A Tale of Two Resumes

**Alert: this post requests participation. Read, consider, and leave a comment about where you stand in the Tale of Two Resumes! Input and ideas are highly appreciated!**

I recently decided to be an adult for an afternoon and update my resume. This is always a highly stressful task, since my yin and yang of creativity and professionalism often end up at odds with one another. On one shoulder is my professional conscience, wearing a cardigan and a pencil skirt and yelling (ok, ok, whispering loudly) to make a clean-cut, traditional resume. On the other shoulder is my creative conscience, wearing skinny jeans and a funky blazer and shouting to create a resume that reflects my personality and shakes things up a bit. So who’s right? This is the great resume debate of my generation.

The field of speech-language pathology is in the midst of an exciting transition. We are learning to embrace and use amazing new forms of technology in our pediatric and adult interventions! Smart boards/computers/tv’s? Yup! QR codes? You betcha! Augmented reality? Ain’t no thang! So the question is: do the folks doing the hiring want to see us stick to the classic resume formats, or do they want to glimpse our innovation and creativity in our single-page “self-pitch?”

After a few days of mulling this over and asking the opinions of a handful of professionals I highly respect, I’m still torn. I recognize that many people out there like what’s familiar and comfortable in a resume: black and white, Times New Roman, straight lines, and plain borders. AND YET…I have a lot more to offer than black and white and straight lines. I think in bubble thoughts and colors. I am dynamic, thoughtful, and witty. I want someone who’s considering hiring me to feel that they know me just a little before they even meet me…but does our field want a resume that does that? My internal debate has led me to create two resumes: one that walks the traditional line, and the other that skirts the funky line.

So I pose the question to you: what kind of design should drive a resume? Do images, symbols, and technology impress or overwhelm? Are creative resumes helping our field to move forward and embrace new ideas and new technologies, or should soon-to-be graduates stick to tried and true formats?