No doubt you’ve seen an infographic or similar alternative resume floating around the internet. This has become a staple for people in design, illustration, and marketing fields, but even job seekers in less traditionally creative fields have started using them to help navigate the ever-competitive job search.
Why, you may wonder. That’s easy: They’re cool to look at. Who wouldn’t want his or her accomplishments cushioned in visual bling?
The Case for an Infographic Resume
It takes only seconds to skim. And, if it’s done properly, it can actually make a recruiter want to read your longer traditional resume. Infographics take the best “data” on you and put it front and center.
This visually stunning document also makes it easy to answer the common questions that both recruiters and hiring managers tend to have: How many years of experience do you have? What are your strongest skills? What do you do?
One of the other awesome things is that it can be used in a variety of ways: posted on your LinkedIn profile, as an attachment to a networking email, or even in place of a cover letter.
As long as you can point, click, and type, you can create this type of resume.
1. Vizualize.me
By far the easiest and cheapest way to create this type of document, it only takes 15 minutes to put together from the time you set up your account, sync your LinkedIn profile, and tweak your color scheme and profile selections. It’s amazing. The program will even link all of your contact information to your respective Twitter, Facebook, and LI icons, along with your website or blog.
After you create your Visualize profile, you can share it in literally any way you can think of—as a link, an embedded visualize icon, in a tweet, on Facebook, or your LinkedIn feed. The only thing you can’t do is print it or download it directly from the site. If you want to print it out or download it, you’ll have to set up a paid account with Venngage and use its Vizualize import option.
Pricing
- Free
Features
- Based on the LinkedIn sections you import and customize
Ease of Use
- Very easy
It’s for You If
- You want an infographic fast
- You don’t need to print or download it
- You have literally zero creative skills
2. Venngage
Venngage is also a great place to create an infographic resume if you’re looking for more style choices than Vizualize offers. Not only does this service feature templates, but it gives you an option to create your own from scratch if you’re so inclined. I love to browse different styles and then combine elements of a few different ones.
The service offers a basic free account with limited features, and then a premium account with access to all themes, templates, charts, and icons. If you want to download or print, note that you’ll need the premium account.
Pricing
- Free with limited features
- Premium account for $19/month (discounts for quarterly and annual payments)
Features
- Free access to hundreds of images, symbols, pictograms, and icons (limited with free account)
- Huge library of resume templates (limited with free account)
- Ability to upload your own photos and images
- Simple drag and drop builder
Ease of Use
- Easy—it takes a few minutes to learn where everything is and how to customize the color, fonts, and graphs. There are plenty of “How To” articles to get you started.
It’s for You If
- You want to download and print out a Visualize infographic resume
- You want a creative resume template to get you started
- You want to create your own infographic resume from scratch and don’t mind paying a monthly fee for access to all templates and graphics
3. Piktochart
Piktochart is also a full-service site that has tons of great templates, along with the option to create a custom design. The program even has an app for all you iPad-only folks! Its features are quite similar to Venngage’s with a few notable exceptions.
The first is the ability to download your document as an image with a free account. If you want to download it as a high-resolution image or a PDF, though, you’ll have to sign up for a paid plan. The builder function creates infographics in blocks rather than a canvas size, which really comes in handy when you want to rearrange whole sections.
For example, take a look at the infographic featured above. Each one of the sections is a “block,” and you put the blocks together to create a full page. If I wanted Deemer’s contact information at the top under her name and branding statement, I would simply drag it up to the top. No grouping and messy copy and paste distortions.
(Note: Although Deemer has chosen to include her picture, it’s not something we recommend because it can be a distraction. According to one study, a visual in the form of a headshot at the top of your resume might keep the person reading it from seeing the really important stuff, like your skills and experience.)
Another thing I love about Piktochart is that it has a presentation feature that allows you to display your resume as a PowerPoint, block by block, and perfectly formatted. Nifty trick to have if you’re doing a virtual interview and want to walk someone through your resume through a screen share
Pricing
- Free account
- Lite account $15/month
- Pro account $29/month
- Pro account discount $20/Year
If you are a student, teacher, or nonprofit then you can qualify for an amazing Pro-package discount.
Features
- State-of-the-art drag and drop editor
- Huge library of resume templates (limited with free account)
- Ability to upload images and logos of your choice
- Free access to images, icons, symbols, and shapes so vast you’ll have to choose which one to use instead of hunting aimlessly for the perfect one (limited with free account)
Ease of Use
- Easy—it takes a minute to learn where everything is, but it doesn’t take long before you’re creating like a pro
It’s for You If
- You want a free account to create and download a basic infographic resume
- You don’t mind paying a small monthly fee to have access to all templates and graphics
- You are a student, teacher, or nonprofit organization that wants to create infographics
- You want the ability to “present” your infographic
4. Visme
This is one of the newer infographic sites to have caught my attention—and with good reason. Like the previous options described, it offers a large cache of free images, icons, and templates, but its builder offers some additional features that I like. As you can see, there’s placeholder text (in Latin) in each section that you replace with your own information. Although there’s a spot to place a photo, you don’t have to add one.
When you start your project, you can choose your layout based on what you’re creating: presentation, infographic, banner, or custom dimension. This is nice for people who might want to use it for other projects, such as creating an interview portfolio. Also, it’s very easy to add animation to any object, similar to PowerPoint. Finally, Visme allows you to download your creation as a JPG with the free account, and higher-resolution files with the paid accounts.
Currently, the service offers two free resume or CV templates when you open a no-commitment account. With the standard paid offering, there are too many options to count.
Of course, you can always start with a blank canvas and create your own design.
Pricing
- Basic account free (up to three projects/100 MB storage)
- Standard account $15/month or $84/year (up to 15 projects/250 MB storage)
- Complete account (Business) $28/month or $192/year
Features
- Access to free images, symbols, icons, charts, and templates (limited with the basic plan)
- Easy starter templates for presentations, infographics, banners, or custom designs
- Easy animation options
- Ability to download and print with the basic plan
Ease of Use
- Easy—extensive drag and drop builder side menu that includes easy video and audio insertions
It’s for You If
- You want to create and download your resume for free
- You don’t mind paying a small monthly fee to have access to all widgets and templates
- You like the idea of creating a presentation with or without animation to go along with your application
5. Easel.ly
Easel.ly is another great option with unique features. It offers many of the features listed above including access to free images and templates, but it also has the ability to collaborate with someone in two different ways: invite someone via an email link to work on your project with you, or save your project as Easel.ly file (.ely) and send it to him or her.
Similar to how MS Word uses .doc or .docx files, Easel.ly uses its own proprietary file extension that you can save to your computer. All other infographic sites only save your project on its cloud-based server, but with Easel.ly you have the ability to export, save, or email your project to someone else to work on (though he or she will need an Easel.ly account too).
This may not seem like a big deal, but what if you’d like someone’s opinion or help with upping the creativity factor? What if you want to be able to save the file and work on it in the future to update it—or have someone else update it? With most other infographic sites, you can’t download a working file.
Another thing to note is that Easel.ly is a steal! Although it offers a limited free account, their paid Pro account is only $36 for the whole year.
Pricing
- Free account
- Pro account $36/year
Features
- The free account offers access to 60 free images and 10 fonts
- The Pro account offers 680,000 free images and 50+ fonts
- Templates
- Uploads for fonts, graphics, and logos
- Design help
- Privacy
Ease of Use
- Easy–simple drag and drop menu across the top of the builder
It’s for You If
- You want more than a Vizualize profile
- You want access to free images, templates, widgets, and high-resolution downloads for the lowest possible price
- You want to be able to collaborate with another person
- You like the idea of having the working file saved on your desktop
No matter what site you decide to check out, remember that the goal is to make it easier for a recruiter or hiring manager to see what you have to offer in the way of skills, experience, and potential solutions to her problem. A great infographic resume is clean, concise, and easy to skim. If a recruiter has to spend more than three seconds reading a single sentence, it’s too long. Think data and think eye-catching.
Remember, you don’t need an art degree to be creative. Two things all these sites have in common are beautiful templates and lots of help. The toughest part will be figuring out which data you want to use to promote your skills and experience (and maybe choosing from all the awesome options)!