So you’ve created your visual resume with one click and customized your colors and theme. Before you call it a day, you might want to tweak your LinkedIn page to get the most out of your Vizualize.me profile.

1) Be selective about what experience you list

One of the main benefits of a LinkedIn page is that you don’t have to limit yourself to one page, unlike a resume. You can actually list as many jobs and internships as you want. However, you might still want to be a little more selective and choose only the most significant parts of your experience. Not only will your Vizualize.me experience chart look less cluttered, your visual resume will appear more focused and be easier to read.

2) Avoid gaps in employment history

Like with a traditional resume, you want to avoid huge gaps in you experience timeline. But it’s way more obvious when it’s visualized! Edit your experience in LinkedIn so that you don’t have a big empty space in the middle of your chart.

3) Your education chart needs more than one column

This is my extremely sad education visualization. Either add in other education you have received in your LinkedIn profile, or select a Vizualize.me theme that lumps education in with your experience (themes "Lola" or "CMYKay" are best for this).

4) Connect with more people on LinkedIn

Be proactive and start searching for old classmates, coworkers, and friends to connect with. Not only is this something you should do to help yourself and your career, your Vizualize.me stats will look better. Who wants to hire someone who looks like they could only find five people to connect with?

 5) You don’t have to show every single recommendation.

If you’ve received a lot of recommendations (good for you!), less is more when it comes to your Vizualize.me resume. After all, you’ve decided to go with a visual resume because you want less writing and clutter, amiright? Manage your recommendations and select to show only the ones that really count.

6) Finish your LinkedIn profile

Don’t be lazy. Fill out sections such as skills, interests, volunteer experience, etc. The more comprehensive your LinkedIn profile is, the better your visual resume captures who you are.

BONUS:

Show me your stats

This one you’ll have to do on Vizualize.me and not LinkedIn. Add some custom data to the "My Stats" section of your visual resume. Quantifying your accomplishments with impressive stats (such as sales made, or budget managed) can help you stand out.

You’ve read a lot of career advice telling you to start a blog. With promises of becoming famous in your industry, employers scrambling to hire you, or being able to quit your job and blog full-time, it sounds like the key to success, right? The truth is that if you were one of the pioneers back when the platform was new, you might have had a better chance of becoming a social media star. Everyone and their mother has a blog these days. Not everyone is going to be able to launch a crazy successful blog. And it’s probably not going to be you (sorry).

The good news is I’m still here to tell you that blogging is a good move, just not for the sensational reasons you’ve been sold on. You don’t have to be a social media star or “thought leader” to do great things for you and you career. Here are five very real and practical reasons to start blogging.

1.  It’s a great addition to your job application

 The job market is slowly getting better but you’re still competing against many, often over-qualified, people for a position. Sending a link to your blog as part of your application may set you apart:

• You can use it as evidence of your skills, may it be writing, design, photography or analytic thinking.
• It’s a great way to show your industry knowledge and expertise, which is especially helpful if you’re changing industries or haven’t been in an industry for a while.
• The fact that you took the initiative to blog in your spare time is also a good indicator to prospective employers that you are self-motivated and passionate.

2.  It’s great for building your network and strengthening relationships

You can meet all kinds of new people both online and offline, like other bloggers or your readers. You’d be surprised what a blog can do for your existing relationships too, especially with acquaintances. Writing a thought-provoking post makes you so much more interesting—an opportunity to strengthen bonds with people you previously didn’t speak with much. And of course, the more people you talk to, the more opportunities you will have in life.

3.  Creating content keeps you sharp 

When you become a blogger, you subconsciously always brainstorm ideas for posts which helps you think more analytically and stay inspired. If you blog frequently (which you should be), you’ll also be getting plenty of practice with your writing/design/video editing/etc., and you’ll really sharpen those skills.

4.  It’s a productive use of your time  

If you are stuck in an easy job that doesn’t challenge you, or don’t do anything meaningful with your weeknights or weekends, blogging is a much better use of your time. You’ll feel great about being productive and thinking about issues that are important to you, rather than creeping on Facebook or watching “Friends” reruns out of boredom. 

5.  It can make your day

At the end of the day, life is too short to spend time on things you don’t enjoy.  But unless you hate blogging, chances are that creating content about topics you care about and getting your opinions heard won’t feel like work.  And if the benefits of improving your career, building relationships, staying sharp, and using your time productively doesn’t make you feel good about yourself, I don’t know what will!

We would like to wish you a Happy and Prosperous New Year. Thank you for your support, help and feedback this year. It has been a phenomenal year for us - we built a great team, launched an incredible product and grew to over 200k users with over half a million monthly pageviews. We have big plans for 2012 and we can't wait to show you what we've been cooking!

Best wishes

The Vizualize.me team

Vizualize.me has partnered up with resumeshirts.com to offer you personalized shirts with your skills and experience. It's the perfect way to market yourself and tell the world just how awesome you are. Resume shirts also make the perfect holiday gift for the job seekers in your life! Check out the Vizualize.me Store and get your customized shirt. 

The LinkedIn Blog posted an updated analysis of the most overused buzzwords in our profiles. We can't be that 'creative' if we're all using the same word to describe ourselves! (Yes, I am guilty of using some of these buzzwords too.)

1. Keep tabs on organizations you follow: You should already be following organizations you’d like to work for on Twitter, as well as individuals who work there. Don’t forget to scan through their tweets on a regular basis. They may tweet about openings that haven’t been posted on sites like Monster yet.
2. Use TwitJobSearch: TwitJobSearch, a job search engine for Twitter, is a great tool for looking through leads on Twitter. It’s super easy to use—just search relevant keywords and TwitJobSearch will only display job postings on Twitter.
3. Use advanced Twitter search: You could type in keywords or hashtags related to your job search in the Twitter search bar, but you could end up wading through a lot of unrelated tweets too. For a more effective way to search Twitter, watch this awesome video from Mashable and learn how to use advanced Twitter search to find a job:

Ladies and gentlemen, we need your votes! We've put visual resumes together for the ultimate faceoff: The Office's David Brent (UK) and Michael Scott (US). Click on the thumbnails below to check out their Vizualize.me resumes and decide who is the biggest asshole boss of them all:

(download)

Click here to download:

the-office-s-david-brent-vs-michael-scott-who-is-the-bigger-douchebag-oHpmJbpaklmihuzilyks.zip (195 KB)

[Image: Flickr user: Search Engine People Blog]

Like offline networking, relationships take time and effort. It’s not enough to just follow organizations you want to work at on Twitter and hope someone notices you. Be proactive and start building connections with people you'd like to meet. Don't open with “can you find me a job?” Instead, think about what you can offer them.

1.     Retweeting: Not ready to actually talk? Retweeting is the easiest way to reach out to someone on Twitter. It says “hey, I’m actually paying attention and care about what you have to say”. Rather than clicking the Retweet button, you may want to RT it with your own comment or question, increasing the likelihood of the other person responding to you.

2.     Compliments: Everyone loves a compliment. “I absolutely loved your eBook” or “Good job on revamping your website” is a great place to start a conversation.

3.     Respond to their tweets: This is another great way to put yourself on someone’s radar. Respond to their questions or comments. The more helpful or smarter you sound, the better.

4.     Take it offline: Once you’ve built a solid connection on Twitter, try take your relationship offline if you’re in the same geographic area. The best way is to let them know you’re attending the tweetup they’re organizing or the conference they’re speaking at. Asking a tweep to meet you for lunch may be too forward—use your judgment to decide whether that’s appropriate or not.

5.     Look out for openings: Now that you’re following your favorite organizations, stay on top of their updates. They’ll likely tweet about job openings before they reach public job boards. You’ll have an advantage if you’ve already established a relationship with them. 

6.     Leverage your network: You’ve built a nice little network—start leveraging it. If you’re not job hunting in secret, why not put it out there that you’re looking for work? Ask your followers for tips or advice. Not only is it a great way to come up with great ideas, you’ll be starting conversations with your followers. Just remember to be respectful and don’t flood their feeds with pleas for work. You don't want to sound desperate.

How do you network on Twitter? Has Twitter ever helped you find a job? Please share!

[Image: Flickr user Toni Blay]

Director of business development and co-founder of Wanderfly, Cezary Pietrzak, wrote a post for Fast Company's Member Blog on How To Discover Amazing Talent For Your Startup. Whether you're an entrepreneur looking to hire, or someone who wishes to get a job at a startup, Pietrzak's post has some great insight into what are the important traits of successful entrepreneur.

Do you have what it takes to thrive at a startup?