Luckily, for those of us with our résumés in LinkedIn, there are services available to do all of the visually creative stuff for you. All you need to do is sync your LinkedIn account and your visual résumé is ready for use.

Here’s two of the best visual résumé creators you can try for free.

Update Your LinkedIn Profile First!

Firstly, since both of these great visual résumé services import your information from your LinkedIn profile, the best approach to creating a great résumé would be to update your details in LinkedIn before you start exploring these options. That, and your LinkedIn profile is more useful when updated regularly, too.

Vizualize.me

Vizualize.me is a one-click LinkedIn service, meaning you can jump straight into viewing your visual résumé and creating eye-catching content. The content is taken from LinkedIn, but it’s not a two-way sync so nothing will be saved back to LinkedIn after you’ve finished.

There are several great themes to choose from, plus a lot of control over which details are shown in the profile and exactly which colours to use for your style. The resulting infographics are rich and well-designed.

Recommendations from colleagues look especially good in the Vizualize.me format, making a feature of your achievements as seen by the people you work with. Don’t forget that word-of-mouth recommendations are the most memorable! Make sure those kind words about you get noticed.

Re.vu

Re.vu gets you to create an account and choose your URL before linking to your LinkedIn account. Then it’s a simple authorisation process with LinkedIn to get your details imported. You can further tweak your details if you wish, or upload a photo and a résumé in document form if you like.

Once you’ve saved the basic information, you’ll be able to choose a theme for your profile and decide exactly how you’d like your information presented. Then, simply promote it as you wish and update the details whenever you need to.

The re.vu themes are eye-catching and stylish, plus they allow you to upload your own background if you want to personalise the page further. The visualisation of your work history is especially good if you’ve worked multiple jobs as it shows clearly how you’ve spent your work time.

Choices

Both of these services provide great profiles for jobseekers. If I were to make comparisons, I’d say Vizualize.me had more bells and whistles, while Re.vu was easy enough for the average grandparent to understand. Both profiles looked fantastic and took very little time to create. I’d personally recommend using both – since you can’t have too many résumés out there working to get you a job.

More Reading For Jobseekers

These articles will probably also be of interest to you:

• 3 Ways To Meaningfully Visualize Your LinkedIn Network
• Try Signal & Learn How To REALLY Use LinkedIn
• BranchOut Business Networking Rivals LinkedIn [News]
• Top 3 Websites To Build A Free Resume Online

Has a visual résumé helped you to find work? Would you ever wear your résumé on a t-shirt?  What unique ways have you found work?

However LinkedIn isn’t only good for networking: those who maintain detailed LinkedIn profiles can turn them into informative online resumes to jump start their job search.

There are a few handy tools that will both allow you quickly import your LinkedIn professional summary, help make it look neat and professional and even let you host your resume for free.

Here are a couple of great options:

Resume Builder

Resume Builder is by far the quickest way to turn your LinkedIn profile into a professionally looking, minimalist resume. It was created as part of LinkedIn Labs and the whole process takes no more than a few minutes:

1. Start here and sign into your LinkedIn profile;
2. Look over your professional summary and edit / delete any information you need;
3. Pick a resume template that best suits your style: clean, modern, business, gray, law and more.

Now you can download your resume as PDF, print it, share online (via email, Facebook or Twitter). Note that you will need to set the resume as public to be able to start sharing it.

You can also use the “outline” mode to change the look of your resume: just remove or drag-and-drop the sections you want to change:

2. DoYouBuzz

DoYouBuzz is an excellent and very user-friendly website that lets you quickly build a detailed resume by fetching your professional information from your LinkedIn profile.

It has both free and paid plans (the latter has a few more appealing templates but I never needed them as the free version has proved absolutely complete).

The process is very well organized – you will be surprised how smoothly you are being moved from step to step until you have the resume ready:

1. Sign up for n account and conform your email;
2. Import your LinkedIn profile;
3. Edit / remove any sections that have been fetched from your LinkedIn profile (or add new sections)
4. Choose and customize your template (you can choose a design and then select your own color palette):

As a result you get a free online Linkedin profile resume that you can both link to or download to send to a potential employee:

Privacy settings and notes:

If you care about your privacy, there are a couple of notable things to mention here:

1. Your resume will have “nocache” header tag which will prevent Google from saving it in its cache. This means that your future employees won’t be able to access the resume previous versions and will only be able to see the current one (this is a very smart feature by the way)
2. There are a few privacy settings inside that allow you to hide your resume from public view, exclude it from DoYouBuzz search results or hide it from everyone.

Note: There’s another similar tool called Comoto but it is not that usable.

Are you aware of any other tools that make it easy to re-package your LinkedIn profile and turn it into the detailed resume? Please let us know in the comments!

Image Credit: cc licensed ( BY SD ) flickr photo shared by michaeln3

You may wonder what the difference is between a CV and a resume? The main difference is the length. A resume is a one or two page summary of your education, skills, and experiences. A CV covers more details and is primarily used when applying for jobs in academia, education, science, and research.

A great way to quickly compile a resume and not forget about any details are online tools. This article covers the top 3 websites to create a CV or build a free resume online.

1. CeeVee

Don’t be misled by the name. As I said, the main difference between a CV and a resume is the length. So simply limit yourself to the essential details and this CV builder will create a document that qualifies as a resume.

CeeVee essentially works like editing an online profile. You’re not guided through the process step-by-step, you can fill in the information in any order you please. To customize your document, you can add sections to your resume, remove existing sections, and add as many entries to each section as you like. You can also choose from three different themes, which will affect both the display on the website, as well as the output document.

The resulting CV or resume can be shared online, downloaded as a PDF, or you can print it.

2. Free Resume Creator

This tool isn’t as pretty as CeeVee, but definitely a more advanced way to build a free resume online. Another advantage is that you don’t have to sign up to use it.

You start by selecting your desired resume style. In the next steps you fill in your personal information, education, employment, and any additional information. Before completing the document, you can choose font styles and colors.

The document can be printed or downloaded as PDF, HTML, or plain text. If you would like to save the document online to come back and edit it later, you will have to sign up.

The PCman Website also provides online services to create a cover letter and reference page.

3. Advice Resources CV Builder

This CV or resume builder leaves you with two options. You can either view a list of templates and download any you like or take the step-by-step builder route. Neither requires you to sign up, but to save your CV online, you have to create an account. However, this can wait until you have seen the result.

Building your CV is done in 12 steps. The tool polls for your name, contact details, motivation, work experience, skills, education, additional qualifications, personal interests, referees, and finally your preferred layout. You can then download and check the result as a .rtf document and eventually go back and edit your CV.

As the screenshot above reveals, Advice Resources provide additional material to prepare yourself before building your CV. You can build your job seeking skills, your CV confidence, and your CV knowledge.

Before you send a resume to a potential employer, make sure the service you used to build your resume works as expected and your document is thoroughly formatted and does not contain spelling errors.

For more information regarding resumes, check out the following MakeUseOf articles:

• Build An Impressive Free Resume Online In 15 Minutes With JobSpice by Jessica.
• 3 Less-Known Free Online Resume Builders by Ann.
• Top 5 Free Resume Hosting Websites by Mahendra.

Also have a look at The Riley Guide’s material on Resumes & Cover Letters as well as For Dummies’ The Essentials of Preparing a Resume.

Good luck!

Image credits: sibaudio

If you’re uploading a resume that you created the painful way through Microsoft Word, you’ll also have to go through the hassle of converting your resume to PDF in order to prevent the potential employer from seeing the squiggly red lines in your resume indicating that your last name or your most recent employer’s isn’t grammatically recognized, among other formatting risks. Save yourself all the trouble (and time!) and let Y Combinator-funded JobSpice help you build a free resume online in 15-20 minutes!

As JobSpice is built in the actively developed Javascript library, jQuery, you can definitely expect it to be very speedy and easy to use.

What to Include When You Build a Free Resume Online

Like we said before, once you hop onto JobSpice.com, you can literally get started right away because it shows you four placeholders so you can begin typing your basic contact information. Alternatively, you could try adding the resume sections first and then typing away.

By clicking on Add new section on the left sidebar, you can pick from any of the existing sections (Contact Info, Objective, Education, Coursework, Experience, Achievements, Clubs and Affiliations, Skills, Publications) or add your own (Custom Section). Reorder any of the sections with ease.

Fill the Sections Out

After you’ve chosen your sections, plug in your bits of information. To add multiple entries, click on the green (+) icon; to remove them, click on the red (-) icon instead. Even if you accidentally clicked on the other tabs in JobSpice (e.g. Preview or Styles), your work is saved even if you don’t have a JobSpice account (which only takes about 5 seconds to create since you only need an username and a password; no activation email needed).

Preview in Select Templates (“Styles”)

There’s about a dozen Styles in which you can dress up your resume – see yours in a new style instantly in the Preview tab or browse the rest in the Styles tab. If you’re well-versed in HTML and CSS, press on the blue sticker in Styles to make your own or customize a style for an unique look!

Export As PDF or Save Online to Share with Others/Access Resume From Any Computer

To have your freshly composed resume in your machine, JobSpice will deliver the goodies to you in .PDF format when you press on either Print or PDF, while you can also use Save (for which you’ll need an account that you can create by just providing an username and password) if you want to have a copy online in case you want to send your resume from your non-primary computer. The Share function to create your own shareable link (e.g. jobspice.com/anynameyouwant) or add new link names for different resumes. Whoever gets your link will be able to view and download your resume in PDF format.

Manage Your Links and Change Background Color of Your Resume Page

Now that you have an account, you’ll have the ability to view your resume from any computer and manage your links to different resumes, which you can create in Share, so you’ll have customized resumes for different recipients. Say,  you’re applying to a job for which you think a nicely elaborated Objective would enhance your chances, but you don’t regularly include that section. You can store all of your current and past sections (e.g. Objective, Skills, etc.) with the Show/Hide function.

As JobSpice offers many customization options, you will also have the ability to change the background color of the resume you are sending to others. On the Manage tab you’ll see when you’re logged in, click on the Background Color palette and see the instant change when you click on the link above the palette. Here is a quick demo of the results.

If you’re having any trouble or have questions on any functions, try tweeting your question to @jobspice. When I expressed a problem that I had with one of the new features i.e. changing the background color, JobSpice staff fixed my problem within 10 minutes.

As you can see here, JobSpice makes the process of building a free resume online a lot more fun and makes a great update to other resume-hosting websites, and template-gifting sites. Let us know in the comments if you have tried or plan to use the service!

Using Google AdWords, you may find out the global monthly search volume for your name or relevant keywords that are being searched together with your name. However, it doesn’t tell you anything about the person Googling you.

And how do you know whether it’s really you they are looking for?

The truth is you can’t legally find out exactly who is using a search engine to look up information about you. However, you can find out when and where someone is searching for you. To obtain this information, you have to set up a trap. In other words, let yourself be found. Here, I’ll introduce 3 sites that will help you find out when someone is searching for you online.

All of these sites work by placing your profile high up in search engine results. So your respective profile will be one of the first hits people will see when searching for your name. And once someone clicks through, you will receive an eMail alert. Their IP address will reveal where the search originated from and the search term they used may tell you who they are or why they are looking for you.

Ziggs

At Ziggs, you can set up a full profile and market yourself. You can share your biography, write about your background, and upload your resume. After some time, your profile will be indexed by search engines and people will find you.

Once someone clicks the link to your profile, you will receive an eMail alert. The eMail will tell you when your profile was searched, where the search originated from (based on IP address), and which keywords were used to find you.

Another page quite similar to LinkedIn and Ziggs, which will alert you when your profile is being viewed, is Naymz.

WikiWorldBook

WikiWorldBook works very similar to Ziggs. The difference is that it’s really just an online address book. You can choose to hide all your contact details and let them contact you through WikiWorldBook only. People searching for you can still get in touch with you very easily, without signing up.

You can enter an array of contact information, social links, and a few details about yourself. You can also fetch a contact button from their site and place it onto your website or social profile. If someone sends you a message through WikiWorldBook, it will be forwarded to your eMail address.

Here is a short video demonstrating how it works:

Academia.edu

This site is targeted towards people who work in research and/or academia.

It not only allows you to find people with similar research interests and keep track of the latest developments in your research area, you can also set up your own profile and be notified once someone views it.

Besides writing about yourself and defining your research interests, you can upload your publications, review papers or books you have read, and update your status. A category called Keywords lists all the search queries that were used to find your profile.

So, did you Google your name and find weird results? Don’t feel safe just because you only found someone who carries your name. They could still ruin your reputation. Also, if a potential employer cannot find you on Google at all, it may not be to your advantage!

If you’re worried about your online reputation, do something about it. The following two articles will show you how:

John McClain showed How To Control Search Engine Top Rankings for Your Name and I explained How To Maintain a Professional Profile Online.

What are your biggest online sins that Google may reveal?

Image credit: cobrasoft

So, you can use all the help you can get. I am going to show you a few sites where you can grab free downloadable resume templates. Some of the templates are in PDF format and some of them are in Word format.

The first thing you should do is grab an old copy of your resumé or a list of your past jobs and accomplishments.

That will help you immensely when you need to replace the generic information with your own.

The first site I found has very generic templates that will allow you to totally customize the resumé. This is just for the formatting, there is little to no content that you will be able to use.

These are called Blank Resumé Templates and can be found here: http://www.professional-resume-example.com/free-blank-resume-template.html

They offer three types of resumé templates and they are Chronological format, Functional Format and Combination. We will show you each of them here with a link to their respective PDFs

This is the plain Jane old school format. Still expected by older companies and should not exceed one page. The next up is a variation on the classic resumé and called the Functional resumé seen below:

And then there is the combination of the both of them:

And next up, we have http://www.collegegrad.com/ with their resumé section located at http://www.collegegrad.com/resumes/quickstart. The difference between these two sites is that Collegegrad breaks up their resumés by major. So, you can find a more specific resumé geared towards you to customize. I choose computer science and got this: http://www.collegegrad.com/resumes/quickstart/compsci.doc

And last but not least, http://www.easyjob.net has free downloadable resumé templates broken down in 3 categories:

And best of all ““ all this information is FREE! Between this site and browsing other people’s resumés on Monster.com, Hotjobs.com or any of the other popular job seeking sites you can customize your resumé and make it pop! Remember a direct cover letter is just as important as a great resume!

Do you have a favorite free resume template website? Maybe you have some other job seeking tips? Well, if you do, leave them in the comments!

There are dozens of resume building websites offering a combination of free and paid services. Many sites have excellent resume building tools, a wide variety of templates and formatting options,  but do not allow you to host your resume with a personalized URL for free. From this crowd, we have distilled those sites that allow you to host your online resumes for free.

EMurse

This site allows you to create your resume in sections, and choose a design from many different templates. The resumes are suited for more conventional formats. The exclusive feature of this site is that you can publicize one URL for your resume from where employers can download your resume in various formats such as DOC, PDF, RTF, etc. Read more about EMurse in our previous coverage here.

Visual CV

Visual CV allows you to create multiple online resumes easily, with a variety of different templates. You can directly import your LinkedIn profile to jump-start resume creation, and easily incorporate multimedia elements in your portfolio. Read more about Visual CV in our previous coverage here.

Lead You

This site is geared towards artists and other creative professionals looking for a snazzy online resume. It has a wide variety of templates, and allows you to attach documents, presentations, video and audio clips to your portfolio.

How To Write A Resume.Net

This is a clean site with simple resume building tools. The unique feature of this site is the ‘Headline Helper’, which allows you to tweak the Objective/Summary sections of your resume.

If you are stuck for words, this is a great tool. The free option allows only the basic template and HTML/text download, other options require a membership.

My Resume Online

For those looking for a minimalist Google-like interface, My Resume Online offers a barebones but fully functional and free solution. You can attach your photo, MS Office documents (including Access databases), PDF, and GIF/JPG images to your resume.

The site also gives you monthly visitor stats, and your resume is accessible via multiple URLs like www.myresumeonline.org/yourname and www.mycvonline.org/yourname. Unfortunately, there are no templates to choose from, though the built-in template looks clean.

Are there any sites we have missed? Let us know your favorite resume hosting sites in the comments!