Visual CV and Your On Line Presence

Successful people create positive personal impact.  You create positive personal impact by building and nurturing your personal brand, dressing for success and knowing and following the basic rules of etiquette.

You can use the internet to build and nurture your personal brand.  Last week I did a blog post in which I mentioned Visual CV.  Have you had a chance to visit there yet?  If you haven’t, I suggest that you do.  While you’re there create a Visual CV for yourself. 

A Visual CV is like a small website.  It guarantees that when someone Googles you, they will find you on the World Wide Web. 

I had never heard of Visual CV until a few days before I wrote that post.  But, as often happens when something hits my radar screen, I begin to see references to it in several places.  I picked up a copy of Laptop Magazine at the airport on Friday, and in an article entitled “Tech Up Your Resume,” I found this statement: “Visual CV will Webify your resume for you, free of charge.”

After reading the article, I made some additions to my Visual CV.  The biggest one was adding images of the covers of my books and a video I’ve done on career and life success.  You can find it at www.visualcv.com/bilanich.  I’d appreciate it if you would take a look and let me know what you think.

Next, because of the advice in the article, I am going to add a talking head video to my Visual CV.  I will be following the tips in the article when I produce my short video:

• Don’t just recite your resume.  Speak to the camera as if it were another person with whom you are in a conversation.
• Prepare, rehearse and reshoot.  I’ve often said that preparation makes up for a lack of talent.  This piece of advice is especially relevant here.
• Dress yourself and your surroundings professionally.  Keep the space around you clean and the décor minimal.  I was going to do my shoot in front of my books, but I’ve changed my mind.
• Keep it short and simple.  I agree with Eva Meszaros, the author of article, when she says that one of two minutes is about as much attention as employers will give your video resume.

The common sense point here is simple.  Successful people create positive personal impact.  They do this by building and nurturing their personal brand, dressing for success and knowing and following the basic rules of etiquette.  An online resume is a great way to build and nurture your personal brand.  Visual CV provides easy to use software that you can use to create a resume that will get you noticed.

That’s what I think about using an on line resume to build and nurture your personal brand.  What do you think?  Please leave a comment – especially if you’ve created a Visual CV.  Share it here.  You never know what might come of it.  As always, I appreciate and value your comments.  Thanks for reading – and writing.

Bud