From Dull to Cool

That’s right, I worked all day yesterday upgrading my resume. I am currently looking for a job, so if you hear anybody in the look out  for a cool Spanish accented Web Designer, I am for hire.

I wanted to post about my experience working on my resume, because I thought it might help others who are in the same boat as I am.

I don’t want to pretend I am an expert writing resumes, but I think I did some major improvements from my old resume. Without further ado, here is the list of things I learned re-designing my resume (listed in no specific order).

1. Stay focused:

By this I mean that you gotta remember what is the most imporatnt piece of information you want your future employer to read, and what is is the information relevance hierarchy that follows. In my case (and probably most cases), the most important thing is my name and contact info, then followed by my work experience and skills. Remember,  people in the western world read from left to right and top to bottom. You might think I am joking, but I’ve seen resumes that have the name of the applicant at the bottom, making it very hard to find.

2. Be concise:

I know you want to tell everybody about your ninja skills using  Windows 95 (for those who still remember), but probably who ever is reading your resume, doesn’t have the  time, and most importantly, they just don’t care. Provide the information that is only relevant to your audience, in a way that makes sense for them.

3. Make it memorable:

Among the hundreds of applications your potential employer has to sift through, how can you make sure they will pick yours, well, make sure it stands out. For me as a designer, I was always reluctant to show my resume off, because it looked like an kitchen appliance warranty from the 60′s, in other words it was quite dull. Now, I understand that probably you don’t want to make it too splashy either, but adding colors and cool fonts never hurts .

4. Keep it fat-free (lite):

Now days, most employers will require you to submit your resume online, or you will have it in your website/blog for people to download. Even though, with todays fast internet connections, you don’t have to worry as much, but nothing beats to be able to see a PDF document almost instantly on your screen after hitting the download button. So try to keep your file under 100KB, this doesn’t mean you have to write your resume in  *.txt format (MS-Notepad), but just keep in mind the size of your file, now days there are great ways to compress PDFs.

5. Do your homework:

Give them what they want. When looking for a job, you gotta  ask yourself, where would you love to work? Go out  and do some research, figure out what these companies are doing different, what kind of skills or type of employees they are hiring, then work on translating that knowledge into a resume. Isn’t it weird that when you are in facebook, you see ads that you grab your attention more than usual, this is because they know what you want, do the same with info you put in your resume

There you have it!. Now, I don’t claim that this is the ultimate guide on writing a resumes, there is plenty of great guides in the Internet already (links later), but this is what I learned re- doing mine, by the way, here is the link to my resume, and if you know of anybody looking for a Web Designer, let me know:

My Resume

Here is a list of great guides that you might find useful:

How to write a Resume – HowStuffWorks.com

How  to write a Resume – eHow.com

36 Beautiful Resume Ideas That Work

A new beginning!

It was about time I post something new in my blog. I have a very important announcement to make, I’ve updated my website with a new very minimalistic design (any feedback appreciated). As impressive as it maybe be (nahh!), it’s not only the aesthetics  that have changed, but the back-end engine has been completely rebuilt as well.

I have created a very slick (and lite) gallery view to display my pictures, it took me almost 1 month to complete. The driving force behind this project was my incursion to photography. I’ve been wanting to have a photography portfolio for quite some time now, and I didn’t really have something I could call my own. Now I do, Flickr was/is great, but it’s not quite mine. Although, with the gallery engine, I can pull photosets and collections directly from Flickr, thanks to Ajax and a dash of  Flickr API magic dust (you gotta love APIs).

I hope that with the  new re-design I can get more clients and a better platform to present my work. I am sure there are still some bugs and rough corners here and there, but as far as I know, it’s working pretty good. In fact the gallery is being  rendered quite beautifully in the new Ipad.

Another cool new feature is the blog platform. I am still using WordPress (probably always will), even though I was very tempted to switch to tumblr, but in the end I realized WordPress gives me all the flexibility in the world, if I want a feature, there is either a plugin for it or I pick into my brain and code one. The biggest updated in the blog is the commenting engine, I’ve decided to go with Disqus, it’s a great platform for comment threads, arguably its best feature is the connectivity with other social networking sites (e.g. Facebook).

I don’t want bore you with the details,  here is the new site, go through it, I would love to hear your comments and feedback, or even crazy new ideas for the site. I am planning to add a few more feature very soon, also I promise I will update my blog more often. Theres is lots of new pictures I gotta post .

Pieces of a plastic gun left on the street.

As I was walking home today, I saw remains of a plastic gun lying on the floor. I just thought it would be cool to take a picture of it. Now, even though the one I ended up picking isn’t very clear about what the black pieces on the floor are, I really like the background and the atmosphere of the picture in general. No updates, I am almost cured; hopefully I will be 100% for Monday.

The ring I grab on while I am in the bus

I don’t know if you’ve noticed, but country-side bus drivers are a bit lunatic, and that’s putting it nicely. It seems they are always in a rush, although quite honestly I don’t see the need for speeding, most of the passengers are good old folks trying to get back to their farm, I don’t think they need to get home any faster. I have to grab on tight in every curve as everybody shouts to the driver to slow down, albeit deep down, I think they enjoy it, because they always end up chuckling, especially when they see me bouncing up and down, back and for.

Today was a good day, I felt pretty sick most of the day, but right now I feel strong as a bull, my kids gave me some candy because they heard I was sick, it was a quite a gesture, which will be rewarded accordantly with superb lessons (and loads of chocolates) next week. I am currently reading “The Tipping Point” by   Malcom Gladwell , and I found this really cool reference about teaching kids, I hope you find it as interesting as I did.

“You try to find the kid’s strengths, so you can play to them. You try to understand the kid’s weaknesses, so you can avoid them. Then you try and teach that individual kid’s profile”
~Gerald Lesser

This is how they make rice cakes in korea.

I am starting to believe that Wednesdays here in Korea are doomed to always be cold, windy and dark. Thus, once again I am sick. I might be down, but I am still taking pictures, with that said, this will be a short entry.

In all honesty, I don’t know if this is truly a rice cake maker, I would tend to believe it is, based on pure observation and previous experience in the rice cake industry (cultural experience 2 months ago). Seventy five percent of my diet is based on rice. You might think I hate it by now, but nope, I love it and I can’t have enough of it, let’s see: Cooked rice with milk, honey and cinnamon in the morning (Arroz con Leche, oh yeah!); Broccoli, cabbage and onions minced and slightly toasted on a pan along with rice and a little bit of soy sauce (and eggs, almost forgot) for lunch or dinner. Hmmm yummy!

So there you go make sure you try that Spanish rice recipe, because it is: as an unscrupulous explorer once said, Dora “Delicioso”. (Dang, I must be really sick, I don’t even know what I am writing anymore, sigh)

Charlize locked and one of the perpetrators

Today, I walked into my classroom and to my surprise all the students were quite. As soon as I started plotting theories of this miracle, I heard the muffled sounds of Charlize coming from one of the glass lockers, at that moment everybody burst into laughs. And to think that I was finally inspiring respect out of these demons (smirk). Today was a good day, not terrible remarkable, a pack of cats’ meowing concerto in D minor woke me up this morning around 5am, also I ordered my first batch of books online: The Tipping point, Mass Effect: Revelation and the Alchemist. The first is a sociologist book (love that junk), the second is a sci-fi book, always a big fun of space and time travel, and the last one is one of my favorite high school books. And there you have it, one uneventful yet glorious day.

Letters can draw a smile in your face!

It’s been a while since I wrote on my blog, that doesn’t mean I haven’t been taking pictures, I just been busy taking them. Last weekend I had the privilege to go to the Cherry Blossom Festival in Jinhae, it was like being in Cherry Blossom Land, everywhere you turned there were cherry blossoms, it was a great time to be with friends and enjoy the majesty of these beautiful flowers.

Surprised by joy? That’s correct, today as I was giving my third class, the secretary came rushing to the classroom with a Fedex envelope in hand, the whole class was interrupted, all eyes were on the envelope, little girls whispering in the back, and as I opened it very carefully, Pyeonji! One of the kids said very disappointed, it turned out to be a letter inside, most of the kids were disappointed too (probably they were expecting chocolates or something), but I wasn’t, it made my day. How wonderful is to receive something from so far away, every time it happens, I can’t help imagining that person writing it, hearing the words coming out like if he or she would be right there. I am not going to tell who wrote it, because it’s irrelevant, I think is obvious this person is very dear to me. You see, there is always something special about letters, something that you can feel with your hands, something you can see and even smell. This letter was extra special though, and as C.S. Lewis would put it, I was “Surprised by joy”, not because I received the letter (I was told it was coming), instead I was moved by the joy I felt within after reading it. Thank you, secret source.

If I can give you an advice, find someone to write, someone that you care about, and then write! I promise it will transcend any number of emails you can send. And at the very least, you will draw a smile on his or her face that day.

Soulless statues feeling a bit blue

Honestly it feels good to be in control and feel that I am improving. Now, on the other hand, I feel I am in a blur, somewhat lost I guess. Today as I was looking for some used computer parts downtown, I stubbled upon this hidden art supplies store, they had these lifeless statues wrapped with vinil in their display, as I stared at them all these thoughts came floating to my mind: I am so far away from home; Where is home? The future is so uncertain, I feel very talented but at the same time very inmature and irresponsible, very selfish, I am mess and I am alone. At the end, I was overcomed by a feeling a little bit blue, a little bit rock and roll, but mostly of emptyness (soulessness). Now, don’t worry (especially you mom), I tend to feel like this every once in a while, I guess it’s normal. Wow, too much information, it’s ok, nobody reads this blog anyway. Oh well, I know this weekend is going to rock, Cherry Blossom Festival in Jinhae, here I come!!!

Yes, I have a new computer (a monster made of lesser computers), I am currently looking for a good fitting name.

Cherry Blossoms with street light in the background

I wasn’t feeling like taking a picture today, in fact I forgot my camera at home in the morning. Miraculously, my neighbor offered to show me where the running track is. So I decided to take Niko (that’s the name I baptize my camera with) just in case. As we were crossing through a park, I realize how beautiful the cherry blossoms looked with the street back light. It was cold, so I couldn’t keep a steady hand, I might come back and redo the whole thing (I might bring my tripod this time). Geez, night photography is tough. Even though it did’t turn out very well, I like it, it’s a little abstract, a little Je ne sais quoi.

Side note, my laptop is giving its last kicks, I seriously don’t know what’s wrong, it overheats so much, that when I upload stuff to Flickr I have to stick it inside the fridge and wait, otherwise it shuts itself off. Oh well, let’s hope it doesn’t die soon.