Analyzing your resume as a word cloud is a nifty idea by @Tagxedo. So are the only limited by the imagination things you can do with with the entertaining color palettes, shapes, fonts and other options Hardy Leung has cleverly developed into a wordsmith’s playground.

I was so captivated by Tagxedo today, that I spent a few hours spinning words, colors and shapes into mentally stimulating confections – when I really should have been writing my annual self performance review. Leung’s presentation, 101 Ways to Use Tagxedo promised that using a tool like this would allow me to view my resume from a different perspective, gain instant feedback on the use of keywords, tone and focus of how I have presented my accomplishments. When he said that a simple “scanbot” test would be a good approximation of what recruiters will see, I had to check it out.

Leung is right of course when he says, “If you are not impressed by the top words, neither will be recruiters”. Today that would probably be after the ATS chews them up and spits them out. It’s important to have a look at the weight of your keywords and how they are distributed. Tagxedo shows you the top 150 (or whatever parameter you set) keywords you use and how many times they appear in the document. One thing I learned about myself was that I overused the word “include” in my résumé and that gave me the opportunity to replace it with some synonyms.. The last thing I want is to sound like a broken record!

I chose a hand from the 100 shapes available (though you can customize by uploading your own shapes) to visualize my resume as a tag cloud. I thought a hand print was the perfect fit for a unique career that hasn’t possibly been identical to anyone else’s.

If a candidate submitted an image of what I’m calling a “tag résumé” to me in the body of an email – if the competencies matched what I was looking for, I would call her for the details…

If this were turned into a QR code, printed on my business card and attached as an image to my Vcard, anyone who scanned it would have a very simple – yet comprehensive snapshot of my professional world.

Is this the future?

Tagxedo Break the Ice was my second favorite use for this application. Make a gorgeous word cloud for new hires, party guests, new students, etc., as a brief introduction about you, your company, class, etc. Print it on invitations or announcements! – I better stop, I could go crazy here.

If nothing else this makes an awesome poster… but feel free to send the my tag résumé image to anyone you like as an ecard – maybe I’ll be “discovered”.