Have you ever seen an ad so funny or zany that you talked about it with friends? Entrepreneurs and marketers know about Seth Godin’s purple cow. A cow might be good and handsome and smart, but in a sea of cows, he is boring. A purple cow, though, that would catch your attention. The point is to be remarkable and that if you’re product is awesome enough, then it will naturally spread.

How does this relate to your job search? There is a sea of applicants who are applying for the same job. You have similar cover letters, similar resumes and even interview similarly, due to the overload of plain Jane job search advice. There’s nothing inherently wrong with that, IF you are getting the level and quality of response you want from employers.

Most of the remarkable things hiring managers see are very bad things. We sigh at them, we shake our head at them, we say ‘you will not believe this resume’ and then we toss them in the “no” pile. You do not want to be this kind of remarkable in your job search.

So I’m not suggesting that you go out there and be outlandish or controversial just to get attention. I’m not sure whether that works in business marketing but it’s not going to work in your job search. Find something that is remarkable and underlines you as a candidate AND expresses your ingenuity.

On to Purple Cow Resumes

As a hiring manager, here is what it looks like when I scan a resume:

1. Glance at header to check out the design/contact info and look for something that stands out
2. Scan (not read) through top to bottom and look for something that stands out

I’ve talked to a lot of other hiring managers and recruiters and they all seem to follow some variation of this. If I see the right person, I’ll probably call them in for an interview, but likely wouldn’t pass more than once a week just for lack of time to interview them. So if I find more than one right person, best one wins until I fill the position. So you want to be remarkable and get a callback right away.

What about the guys who aren’t the right person? We don’t even get to see them. They don’t have the experience in the technology we’re using or haven’t worked with the type of companies we’re working with, or whatever. There are way too many bland resumes that contain a bland degree with bland internships and bland experience. Almost no one has the time to check out all those people. So you’re awesomeness goes unnoticed.

1. Don’t mention roles and responsibilities, mention skills and accomplishments

So let’s say you had Business Analyst internship at XYZ Corporation so you put it on your resume:

Business Analyst internship at XYZ Corporation

• Made a weekly report of the state of the department
• Worked with developers to make software for IT

Professional. Boring. Only remotely interesting if you’re a hiring manager for a Business Analyst position at competitor to XYZ Corporation, but even then, not that interesting. So boring that we all scan over it. Contrast that snippet with this one:

• Save Money
  Saved XYZ Corporation $5K a month by analyzing and identifying profit leaks in their IT department.
• Bridge Gap Between Technical and Business Folks
  Translated the complaints from our help center into requirements for the developers for the e-commerce website.

Still professional. Not boring. Interesting if you’re hiring a Business Analyst. Also interesting if you’re hiring, like, anyone!

2. Use an awesome and uncommon design

This matters because every job benefits from having someone with an eye for design. It’s not about art, it’s about communication. If you’re resume is cluttered or disorganized, then I probably don’t want to hire you, only to have to read your cluttered or disorganized weekly status report.

Let’s look at the typical resume (probably yours right now). This one is actually a well-formatted resume, but is still typical. This is where Word templates have done us a disservice. The benefit of using similar templates is that it’s easy for hiring managers to scan them quickly and pull out only the info we want. Great for me. Except what if you have done some awesome things and you want us to actually read about it. Or maybe you don’t want to just say you’re good at communicating, you want to actually show that you can move beyond a Word template. Good idea!

Ideas for cool resume design ideas:

• Design a mind map around what you have accomplished/why they should hire you
• A picture slideshow of your accomplishments, or of you working in action (if it’s interesting)
• A cereal box including sales copy that sells you instead of cereal (especially if you’re an ad/marketing/artistic person)
• Use your own medium (for a software developer, write software that promotes you, etc)

3. Create a references-only resume

This would work great for a position that is very people/communication oriented, or if you have a lot of experience that is not related to the job (so that you can let people highlight your transferable skills for you).

Salesperson and Team Leader at Target June 2008 - February 2009
“Jane had a fantastic work ethic that made her first pick for any team. I could always count on her to get the work done correctly and quickly. When a team leader quit suddenly, Jane stepped in as a natural leader and the transition was seamless.”
Joe Smith, Manager
“When I started working at Target, Jane was my team leader and she showed me the ropes. She was friendly and approachable but also ran a tight ship when it came to running her department.
Ashley Rainer, Salesperson

4. Include an Interview Sample

If I decide that I like your resume, the next step is to call you in for an interview. Almost. Sometimes I might dig around on google and the social sites to see what you are up to. Most people are innocuous although you do have a chance to knock their socks off with an industry-related blog or something.

Instead of letting them stumble around, direct them to your website from the resume. There you can include, well, anything. Portfolios, more links to your work, whatever.

However, you can also include a video or audio interview samples. Answer common questions like, what is your best skills, where do you see yourself in 5 years (or whatever you think works best for you). If they are on the fence about you but you do a knock-your-socks-off performance, I would at least expect a call back.

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Now, do you have to do all of these things? No and that would probably be to wacky for a lot of hiring managers. Pick one and it’s enough to be remarkable, especially if you do it well.

Do you have to do any of these things? No, people are getting jobs left and right with a plain Jane resume. In fact, I recommend first solidifying a fantastic regular resume before making the jump to an unconventional one.

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Here comes the free stuff: as part of my launch into career coaching I am giving away free resume critiques when you sign up for my newsletter.

Why do you need a professional resume critique? Maybe you don’t. Maybe you’re getting tons of responses for the types of jobs you want with the one you have. If you’re not, then maybe you need a professional (read: me) to critique your resume. I can tell you what’s going wrong and, more importantly, how to fix it.

Why me? As a former hiring manager, my job was to read a resume and either call you in for an interview or throw it away. This is the step you need to ace. Fixing resumes is (somehow) in my blood because when I was a hiring manager looking through resumes, it was all I could do not to critique the resume and send it back.

So how do I get my resume critiqued for FREE? Just sign up for the newsletter from the main page of Geniusopia.com. I’ll send you some great free stuff to help raise your career to the next level AND give you instructions for how to get your resume critiqued for free.