What is Your Resume Really Saying? Find out with a Resume Word Cloud
Recruiters do not read resumes, they scan them. It's been said that a recruiter spends less than 30 seconds looking at each resume before they reach a conclusion. Recruiters are also actively looking for reasons to reject your resume. Resumes are not, however, written for scanning. They are written to convey a complex summary of what value you offer. Here's a way cool thing
you can do right now to see what your resume is saying: Create a Resume
Word Cloud.
Here's how.
1. Open your resume. Here's mine.
2. In your resume, select and copy all the text. Do a Select All
(Apple-A or Control-A depending on your computer), then Copy (Apple-C
or Control-C).
3. Go to Wordle: http://www.wordle.net/create and click in the box under the words "Paste in a Bunch of Text"
4. Click the Go button under this text box. Wordle will chug for a
second or two and return you with a work of art: Your Resume as a Word
Cloud! Wordle will remove common words like "and, the, or, etc."
Here's a word cloud for my resume:
5. You can right-click on a word to remove words you don't want to
appear. For example, I don't need "Dan" showing up so I can remove
that. You can also customize the colors, orientation, etc. One
down-side is that it doesn't take into consideration phrases.
I'd like to ask you to post your word cloud on my site for job seekers: www.betterjobsfaster.org.
I'm interested in testing the power of online social networking, so
please forward this to as many job seekers as you can so we can amass a
resume word cloud quilt!
To make an image of your resume word cloud:
Take a screen shot of your resume word cloud:
PC Instructions: Why do PC's make things so difficult?
Mac Instructions: Command+Shift+4 - Capture dragged area and save as a file.
Join the Flickr Better Jobs Faster Resume Word Cloud Group and share your resume cloud online.
You can also add your Resume Word Cloud here by replying to this message, clicking on the image icon, and uploading your Resume Word Cloud to the Resume Word Cloud Image folder on Better jobs Faster.
Look forward to seeing your resume cloud!
Best wishes,
Dan.
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LinkedIn Groups
saying? Find out with a Resume Word Cloud"
Thinking out of the box it might be interesting to put job descriptions into
the word cloud and then tailor your cover letter and resume to the
results.
Wes
Posted
by Wes Lake
Don't forget to add your resume cloud image to the Better Jobs Faster: Resume Cloud Flickr Group. More visibility for you and your resume.
Rock on!
Here are two resume word clouds from Randy Giusto
@Wes Lake -- We should Web 3.0 "out of the box" ... how about "out of the cloud" thinking?
I like your idea.
Lee Ramsayer's Resume Cloud
I thought that was pretty accurate, so I put it on my blog http://www.cjbcorporatecoaching.co.uk/what-my-cv-says-about-me
Posted by Chris Bryan
I just did this and it is very cool. I love the idea of entering a job description and tailoring the cover letter that someone had. But I'm not sure what to do with my resume word cloud. Just assess whether it is accurately expressing me?
P.S. Can't figure out how to paste the picture in here, but did upload mine to Flickr.
Date: 6/10/2009
Subject: Word Cloud
Dan:
We share the group, I placed check my resume and it was very interesting. One question, what is the best way to utilize this. I am in transition and always looking for an edge.
Thanks
John B.
--------------------------------------
John,
There are several uses for the Resume Cloud:
1. To give you insights and a different way to look at what your resume is saying.
2. Folks have brought it to an interview as a way to stand out. That may be gimmicky, but it also just might work, especially in "creative-type" positions.
3. Folks have used it to create Job Posting Word Clouds to visually see what the job is most looking for and then optimize their resumes to respond accordingly.
4. Include it in your LinkedIn and Facebook accounts so folks looking to hire you can see in an instant what you offer.
5. Be sure to post yours to the Flickr (http://www.flickr.com/groups/1093627@N24/) and/or BetterJobsFaster (www.betterjobsfaster.org) site for others to see.
Hope that helps, and let me know if there's any way I can be of help in helping you get an edge.
Best,
Dan.
Sarah Kingsbury's Resume cloud: Lots of Program Management, Training, and OD - and a lot of multidisciplinary skills.
This is really neat tool
Sandy DeMaioNewton's Resume Cloud
Margaret King's Resume Cloud