What to Include in Your Virtual Resume

Whether you are an active or passive jobseeker, you should be on LinkedIn. If you are a professional with a ton of demonstrative experience, you should have a Virtual Resume. The basics of the Virtual Resume are covered in this blog post: The Rise of the Virtual Resume. However, here are some more advanced tips for ensuring that your creative projects and team contributions are recorded in a highly-engaging manner.

Your LinkedIn Profile – Ensure that you’ve provided a link to your Virtual Resume on your LinkedIn profile. This is easily found under: Edit Profile > Contact Info > Websites. Also make sure that under Privacy & Settings you’ve customized your Public Profile to show Websites.

Add Photos – If you’ve worked on non-proprietary technology or developed an entire prototype on your own, take pictures of it. Caution*** be sure that you’re not violating any confidentiality agreements before taking any screenshots or photos.

Add a Summary – This is a great opportunity to provide a snapshot of the thought process behind your work. Elaborate on the problem that you solved, your approach to solving it and a brief sentence or two on the results.

Update Your Work Frequently – An online portfolio is a great way to document your evolution as a designer or your growth as an engineer. Make sure your projects are up-to-date and include your best and most representative work.

Take it to the Streets – If you work on highly-classified projects with restrictions abound, consider volunteering your skills to a non-profit or other strongly networked community. The American Institute of Architects (AIA), for example, hosts a yearly sandcastle competition for many coastal chapters.

Keep it in the Garage – Another option for designers who work on confidential projects is to take up backyard tinkering. Keep your skills fresh by applying what you learn at work to a project you can create in your garage.

In this era of great entrepreneurs, you never know if your backyard creation will become the next must-have product. At the very least, your passion for your work outside of the workplace will make YOU the must-have candidate in an employer’s search.

For more Virtual Resume tips, follow us on Facebook, LinkedIn, Twitter and Google+.