Color me Successful

Over the past month, my friends have been busy preparing themselves for career fairs, interviews, and other professional settings. I have watched them scramble to put together a presentable resume, portfolio, and prepare their social media properly. While working at LACD, I have learned the importance of having these things always ready: you don’t know who you will run into and when. Needless to say, my friends were having me proofread their resumes and I found them to be bland, basic, and boring. If this is what I am thinking, imagine what a recruiter would think while going through the never ending stack acquired over time.

The necessary changes that would’ve spruced up the resumes are a dash of color, personality, or design. I understand that not everyone is studying in Liberal Arts or they don’t feel comfortable taking that risk, but I am ready to take the risk and to create a resume that reflects my personality. If an employer doesn’t support creativity, then I don’t want to work for that employer! Here are some tips and ideas on how to get a personal color brand started for your portfolio, resume, and business cards.

• Select a color you can own: Color associations increase brand recognition and build brand equity. That distinctive blue box with a white ribbon announces there’s no ordinary bauble inside, but a Tiffany & Co. bauble. Colors mean something. Take the time to research colors and find a unique color that reflects your professional personality.
• Understand cultural significance: Because color connotations vary greatly among cultures you must be aware of positive and negative associations. In China green is used for stop while red means go because red is the national symbol of communism. Chinese brides wear red to symbolize fertility, whereas in the United States a white wedding gown symbolizes purity, the color of death and mourning in many Asian cultures.
• Consistency is king: Whether print, pixel or paint; on paper, screen or fabric, your palette should be consistent. Your logo should appear the same color on your business card as it does on your resume, portfolio, and other details. Take this seriously, but don’t over do the color scheme. I don’t suggest printing a resume on red paper, wearing a red suit, and handing over a red business card. This situation calls for a code red. Try to be subtle.
• Once you own it, really own it: Protecting a distinctive color is as important as protecting your logo, slogan, or other visual elements of your brand identity. Use this color to your advantage… make it your own. I didn’t see ONE resume with any personality, so if you try this color branding technique, you will stand out above the others.

Color won’t save you from having bad content on your resume, or from being a bad interviewer. Color will save you from being just another applicant, another face, or another boring resume. Don’t be fools: have your resume, portfolio, business plan, social media, and elevator speech prepared at all times. This is not a game, friends, this is the future.

By: Janna Parke

Take a look at this infograph regarding color choice! 

These tips were found in this article. This blog has a lot of great facts, figures, and information regarding color choices!
http://biznik.com/articles/color-yourself-successful