Tuesday’s Tip: Isn’t a Picture Worth a Thousand Words?

I have always heard that "A picture is worth a thousand words", and I have always believed this to be the case (at least for me). I learn better when I see the information being presented in a visually appealing, colorful format. In fact, more than 65% of Americans are visual learners. And last time I checked, at least 99.99% of all Americans have a color television set. The black and white ones are for antique collectors.
So it puzzles me why most job seekers hold onto the development and distribution of a plain, old, boring black and white text version of their resume. Heck, they think they are going outside-of-the-box by putting something in Bold or ALL CAPS. And don't even get me started on this false rumor about an ATS stopping the transfer of your resume when it finds a hyperlink or an email address (this rumor was started by the Easter Bunny).
So my plea to anyone that wants to differentiate themselves from their competitors, is to throw away that boring 2007 looking resume. If you don't have color, pictures, graphs, hyperlinks, tables, or a visually appealing layout, then you are just another candidate with a resume. It is so easy to climb to the top of the pile, by just trying. Recruiters will only glance (notice I didn't say read), at your resume for 30 seconds and if during this time frame they are not "convinced" to glance some more, can you guess which circular file your resume will end up in? If you make it easy for them to read the content, they will not only learn more about your capabilities, but they most likely will be impressed with your technical capabilities (ie. inserting a Hyperlink on your resume). To those of you that are trying to disguise your age (because of the age discrimination that is prevalent in society), this may be your ticket out of that!