Job Search 2012: Do You Need an Interactive Resume?

Hanna Phan (left) did everything career experts tell you to do when you're job hunting, including setting up her profile on job boards, scouring online job listings and interviewing with recruiters. Nothing worked.

That's when Phan, a presentation design specialist, decided to take her job search down a more unconventional path. She scrapped her traditional resume in favor of an interactive one that she created using software from SlideRocket, one of the companies where she wanted to work.

Once she finished her "presume" -- short for presentation resume -- she used Twitter to send a link to SlideRocket's CEO, who followed up with a tweet an hour later saying, "Let's talk." She got hired and now works as a SlideRocket product manager.

More job seekers like Phan are thinking beyond the boundaries of an 8 ½ x 11 piece of paper when it comes to presenting themselves to prospective employers.

In addition to interactive presentations, applicants are using infographics, slideshows and videos to make a good impression -- and rise above the onslaught of resumes flooding companies with job openings.

Nontraditional resumes are a smart way for middle-aged applicants to show they are as tech-savvy as younger workers. But presentation resumes won't work for every profession or industry. The more creative the field, the more likely an interactive resume will be perceived as an advantage rather than an oddity, career experts say.

If there's something critical about your skills or abilities you can quickly get across in graphical form, like how much money you saved a previous employer, "then yes, it would make sense to insert a chart into your resume" or explain in a video, says Laura Smith-Proulx, an award-winning professional resume writer based in Denver. "But consider your audience. If you give someone in a very traditional field like accounting 16 charts in a resume, they're probably not going to read it."

Even if you submit a more creative resume, have a garden-variety resume available as backup, career experts suggest. That's because many companies now use applicant tracking software (ATS) to scan resumes for contact information and keywords to enter into a database of prospective hires. Without a standard resume, a recruiter or other human resources personnel might have to input the information themselves, and anything that requires extra labor might mean your handiwork ends up in the round file instead of a hiring manager's desk, Smith-Proulx and other career experts say. (Tech site Mashable explains how ATS works in this post.)

However, if you think an innovative resume might help you rise above the fray, here are examples of four different types:

1. The Online Presentation Resume

The presentation resume Phan used to win over SlideRocket is a series of animated slides that use typography and simple graphical images to explain her qualifications and why she would be a good fit at the company, all set to uplifting background music. This MediaJobsDaily post details how Phan researched the company extensively and spent two weeks brainstorming before designing the presentation, which took another week to complete. One smart detail: Phan incorporated the company's philosophy of changing the world "one presentation at a time" into her own presentation.

Take a look:

2. The Infographic Resume

Infographics tell stories using words and pictures. Infographic resumes share need-to-know information about a job seeker in a visually arresting way. A Daily Infographic post offers these tips for creating an attention-grabbing infographic resume: Use a font that's easy to read on a computer screen, add links that click through to an online portfolio, and put career accomplishments into a chart. Here's another Mashable post that explains software tools you can use to build an infographic resume, including Visualize.me, Re.vu and Kinzaa.

3. The Video Resume

Video resumes sometimes get bashed as unprofessional and passe, and it's easy to see why -- it doesn't take much hunting on YouTube to find examples that are just plain bad. But they don't have to be. If you're creating a video resume, dress professionally, speak clearly and not too quickly, look at the camera and stick to the point. Popular consensus puts the ideal length at about a minute. Think of a video resume as a preview of coming attractions that will have a recruiter asking to see more. Read more tips about making video resumes in this About.com post and check out the example below.

4. The Printed-on-Something-Unusual Resume

As you'd imagine, graphic designers can come up with some pretty unusual ways to showcase their work, including printing their vital stats and accomplishments on media you wouldn't normally associate with a resume. This JobMob blog post shares 25 creative examples, including one resume printed on a T-shirt, another that looks like a warning label, and a third packaged inside a box. Even the most outrageous examples include basics such as skills and experience.

Have you successfully used an nontraditional resume? Please share by leaving a comment, and if the resume is still online, a link to what it looks like.

Read more: 12 Steps to a Smart Resume and 10 Apps to Find a Job