Graphic Courtesy of SlideRocket

Creativity and thinking outside the box are often qualities that employers are looking for and with a traditional resume. Showing these two traits can be a tough thing to do. The infographic resume talked about in the previous column is a great way to display these traits. However, the most creative and by far the most interactive is with the presentation resume.

A presentation resume is basically a resume given in presentation format, as the name suggests. Users can put any information from their resume that they’d like and then use the presentation resume to illustrate it. The other great thing about a presentation resume is that it allows its users to add in graphs, statistics and other forms of analytics that they normally wouldn’t be able to give to the prospective employer.

“People are always looking for new ideas and for job seekers. This is a great way to get noticed,” career experience counselor Aleta Wolfe said. “It causes them to spend more than, let’s say, 50 seconds on your application.”

Websites like Prezi, a cloud-computing presentation website that allows users of its service to zoom in and out of their presentations to make it more interactive would be great to create a presentation resume on. There are even websites like SlideRocket whose only purpose is for the creation of presentation resumes. SlideRocket also makes it easy for its clients to customize and cater the presentation resume to the clients’ needs. SlideRocket also gives the user analytics so they know who and how many people have viewed their presentation resume.

“I think [presentation resumes] are very interesting,” Wolfe said. “It would take a very talented person to put one together. There would definitely be a learning curve and probably wouldn’t be easy.”

Learning to utilize one of these would be extremely beneficial, however. It is another thing that can be added along with a person’s resume, cover letter and application.

“It would be a good supplemental tool to use in addition to the traditional methods, for sure,” Wolfe said. “It is another great way to reach a person.”

One problem with presentation resumes, however, is that they can’t be uploaded to most automated human resources systems.

“Their biggest obstacle is that they get passed through resume scanners. You just can’t use them in every situation,” Wolfe said.

A positive aspect is they can be linked to social media sites such as Facebook, Twitter and LinkedIn, giving users a quick and direct way to connect with possible employers. This allows the prospective employer to view the presentation.

In a world that’s leaning more and more toward technology, presentation resumes are a great way to show you’re a trendsetter and up with modern times.