Fancy or traditional CV?

Post Reply
Bij Bam
Posts: 27
Joined: Thu Mar 20, 2014 9:08 am

Fancy or traditional CV?

Post by Bij Bam »

I wonder sometimes. You see everywhere on the Internet that you have to make your CV stand out from the crowd, but the examples given are usually the CVs of graphic designers. How would it be in the world of international schools? Do you think they'd - consciously or unconsciously - look more favourable on fancy CVs, or would they prefer candidates with traditional CVs?
PsyGuy
Posts: 10789
Joined: Wed Oct 12, 2011 9:51 am
Location: Northern Europe

Response

Post by PsyGuy »

Theres a term for "fancy/designer" resumes in IE, they are called Ichiros. An Ichiro is named after a long lost member of the forum, who was a very valuable contributor. You can do a search for them and find a number of posts and discussions.

It is essentially an alternative resume to describe marketing any type of flashy/gimmicky/creative method of introducing yourself to recruiters. It would generally involve color photos of you teaching, amazing students projects, etc and a more limited amount of text. Some people go all out and mimic advertising flyers, brochures, wanted posters etc (kind of a high risk/high reward approach).
Ive seen a number of Ichiros from business card resumes with a photo, contact info and a few stared bullet points with a QR code leading to a digital portfolio, to printed CDS, coupons (Good for one amazing teacher, time limited must be redeemed at [web address] and currency bills for a "1,000,000 teacher", 3 fold "sales" brochures, a couple teachers have done commercials and one did a full 22minute "info-mercial" that included a staged interview answering 5 pretty common questions, that was distributed on flash drives (you get a couple of flash drives from schools in your invite folder). The best one I ever got was a full, professionally bound magazine on slick paper stock it was 62 pages long and had articles discussing their teaching philosophy, a center fold with their bio and resume, articles about differentiation, their approach to the whole student, special needs, learning support, a couple stories about past schools and what they learned, and what they wish theyd known. It was extremely well done.

During signup your only going to have about 10-30 seconds to make contact with a recruiter and get an interview slot. A resume doesnt convey the highlights of you as a candidate. You want to convey the top three bullet points of what makes you special or at least worthy of consideration. Enter the Ichiro, which in its basic form is a flyer (in color) with basic contact information, some visual representations of your work, and a few bullet points of what makes you special. Ichiros are also good for slipping under doors and in school folders. A three fold brochure or business cards allow you to carry your resume everywhere without being cumbersome.
Post Reply