Getting Attention for Your Resume: "Hire!" Post-It Note Graphic

I was having a conversation with someone tonight and talk turned to how to make a resume stand out. As I'd read somewhere about the idea of a "fake" post-it note as an attention grabber, I whipped an example mockup up to explain the point. My overzealous neurosis is your gain and I'm sharing how I did it. It took me about 15 minutes and I do think that it could be a way to make your resume stand out without going all the way to the brightly colored paper, etc. This is a quick shot of the example itself.

See larger resume image

It really doesn't take long to whip something like this up, just a few online resources and tools.

I used Photoshop, but you could easily use GIMP or GIMPShop to do it without having to spend the cash on Photoshop. First, I needed a postit note to put on the document. For a couple of minutes I looked at tutorials to make them or to find an action/brush, etc. However, a quick pass through iStockPhoto gave me what I was looking for for $1, making the effort required to do it myself just not worth it.

With postit in hand, I trimmed out all but the closest couple of white pixels from the edges. Since resumes are usually printed on white paper, I didn't bother trying to really clean it up neatly. To put something on the note, I decided to make it the word "Hire" with an exclamation point. While an exaggeration of what actually happens with postits on resumes, they are often used to mark resumes with "hire" or "no-hire" type messages without leaving a permenant paper trail. As we're trying to give a suggestion, I figured it was quick, simple and to the point. But, I didn't want to put it in a regular typewritten font. After all, it was supposed to look like a handwritten note.

So, off to Google I went, searching for "handwriting font", and found a font called James Fajardo that matched the existing "To Do" on the note pretty well and since I found it within the first couple of pages, I grabbed it. I put the word on and rotated it to match the note. I matched the color of the existing text and made the layer a little bit transparent to pick up the texture of the paper just a bit.

Then, I grabbed a sample resume from a university site to show what it would look like. I put the note in the top right corner, where there wasn't anything already taking up space. This is good because making a 1 page resume can be a challenge once you've got more than a couple of years experience, especially if you focus on accomplishments and skills. Net result is a conservative resume that still stands out.

Personally, I think it's a good blend of the 2. Often, if you go too far with the avante-garde stuff on your resume (crazy fonts, hot pink paper, etc.), you're just not going to be taken seriously. However, if you use just the template they gave you at the career counselor in college, yours will just sit in the stack with the 300 other resumes that have 3 years of web development experience. If you do move toward a more stylish layout, just make sure that the postit doesn't blend in. To make the point it needs to look like it was just slapped on the document (while not obscuring your accomplishments).

lifehack, resume, employment, job, job search