CRITIQUE: Resumé Website

[tannercampbell]

Thanks!

http://bit.ly/tannercampbell

[standuncan]

I would change your entry/splash page to the same width and style as your resume page, so it looks more uniform. Then I would add a bottom margin to your splash page container, like you have on your resume page so it gives it some breathing room down on the bottom.

Also the order of your employment history. It should probably be ordered latest to earliest instead, so potential employers can see your latest jobs/skill-sets first.

[AmruthPillai]

I like the site, but I’m pretty sure everything could use a little more padding… some modifications or increase in the line-height property would be great. It looks all cramped up for now, but great resume none-the-less.

Also, cool splash page… Even I’m fed up of people using outdated browsers :D

[Brightonmike]

The background takes much too long to load, took 15 seconds here on a 20mb internet connection. Not good enough! The text is also quite pixellated, and as previously pointed out it’s very tight.

Further, I feel your waffley text on the first page is unnecessary, you’re overestimating the likelihood of anybody caring enough to read it. A potential employer needs to just get to the good stuff, your qualifications, experience etc….and that page gets in the way.

“To continue, please be sure you’re using one of the fantastic broswers listed below”

Honestly, don’t do this, not only is your copy full of errors but instructing people to only use specific browsers before proceeding is gonna annoy and put off a lot of people. A website this simple and basic has no reasonable excuses for not working fine in old browsers.

Overall, nice idea, just not well executed, and considering you are a web designer it is not particularly attractive.

[standuncan]

In response to #2, I think you are looking at it from the wrong angle. It’s not what you or your hypothetical employer wants, it boils down to a combination of what the client needs, what the client wants and and a lot of what the client’s users/demographic will benefit from. There are still plenty of users out there using older versions of IE, AOL, Netscape, etc. I know because I have a lot of users using that crap and they are not willing to update (mostly seniors with older computers as well). I can’t stand having to make sure all my HTML5/CSS3 sites degrade gracefully, using If IEs, fallbacks, etc, but that’s what I have to do because of the user environment.

Furthermore, companies that have IE7 or 6 as you say in their office are the exact opposite in my opinion, because that means they are hopefully using those browsers to check the product they are delivering to their client. There are many browser compatibility apps and screenshots services, etc, but I still don’t think any of them are accurate as actually using the browser and “using” the site in it.

The only way you are going to be 100% crap browser free I can think of is if you get hired to work on intranet or extranet sites where the user environment is always known and controlled and that is few and far between.

[Remeste]

I’m just going to be blunt. It looks like it has been made by someone with 1 months web/graphic experience, not 10 years.

[Brightonmike]

If you want to be picky over your clients, I suggest you do so in a way that does not offend someone visiting your site for the first time. You say it screens out those using old browsers – but it screened me out and I’m using a modern browser. Your attitude is potentially alienating you clientèle who are not necessarily using old browsers.

But if that’s what you insist on doing, sure, but I don’t see anybody else doing it.

[Johnnyb]

Hey Tanner, here’s my 2 cents:

I like that the design is clean, however it really doesn’t blow me away or make you stand out. As you advertise yourself as a graphic designer I think that you should show that through your resume. There’s nothing really interesting about the design – the typography is bland and I feel like the text should be split up into smaller bullet points. At the moment it seems to scream a lack of design flair/creativity.

Here are a couple of examples I just found quickly on DeviantArt which are more representative of a standout graphic/web designers resume in my opinion, and show both creativity and attention to detail:

http://browse.deviantart.com/?q=resume&order=9&offset=24#/d2in890
http://browse.deviantart.com/?q=resume&order=9&offset=24#/d2xj8so
http://browse.deviantart.com/?q=resume&order=9&offset=0#/d1yfs89

Also, I’m not a big fan of the splash page – way too wordy in my opinion. If you cut that down into a few keys points and added some imagery/illustration/photos/anything that isn’t text to it then it might work better. It might be a better idea to just put a note on your resume about using a modern browser and then link to that splash page from there, so that anyone who is interested in why they should be using one could read that. I don’t think you should subject every employer you send this to to read this though. If they’re anything like the CEO at my workplace then they’re interested in whether you have the skills and experience that we need – if yes then get them in for an interview so we can see if you’re a good fit from a personal standpoint. Resumes should be about wowing an employer/catching their eye and then demonstrating you have the chops for the position, not rambling on about your personal standpoint on browser choice. If you feel you need to talk about that then you should do it in the interview.

Hope this helps!

John

[chrisburton]

I quite like the retro example.

[aoeui]

@ChristopherBurton

I do not feel like it is on purpose but that he means that and is being serious

or if it was sarcasm from your side
I did not get it because I am not native speaker and don’t get jokes right the first time ;]

[joelmb]

I’m not overly keen on the entry page to be frank and it seems a little superfluous given that this is your resume and that’s what people are there to see. Though I can see a point to your ‘cover letter’. Rename it as your personal site? Also spotted typo “please be sure you’re using one of the fantastic broswers listed below” so maybe worth going through again, nothing worse to a potential employer than spelling mistakes in a resume!

Asides from that I think the resume page itself is quite nice and interesting.

Not overly keen on the floor background and doesnt seem relevant (unless youre promoting a floor fitter, which I know youre not ;) .

[aoeui]

at last my own experience
3.) Web Coder
developer, designer, call it what you like ;]

@Remeste says 1 month, I agree
10 years exp just because you believe in it does not make it is real

CRITIQUE PAGE
http://www.how-do-i-find-peace.com/resume/

1.]
why splash page?
UX suffers here why resume goes to … wait for it … resume new page?

should it not link directly like this?
http://krsiak.cz/cv/english.php

2.]
I love orange so do you, but how can anyone (poor users) tell what is heading, link and bold text?

3.]
you need more padding, everywhere

4.]
joke IE8+ good one :D
does that equal for being lazy or not having skills to code properly for IE7 ?

5.]
using HMTL5, good for you, positive points but …
why doing this ?

href="x" rel="x" type="x"

href='x' rel="x" type="x"

the solo quotes are good fo .JS, double bad guys good for .html

use

drop this part

type="text/css"

if you lacking confidence in coding skills use
http://validator.w3.org/#validate_by_input

to find errors

IMG not having alt=””

CRITIQUE PAGE
http://www.how-do-i-find-peace.com/resume/resume.html

some stuff from above plus …

seven = 7 … H1 headings for what? making text look bigger?

*** CSS CRIME SCENE ***
dear Tanner,
noone with 10 years of experience in web could create .css as your have
and do not say it is “development version”

stuff like this can be put together

background-image : url(../img/bg.jpg);

background-position : center top;

background-repeat : repeat;



margin : 20px auto 20px auto;

seriously man?

a:link {

color : #fff;

text-decoration : none;

}

a:visited {

color : #fff;

text-decoration : none;

}

a:hover {

color : #fff;

text-decoration : none;

}

a:active {

color : #fff;

text-decoration : none;

}

6.]
using CSS3, you are missing webkit man
study this http://css3please.com/

and so on
but good starting point, just clean it up

we all started somehow ;]

[joelmb]

looking at it again, and in conclusion, i dont think it’s doing you justice in order to sell yourself as a graphic designer. i’d hire you, but the overall impression i get from this is, i’d expect a cheap price for a cheap job, which going by your mentioning of wanting to appear arrogant to put off only the right companies I’m not sure you’ll achieve that.

I think you need to compare it to personal sites of other designers as thats no doubt what your potential clients/employers will be doing, and youll see it isnt putting you up there with the best of them. It’s just, okay, not, like, Wow I want to hire this guy.

[chrisburton]

I was being serious

[aoeui]

@tannercampbell
sry for being brutally honest but it takes time
and you do not have the skills you think you do … yet

I sucked too, I guess we all did when starting
I say this to myself everyday so it keeps me going, learning, reading

this was me 1 year ago
ugly code
http://bfh.krsiak.cz/armies-royal_army.php

funny css
http://bfh.krsiak.cz/css/bfh-fansite.css

UX mistakes

but I said to myself I can do better and admitted I can be better
in 10 months I read whole css-tricks.com

saw all videos, recreated all demos
and now I am here

http://krsiak.cz/
better code, better design

less sucking CSS
http://krsiak.cz/style.1.0.5.css

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