Whalespeak

I was reading through the archives of Veerle’s excellent design blog, when I came across a post about her sending out her CV as a kind of package. The funny thing is that most advice about job-hunting steers you away from being this imaginative.

When you’re writing your CV, it’s easy to get bogged down in details. What is going to make the most impact? Which font, how much line-spacing, what order to put everything in?

The best CVs are not CVs at all. They’re one of a kind and they break the rules. Sometimes they aren’t even about work or experience or qualifications. Sometimes they’re packages or blogs or gifts or paintings.

There’s the guy who sent a ransom note to Disney with a piece of Mickey Mouse’s ear. (Is this apocryphal? I can’t find a link.)

People who do the same as everybody else are great for companies who want a horde of drones. But you don’t really want to work for that kind of company do you? The best way to stand apart, is to do what no one else has done. Don’t be afraid to stand out. Why do you think the word is outstanding?

If you’re worried about what your CV will look like to the person that’s hiring you, ask yourself how you would react, put yourself in the mind of the recruiter. The truth is that the best people to work for are human and humans love things that are extraordinary. There’s very little extraordinary.