Tableau Visual Resume Templates
I had an opportunity last week to work with the tableau academic programs team to be part of a summer camp for students aimed at teaching them the basics of visual analytics, storytelling, and working with tableau. It was an incredible opportunity for students to hear from a couple of tableau zen masters, Carl Allchin and Jim Dehner on careers in data and how Tableau can be used to uncover insights and communicate analysis.
My job was to help students apply what they had learned earlier in the week to their own data, ultimately crafting their very own visual resume in Tableau.
Taking it one step further, I wanted to ‘lower-the-bar’ for students by providing them a head start in the form of visual resume templates that they could use to very easily drag and drop their own visual components onto, to more quickly arrive at a finished product/resume.
Benefits of a Visual CV/Resume
The benefits of a visual cv, particularly for those of us who find ourselves in digital design-related industry are well discussed and don’t need to be repeated in detail here, but for those of us working specifically in tableau or involved in data storytelling using other mediums, there are some benefits that I think are worth emphasizing.
It provides an opportunity to simultaneously showcase your creativity and your skill
A visual CV shows that you are skilled enough at using tableau to produce a high-quality visual resume worthy of being used in an application process. It showcases your skills that you will need on the job.
It allows you to more vividly convey who you are as and person, and ‘humanize’ your job application
While remote work and digital transformations aimed at leveraging tech and AI are increasing trends, so are workplace cultures that seek to value their employees as human beings and not just ‘producers’. A visual CV that communicates who you are as a person, and not just a job applicant allows you to encourage and amplify a culture of authenticity and openness.
It shows you ‘practice what you preach’
Data Visualization reduces time to comprehension and insight when compared with lines of text or tables. Improving the time to insight is the value we add in our field, it should also be the value we add to our CV.
The Templates…
How To Use The Templates
Jeff Plattner documented how to use and apply Tableau dashboard templates a couple of weeks ago. Same guidance applies here.
More theoretically, the hope is that these templates would not simply be ‘plug and play’ but that they could be used as a starting point for your own personalized designs. Thus, feel free to take and use these, adding in your own custom design elements, font-choices and color palettes.
The value here then is that these templates are intended to give you a ‘head-start’ by simplifying the process of
Identifying and prioritizing your resume content
Organizing that content into a cohesive, comprehensive summary
Down-selecting design components (font, color, layout, etc.)
If you post to tableau public using one of these templates or some variation of it, give me a mention (@thecfelix), as I’d love to see what you’ve done.
