet resume delivered on a label of a wine bottle.

[Ted Sullivan]

Actually, it's worth waiting through it all, just to hear him humming at the end. That's why I love the French. On the balance, they truly are the happiest people on earth.

[Desmond]

Desmond wonders how quickly he would have been hired at IR if he could sing like a French man.

Evidently, Desmond wonders if his employment will continue whilst he speaks in the third person.

[Mark]

If you get the chance, check out the French version of the flash animation, it rhymes far better and makes a bit more sense.

Either way an interesting approach. If people start forwarding this around, it will probably be for more exposure then he would have gotten otherwise, not serious exposure mind you, but exposure.

[Intrigued]

I like Flash a lot (almost as much as AMS) but, I believe I will hold [off] on this sort of activity (in this fashion at least).

[eric_darling]

For some time now, I have been convinced that, relationally speaking, the French have, simultaneously and collectively, the deepest knowledge and most esoteric handle on software development. This dude fits right in, in my book.

[Ted Sullivan]

And they make good wine. Kudos!

[Corey]

Ted, how about eskimos? Happiest people on earth bar none. Truly without a single care in the world and completely untouched by any form of materialism.

As for the resume. Here's the bottom line for me. The Flash animation work itself is poor quality, that leads me to conclude a couple things.

1. He has no problem providing and displaying shoddy work, i.e. no reliable internal quality control mechanism.
2. There is a discrepancy between his claimed experience and that which is indicated in quality of his Flash.
3. He's got a lot of spare time, and is having trouble getting hired.

I definitely wouldn't interview him based purely on the fact that his Flash work is too low quality for me to provide to clients. Tons of audio glitches, horrendous load time, poorly chosen/implemented graphic design elements, etc. Look at the load screen for heaven's sake. That looks *terrible* and it just hangs there for soooooo long. I would be mortified to hand that to an Indigo Rose client and say, "There you go, here's your new promotional Flash movie" happy trails...

Now as to "whether it's a good idea", I say sure, but you *must* make sure that:

1. You have the skills *first*.
2. The Flash movie shows those skills.

Here's the bottom line. If you are the best at what you do, just show people, don't tell them. Don't tell them you make 3D movies, show them one. Don't tell them you program C++, just give them a few sample apps. Don't tell them you studied graphic design, just design a presentation which screams "QUALITY" and you will not have to tell them a single thing, *they will tell you*. Anyhow that's my take on it. I wouldn't reccomend this technique to someone unless they have some solid Flash skills, and in those cases I would strongly reccomend it. He has a good idea but it has been poorly implemented.

I'd probably go for a beer with the guy though.

[eric_darling]

Yeah, he's definitely more a programmer than a graphic artist. But kudos to him for trying so hard to have a sense of humor about getting a job. I don't think he's going to experience much success in that vein at any design firms or high-end multimedia shops. But someone's going to like his relatively wide skill set (despite the apparent lack of style) and sense of humor, even if we don't.

As bad as the effort really is, there are lots of employers, even in today's less boomy economy, who will settle for mediocrity in trade for breadth.

[Corey]

I respectfully disagree, unless he is an exceptional programmer. The market has a gigantic glut of people with a wide range of cursory/ambiguous skills, there's no full time IT jobs for them anywhere. However if he has exceptional programming skills then he could get a job anywhere, probably in a single day of job interviews. This resume indicates an individual who likely expects to be paid as a professional, although I may be wrong. I think once employers separate the novelty from the substance they will flag this guy as fun but not neceesarily a prospective employee.

In general people who are still developing design skills will have better luck with a resume which offers a handful of high quality actual samples and says simply:

"Objective : I am seeking a niche within a professional design environment in which to improve and apply my technical skills."

I think the key is to subtly indicate to the employer that you aknowledge the skill level you are at and a willingness to start at the bottom in exchange for the opportunity to develop yourself professionally. I didn't get that feeling form this resume. This resume made me feel that the author views his skills as already well developed despite the lack of any useful portfolio. I think it's also useful to display an ability to cut to the chase, especially in critical scenarios such as a resume, i.e. "all-substance, no-fluff" and this kind of defeats that.

I also didn't like the part where he says, "They liked me and wanted to keep me but the company closed and they let my program down."

Here he has a few tiny moments in which to educate me, the prospective employer, about him, but instead he chooses to sing to me about some company closing down. And in a semi-negative light at that. Bad marketing. Tell me you worked for Infogrames or whatever, and show me a sample, that's all I need. Don't start feeding me a bit about how much they wanted you just before they closed, and especially don't tell me what Infogrames was thinking, if that's important just give me a phone number of your old boss and I'll get the scoop straight from the horse's mouth.

Bottom line, his boss at Infogrames (or wherever) went somewhere else, the whole team did. Why wasn't he asked to join them? He said they wanted more of his code... I mean if he is going to plant the chain of thought in people then they are going to take it to the next step, right?

Anyhow don't get the wrong idea behind what I'm saying. He seems like a nice guy, I'd go skateboarding at his house if he had a ramp. I'm only addressing the efficacy of this resume in the purest sense here. I like his idea, and I like his spirit. I just don't care for the substance of his output today vis-a-vis what I would like to see IR clients receive tomorrow.

[eric_darling]

I wouldn't imagine myself hiring him for any purpose, so I'm not speaking from a personal take on the guy, either. I'm just surmising that someone, somewhere, will weigh his moxy heavier than his lack of depth.

As you say, he's not a great candidate for any particular position as evidenced in his flash movie. But bad candidates get jobs all the time for a variety of seemingly inexplicable reasons. I'm just saying that I wouldn't rule out the possibility. I certainly don't condone taking his tack here, and I would agree that he hasn't really improved his chances.

[Corey]

Well I'd agree you, he could get *a* job. He's certainly not a rank beginner. But he seems like his head is a bit, "in the clouds" as they say. He'd be better off building a really clever demo app in C++ and then emailing the code to development teams. Anyhow the underlying idea was nifty if nothing else, and Ted's right about the humming...

[Brett]

My impression was, here is a guy with personality and a sense of humor as well as some technical skills. The fact is a resumee or sample code means very little if you have someone who can do the techhie stuff but isn't fun to be around. He would definitely get a call for an interview if I were looking through a bunch of cookie-cutter resumees. I would say, "Finally, someone with some personality and imagination. Let's call him in and see how his technical skills are."