Go Ahead, Tear Me to Shreds!
February 10, 2009
Posted by Dan Edelen in : Announcements, Work, Writing Functions : Trackback,
,
I’ve been revising my freelance writing and editing site. Part of this refresh will include a new résumé that better reflects my more recent work history and emphasis.
I’m putting that résumé online temporarily for open critique. It’s a bit bolder and less “common”-looking than my past résumés. Please savage the thing and point out everything wrong with it. What goes right would be good to know as well.
I’ll have it up for a couple days. If it meets with majority approval, I’ll make it my go-to CV. If not, I’ll take your revision suggestions to heart and craft it into something better.
Résumé for Dan Edelen, freelance writer & editor
Thanks for your insights and help!
Tags: CV, Editing, Editor, Freelance, Reader Input, Reader Input Requested, Résumé, Work, Writer, Writing
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My first reaction was ‘cool layout’! I’m used to reviewing resumes for technical positions but the content seems fine to me.
Mark,
My design thoughts are actually always much better than what I am able to execute. My mind’s eye is pretty sharp, but my illustration skills not so much.
The layout looks great, and the content seems fine.
The only caveat is that the type that’s not bold or in white appears faint when viewed on screen. However, the type appears dark enough when printed.
EG,
Yes, it’s an odd thing. I used the font Fontin. It looks fine in most cases, but I did find a screen resolution where the PDF was less sharp than in others, so I’m not sure what the deal might be.
The “Unified Field Theory” of fonts on the Web has yet to be discovered or designed—but we’re getting there slowly.
EG,
I just figured out why you might be having a problem. The document has the font embedded. Because I have the font loaded on my computers, it may be displaying differently as an embedded font in the PDF.
I guess I would have to remove the font from my system and review the PDF again to see what the problem might be.
If others are having the same problem with the font being hard to read, I would love to know.
Again, this is why good fontwork is still a dicey prospect on the Web.
I like the design, too. Other than that, it is about as boring as any other resume I might read. It would have been funny to have a client say, “Dan writes so well, I asked him to edit my testimonial, too!”
My only content comment was that I wondered if there was enough detail on the writing examples that I would be able to say “should I call this guy to find out more about his fit for the job I need?”.
Thomas,
The trend in résumés is very much “Less Is More.” My past résumés were verbose, so this is a departure for me. That’s one reason why I floated this test résumé.
It’s also hard to quantify the results of some types of writing or to separate the writing’s impact from the complete content package. As a freelancer, I don’t always receive answers from clients when I ask about results; in many cases, they simply aren’t tracking them. Or else I work as a subcontractor, which removes me even further from client feedback data. Also, some documents may account for an increase in sales, while others just are. For instance, the fact that I fixed a dangling modifier in a direct mail piece I edited may not have any trackable results.
My answer? I substituted testimonials instead of direct results of the work. I’ll see if that works.
Thanks for the feedback.
Looks great to me. Reads great starting out, but slows a bit after that. In a former life, I was a disciple of The Art of Plain Speaking. The author counseled short sentences.
You have only 15 seconds…
…to grab a reader’s attention.
Make every word sizzle.
Sizzling, well chosen words can mean the difference between a successful company and an also-ran.
Untold hours and dollars go into your products and services. They deserve a professional writer’s touch in everything your customers see.
When the clock is ticking, go with a word-sizzling freelance writer: Dan Edelen, Ethereal Pen Productions.
George,
Believe it or not, among serious writers there is a groundswell against short, staccato sentences. They claim that we have “USA Today”-ized our entire language for the worse. So I try for a mix of both short and long. I guess the success of that is up to the reader.
Thanks for the feedback and update!
One of my many hats includes resume development but I seldom work with your occupation so keep that in mind. Your resume layout strikes a great balance between aesthetics and simplicity. The organization of the content presents a fresh approach. My impression before I reached the testimonials was that the content did not say enough about the quality of your work but if they have enough attention span to reach the second page, the testimonials work. My only real criticism is that I find your first Expertise paragraph to be awkward. It is difficult to say exactly why. But there it is AND the fact that it is prominently first . . . I don’t know. I would give it some space and come back to it.
Still too much. Too long and too wordy. If you’re an editor, your resume should never be more than one succinct page.
I disagree. 2 pages for a senior person is normal. His layout is less dense than normal, which enhances readability but makes 1 page even less adequate.
One minor critique — not sure what “Humorous ad teleplays” entry means. What is an “ad teleplay”?