I used bold Calibri in my headings and Cambria for body text for readability. I included rule lines under each heading to try and keep it more balanced and to clearly divide each section. The URLs in Appendix I were supposed to be normal hyperlinks like this, but for some reason Word 2008 has problems converting hyperlinks to PDF format, so I did the next best thing.
For this resume I used bold Arial for headings and Cambria for body text. The serif body/sans heading combination was suggested in Graham and it’s a simple practice to stick to. I bolded the headings and subheadings for emphasis to make it easy to tell things apart. Each individual item for education, experience, and training is divided into the heading and description, with the heading in three columns denoting time, activity, and location. The heading is divided this way to avoid putting that information in a list of its own for each item—on one line it would be too long to scan quickly, and on separate lines it would take up too much space. I also indented the left margin for the descriptions of each item so that the text wouldn’t look like the beginning of a new item, making it easier to read.
For the scannable resume I used essentially the same information as the traditional one, but removed almost all of the formatting. Everything is left-justified, no italics, no bolding, all Times New Roman 12pt font in order to make it easy for a computer to scan. In order to distinguish sections, I had to use headings, but formatting was out to make it scannable. So I used ALL CAPS instead. This way it’s easier for a computer to read, but a human can still differentiate sections without too much difficulty.
There isn’t much to say about format choices in LinkedIn because the site does just about everything for you. I included skills, projects, and languages primarily because I didn’t have much else to include without any job history. My listed skills aren’t very impressive, but technical writing is important for design documentation. I included the PR project I did this semester because it’s an example of collaborative work, which is important for any game developer. My “limited working proficiency” in Spanish isn’t really relevant; LinkedIn suggested I add it, so I did. Maybe there’s an easier way of linking to my resume without using the upload feature, but I ended up adding it as a project because I didn’t see anywhere else that allowed the insertion of a hyperlink.
I didn’t like doing the video resume because it takes me a long time to get a good audio recording and I don’t like listening to my voice—especially saying the same thing over and over again. I picked the story I did because it highlights the fact that I’ve used a game engine to create a game before—something that game designers need to know about. It’s not very high quality work, though, and certainly nothing I’d include in an actual portfolio. I need to use some better software and better assets to create a better demo if I want to impress any potential employers. To create the video, I basically recorded the audio and then went in to the old Unity project file to take some screenshots to add in.
I wish I had two or three more things I could have included in my timeline, because I think GameCamp! and high school are very weak items to use. It’s also sort of irritating that I could only find one image that was both relevant and not copyrighted. There weren’t many decisions to make with the software I used, except to set the zoom limits and attribute the image. I set the zoom at a fixed position because there are few enough elements that it’s not crowded, and zooming would just make things confusing. I attributed the image by including the photographer’s Flickr name and the URL, and by hotlinking to the image.