By now, everyone knows that I’ve moved from Georgia to Oregon. Most also know that I’m self employed running a web/graphic design studio servicing clients all over the country. Back in June of 2013, a company posted a job that I was pretty interested in but the bottom of the post stood out to me. They wanted to be wowed. They wanted applicants to do something a bit different than what was done before whether it was a video application, small website, infographic… something to stand out. Well I figured, why not do all of those things combined. So I set off to put together an online portfolio that was comprised of all components mentioned.

First thing I needed, a domain! The company I was applying for was called Smartwaiver and naturally, I purchased kennyforsmartwaiver.info (It’s no longer active) and got to work. I figured, if I’m going to get myself back into the workforce, I needed to get my LinkedIn (Connect with me!) account up to par with the rest of the working world. I’ll be honest, I let it slide to the side in recent years but it didn’t take much updating to get it where it needed to be. Next up was design of the site.

The job posting also wanted my real personality, not an “applicants” personality. It’s refreshing to me that a company wanted the “real” you when applying. Lucky for me, I had completed a photoshoot with Noe Lozano Photography (seriously… HIRE this guy) a few weeks prior and the man knows what he’s doing. It was simple, fun but captured my personality. Incorporate the company logo and started filling content. I wanted to showcase my strengths: Customer Service, Video Authoring/Editing, Public Speaking and my professional recommendations from past clients and colleagues. For this position, I also reached out to a few clients for testimonials for the work we’ve done together in the past (video withheld). Additionally, I added a page for my resume.

My resume looked decent enough in the standard format, but I added an additional hook to it. I added an updated resume to the site but I also, along side it, added a visual/infographic resume. All clickable and downloadable in PDF format.

I included my text resume here as well for searchability for the search engine spiders. Add a page for my references and recommendations, a contact form and boom…. I was done. So without further ado, please feast your eyes on the site that has now converted to a standardized advertisement of me! Take a moment to click the links, read through… let me know what you think in the comments!

www.kennyforbend.com

If you are reading this and you’re in the Bend, Oregon area, and you’re looking to employ a very ambitious applicant with real world experience, a strong work ethic and a tenacious appetite for going the extra mile, shoot me an email or give me a call at 706-339-1270. I’m ready to go!

Do you have unique resume ideas that you’d like to share? Post in the comments!