What is an Infographic Resume?
An infographic resume differs from traditional resume formats in that it uses graphic design elements. While a traditional resume employs simple text to list information from top to bottom, an infographic resume uses layout, colors, icons, and font formatting to organize the content.
When Should It Be Used?
Unless specifically requested, hiring managers typically prefer traditional resumes over infographic resumes. Unless you are a professional designer, it can be very challenging to create a great infographic resume, and sending a poorly designed one could do more harm than good.
How to Create One?
Again, creating a great infographic resume can be difficult. In addition to being able to execute a high-level design, you will also need to understand the common graphics and visualizations used to express data. After all, an infographic resume is a visual expression, like a graph or illustration, used to represent information or data.
Tips and Tricks for All Skill Levels
No matter your experience, there are several guidelines you should always follow. Limit your use of colors to three to four colors, either varying shades or distinct colors that work well together. Blue and green colors are a good starting point. Ideally, your background should be a solid light color, with darker text.
Avoid garish graphics or animations or cartoonish designs that will distract from the content of your resume. Be cautious with your font choices. Make readability your top priority, and avoid using any overly quirky or heavily embellished fonts.
You should aim to make your layout logical or chronological for the information. For example, your name and email should not be at the bottom of the document. If you are completely new, a template will be helpful in this regard.
The most important tip is “keep it simple.” This point cannot be emphasized enough. Even if your design incorporates great graphics and beautiful colors, if it is hard to read or if the main components of your resume are difficult to interpret, the infographic resume will work against you.
Regarding design, there are many unwritten “rules” you need to consider. Your best option is to look for examples of infographic resumes and graphics to get an idea of what others are doing. Be objective about your work and get a second opinion from a trusted friend.
Especially if the document is not requested, the most important question to consider is: Will this resume help or hurt my job application? You won’t gain extra points just for submitting an infographic resume. For the document to be beneficial, it must be extraordinary.
Your Infographic Resume Toolkit
Review design rules that you should not break. While you cannot become a designer overnight, you can improve the fundamental principles that will be helpful, even if you are just modifying a template. Review the basics of creating graphics. After all, graphics are the backbone of an infographic resume. This free course on creating graphics is also a helpful resource. Remember, if you don’t have access to design software (which can be very expensive), use a site like Canva or Easel.ly. Search Pinterest for terms like “infographic resume” or “visual infographic resume” to see examples.
Source:
https://www.thebalancemoney.com/when-and-how-to-use-an-infographic-resume-4145729
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