What an infographic resume really is?

If you are reading this post, probably you have checked  Bing, Yahoo or Google search engines on the term  “Infographic resume” and you have seen many wonderful, creative documents full of graphics that come up on your screen. At this point, I have to agree with you that they look fantastic at first glance, because the colorful charts, design, graphic elements, and visual data presentation makes infographic resume a terrific CV.

Not Everyone is a Graphic Designer…

Unfortunately, not everyone is a graphic designer, and to make a professional-looking infographic resume can be a difficult task for the technically unskilled applicants. For those of us, who are  not talented in design, it can also be expensive to hire an experienced designer to work on career-oriented infographics.

Most of the Infographic resumes are made using Adobe Creative Suite, Adobe Illustrator and Photoshop software by talented graphic artists. Obviously, the best and most effective use of this new type of resume  is specifically for creative professionals.

If you are not looking for a job  in design or media industry, infographic resume may lead you to the failure.

Here are some tips and key points why employer might not be impressed :

• Deficiency of keywords or not enough job related words density means no invitation for interviews. It is a fact, that about 85% of employers use some kind of automated system to review resumes today.

• Immense file size from graphics implies your infographic resume will be dismissed by filtering system, employers’ websites or email attachment size limits. You will not get any feedback on this either.

• You will lose the audio and behavioral learners quickly (50%). Image based learners only make up about 50% of the world population. So, why reduce your chances?

• Color preferences – everyone has their favorite and least favorite. So, why risk to be rejected based on that alone?

• Resume based on Infographics means employers don’t get qualified information they need to make a right choice (traditional requirements on resume length still apply).

• You are focused on making a info graphical document instead of giving potential employers what they need most.

• In a side-by-side comparison with a experienced professional resume writer’s work an infographic resume is all style and lacking substance. The vast majority of employers admit: the quality of the content matters most in making decision who is the right candidate for an interview.

This “fashion-CV” is often used by students and those who have just graduated from college or trade school. Unfortunately, it is usually, because they do not know better, or they fall in love with an attractive and creative data visualization. But in fact, infographic resume can be tiger traps, if you are not very creative career as a website designer or graphic artist. That is when infographic resumes are very beneficial, especially if you link them to the traditional CV, your LinkedIn profile or online portfolio.