I tried it out - very nice work! I really like the design of the landing page. A few comments...
LinkedIn doesn't seem like a great reason to "Go Pro" since I've likely already copied all of my info from LinkedIn just to try it out in the first place. However, the other features, such as analytics and additional templates are awesome additions that I might want after I try it. If I were you, I would seriously consider baking in LinkedIn support to lower the friction for new users and then upsell them with the other features.
You should allow creation of the resume in smaller chunks and save as you go. I get very nervous when I have to type more than a few sentences in an unsaved document.
I don't really need a big description box for every skill I want to list. Actually, I'd rather just list them all (LinkedIn does this).
My profile page says "Howdy Trevor.rundell", which I assume it pulled off my email address. You should just pull my first and last name off of my resume instead.
You should definitely allow users to create their own short URL (/r/trun is a lot better than /r/bejeya). Maybe this is a Pro feature.
> You should allow creation of the resume in smaller chunks and save as you go. I get very nervous when I have to type more than a few sentences in an unsaved document.
This. I avoid web editors like the plague, unless I know with certainty that they have no-reload auto-save.
You could also add (at the pro tier) the functionality to generate custom URLs for a resume that contain a tracking string, and then send email alerts or something like that when that version of the resume is viewed. Simple analytics of "your 'HN posted' resume was read at this time from this IP" would be a huge value-add to justify the pro cost.
(To be clear, I meant to do this without having to create a bunch of different copies of the resume, though it's not really that huge of a difference, I suppose. The email notifications would be a nice touch, though.)
I am always excited to see similar ideas executed as well as this. Currently, I am also working on a resume builder web app like this but with the tracking features you just mentioned as a core feature. However, it's not yet ready for prime time. Drop me a message if you are interested to check it out.
I read the T&C page but didn't see any words that promised that my resume remains private and protected, under my control to share and display. Did I miss something? Actually it looks like from the T&C page that any resume entered becomes your property to do pretty much anything with. This doesn't encourage me to use your site, I'm afraid.
Here's what I like:
1. Simple to use.
2. Easy on the eyes.
3. Actually useful app & it solves real problem.
4. Like go-pro page copy and how you place it under my resumes so it's always visible.
Do-better's IMO:
1. No way to contact you.
2. I'd make the "go-pro" button the same as "your resumes" & "sign out" but different bgcolor to stand out.
3. Filling just personal details & saving gives 500 error when viewing resume.
4. $9.99 is one-time or recurring?
5. No way to share my resume (no social/web2.0 buttons)
Keep pushing, don't give up!
EDIT: Just saw social buttons on the left... Wide monitor & it was out of my sight...
Thanks for the feedback.
1. My email id is on the FAQ page, but I'll add a link to the footer shortly.
2. I decided to go with Paypal's default button because I felt that it will more more easily recognizable.
3. I guess you are getting the 500 error because you have not added any employment/education details. I will look into it shortly.
4. It is a one-time payment. I have just updated the text to clarify it.
I was scanning to see if anyone had already said it. Agree with all of the do-betters. #4, whether the charge is one-time or recurring is the most important to me and takes just a tiny edit.
I had to scroll to the bottom of the page to find the small link to preview the templates. Before I sign up for something, I would want a better idea of what it was I was signing up for.
You may want to make the Preview Templates link a little more prominent.
Actually I couldn't even find the link even after reading your post. I'm on an iPhone and that might have something to do with it, but still needs to be more visible.
This is quite interesting... but can I suggest you try to sell why you'd want to go Pro? There's a button that says "Go Pro", but there's nothing that explains what extra features I'd get with an upgrade.
Buddhist monks and the pursuit of a career are to me a weird match, but an inversion of values is not an uncommon marketing approach. As for the design: it's not consistent enough just yet, do you know what you want? Right now you're mixing smooth and pixelated in a weird way. The font for "Get started with your resume" clashes with the enormous Open Sans.
Thanks for your inputs. I just wanted to get the first version up and running quickly so I believe that I still need to fix a lot of things.
I will definitely pay more attention to the consistency and the overall look and feel of the design in the next iteration.
Nice App.
But adding a Buddhist monk is very bad. You can't do that. It's shame.
You may not be an Buddhist. But for us this is like jesus as my mascot.
This is shameless marketing you are trying to do with insulting a religion.
I don't like to discuss here something like this. But this is bad.
I don't see how taking someone as a mascot is insulting to that person. It's not even a depiction of Siddhartha Gautama, anyway -- it'd be more analogous to a picture of a Dominican monk than of Jesus.
Besides, the Buddha was a very smart guy, and much-admired, but that doesn't mean his image need be jealously guarded. I don't see the harm in a little irreverence -- if anything, light-hearted treatment of idols serves as a helpful reminder that nothing should be taken too seriously... can you explain why, in this case, it provoked the reaction in you that it did?
Are buddhists sensitive about imagery? Somehow I don't think buddha would be upset over images of himself - why should he be? As for other monks, why should they be? Why should an image be considered an insult?
If he had used the image of a Christian monk, that would have been fine with the vast majority of people. In general, a cartoon impression of a monk is not considered insulting, nor is it considered bad taste[1]. The image is used to associate the service with all that is considered 'good' about monks. As this reminds people that monks are generally seen as 'good' people, this in turn benefits the view people have of the religion in question.
If the net effect of him using this image is that people are favourably reminded of Buddhism, isn't that a good thing?
[1] Consider the number of hotels, restaurants, cafes and bars named after monks (/friars/priests/popes/apostles/...)
Great idea and execution! The Go Pro option to autofill LinkedIn seems very odd. When a user is completing a crucial first step, such as filling out the necessary resume info, you should make that process as simple as possible, such as using LinkedIn info, even if it means free. I came to the predicament early on and decided between going pro and not completing the fields at all. I think you're going to lose a lot of people at this point. Instead going pro should be for versions (word/pdf) and analytics after the fact, when the user already has a great impression of the service and has already received the minimum level of satisfaction to continue using it.
Feel free to check out what worked for me and contact me if you'd like to have a conversation about the subject. Perhaps a portfolio builder could be your next project. I've spent a ton of time going over the subject and my current implementation is just one of many iterations.
You did a good job with the landing page. Mind sharing how you got it done? Ie. how did you go about finding a designer, have you written design briefs before, etc.
I think the Pro and free version should be reversed. Curious people who want to try it out and get their resume up and running and seconds could just import from linkedIn. Pro users who want to fuss over the details should pay the $10.
How it is now doesn't make much sense. I'm not going to pay the $10 until I see it in action. And if I input all the info myself, then by that point I won't need to import from linkedIn.
Super cool! A few thoughts, in addition to everyone else's:
1. When I try to preview the HTML, I get a 500 error! ("We're sorry, but something went wrong")
2. Possibly do a better job telling us which fields are required. For example, I had to click the "save" button before finding out that my address was a required field.
Your application is much better though. I used prawn as opposed to wicked_pdf to generate the PDFs. Did you do any handling of content spilling over onto multiple pages?
This looks really interesting and something I have been wanting to find for a while. However, I broke it - if you don't fill in education or employment details generating the resume gives a 500 error.
Stuff like that makes me a bit nervous in giving my details to your site, what other errors and issues are there that might leak them to a 3rd party?
[+] [-] trun|14 years ago|reply
LinkedIn doesn't seem like a great reason to "Go Pro" since I've likely already copied all of my info from LinkedIn just to try it out in the first place. However, the other features, such as analytics and additional templates are awesome additions that I might want after I try it. If I were you, I would seriously consider baking in LinkedIn support to lower the friction for new users and then upsell them with the other features.
You should allow creation of the resume in smaller chunks and save as you go. I get very nervous when I have to type more than a few sentences in an unsaved document.
I don't really need a big description box for every skill I want to list. Actually, I'd rather just list them all (LinkedIn does this).
My profile page says "Howdy Trevor.rundell", which I assume it pulled off my email address. You should just pull my first and last name off of my resume instead.
You should definitely allow users to create their own short URL (/r/trun is a lot better than /r/bejeya). Maybe this is a Pro feature.
[+] [-] SeoxyS|14 years ago|reply
This. I avoid web editors like the plague, unless I know with certainty that they have no-reload auto-save.
[+] [-] jhandl|14 years ago|reply
[+] [-] gergles|14 years ago|reply
(To be clear, I meant to do this without having to create a bunch of different copies of the resume, though it's not really that huge of a difference, I suppose. The email notifications would be a nice touch, though.)
[+] [-] wolfram|14 years ago|reply
[+] [-] dm1222e|14 years ago|reply
[+] [-] damir|14 years ago|reply
Do-better's IMO: 1. No way to contact you. 2. I'd make the "go-pro" button the same as "your resumes" & "sign out" but different bgcolor to stand out. 3. Filling just personal details & saving gives 500 error when viewing resume. 4. $9.99 is one-time or recurring? 5. No way to share my resume (no social/web2.0 buttons)
Keep pushing, don't give up!
EDIT: Just saw social buttons on the left... Wide monitor & it was out of my sight...
[+] [-] bharani_m|14 years ago|reply
[+] [-] evoxed|14 years ago|reply
[+] [-] dotmartyr|14 years ago|reply
"Check out the PRO version, we are sure that you'll love it."
The fact that you don't contract "we are" and then later in the clause contract you will to "you'll" sounds weird.
Also, you may just want to rewrite that whole bit. It comes out like a ShamWoW ad or something..
[+] [-] Casseres|14 years ago|reply
You may want to make the Preview Templates link a little more prominent.
[+] [-] winkerVSbecks|14 years ago|reply
[+] [-] chris_wot|14 years ago|reply
[+] [-] bharani_m|14 years ago|reply
[+] [-] BasDirks|14 years ago|reply
[+] [-] bharani_m|14 years ago|reply
[+] [-] arunoda|14 years ago|reply
I don't like to discuss here something like this. But this is bad.
[+] [-] iamdave|14 years ago|reply
....what? Excuse me for coming off as blunt here, but are you actually Buddhist?
[+] [-] EvilTerran|14 years ago|reply
Besides, the Buddha was a very smart guy, and much-admired, but that doesn't mean his image need be jealously guarded. I don't see the harm in a little irreverence -- if anything, light-hearted treatment of idols serves as a helpful reminder that nothing should be taken too seriously... can you explain why, in this case, it provoked the reaction in you that it did?
[+] [-] Empact|14 years ago|reply
[+] [-] Confusion|14 years ago|reply
If the net effect of him using this image is that people are favourably reminded of Buddhism, isn't that a good thing?
[1] Consider the number of hotels, restaurants, cafes and bars named after monks (/friars/priests/popes/apostles/...)
[+] [-] orky56|14 years ago|reply
Here's my online resume/portfolio: http://www.ideaember.com/resume & http://www.ideaember.com/portfolio I use piwik (http://piwik.org/) for analytics on it.
Feel free to check out what worked for me and contact me if you'd like to have a conversation about the subject. Perhaps a portfolio builder could be your next project. I've spent a ton of time going over the subject and my current implementation is just one of many iterations.
[+] [-] jmitcheson|14 years ago|reply
[+] [-] bharani_m|14 years ago|reply
[+] [-] jonny_eh|14 years ago|reply
How it is now doesn't make much sense. I'm not going to pay the $10 until I see it in action. And if I input all the info myself, then by that point I won't need to import from linkedIn.
[+] [-] tjoff|14 years ago|reply
[+] [-] memset|14 years ago|reply
1. When I try to preview the HTML, I get a 500 error! ("We're sorry, but something went wrong")
2. Possibly do a better job telling us which fields are required. For example, I had to click the "save" button before finding out that my address was a required field.
3. The URLs are generally pretty and intuitive - thanks for that. http://www.resumonk.com/users/9999-username/ shows me a list of my resumes. Nitpick: http://www.resumonk.com/users/9999-username/resumes gives me a 404, maybe make that a listing page, or something? http://www.resumonk.com/users/9999-username/resumes/123.html is fine, though "123.html" is not a "pretty" url. Room for improvement there?
At any rate, this is really very well designed. Cool!
[+] [-] mfieldhouse|14 years ago|reply
[+] [-] chris_wot|14 years ago|reply
Love the Robert Frost poem, btw.
[+] [-] lancashire|14 years ago|reply
http://cvlift.co.uk
Your application is much better though. I used prawn as opposed to wicked_pdf to generate the PDFs. Did you do any handling of content spilling over onto multiple pages?
[+] [-] sondh|14 years ago|reply
[+] [-] bharani_m|14 years ago|reply
[+] [-] jimmytucson|14 years ago|reply
I had an idea for a site exactly like this except I couldn't have executed it as well and I gave up after I saw these: http://startupstats.com/resume-builder-startups-2012-03/
I regret that decision now that I've tried yours.
[+] [-] tokyotribe|14 years ago|reply
[+] [-] Orf_|14 years ago|reply
Stuff like that makes me a bit nervous in giving my details to your site, what other errors and issues are there that might leak them to a 3rd party?
[+] [-] armenarmen|14 years ago|reply
[+] [-] happypeter|14 years ago|reply
Very Often, it depends heavily on what language you use, java, php, ruby, python...? I love Ruby on Rails.