Being a web developer, with a strong focus on CSS, I chose to make the CV relevant by writing it as (obviously made-up/invalid) CSS.

Initially I actually just wrote everything out in one giant <pre> with <span>s just for colouring in, a little like this:

<pre>
/*------------------------------------*\
    PERSONAL
\*------------------------------------*/
#me{
    name:"Harry Roberts", Harry;
    age:21years;
}
...
...
</pre>

So far in I thought that that seemed a little too easy/lazy, and it also came with the massive issue of not being semantic, meaningful or just plain proper markup. A CV is a series of headings and lists, not a single block of preformatted text.

I got to work rewriting, refactoring and tidying and marked it all up properly, and moved any braces, comments and quotes etc out of the HTML and into the CSS making massive use of the content:; property.

The resulting document is a semantically sound, properly marked up CV that is transformed into a CSSesque appearance using, well, CSS.

CSS is so humbly powerful…

So, what does anyone think? Good idea? Too novelty? Seen any other cool developer CVs?

N.B. it may be worth noting that even though I’ve updated my CV, I’m not looking for a new job.

I’d love any feedback regarding design and content, and special thanks goes to Bryan, Dan and Suze. You can poke through the source on GitHub.

Me

[…] Certainly on the meanness font [typo of front]

Suze

Haha, typography on the brain?

Me

Em, maybe, yeah… [typo of erm]

Suze

Em, who’s she? ;)

Me

It was another pun, as in ‘em dash’. You obviously didn’t get it though, it’s like your humour has slipped into a comma…

Suze

Hahaha, that is terrible!

Me

[…] I can’t wait tilde dinner later on!

Suze

I kern’t wait either!

And on that note, I think Suze won with ‘kern’. Bless her ;)

“I think it’s just another place where the more famous designers just pat each other on the back, regardless of what they actually produce.
It’s too elitist and the more known designers only follow each other, leaving less known people following them but their own work barely been seen. This in turn fuels the cycle—the famous get more so, while the more humble designers go unnoticed. I am seriously unimpressed with Dribbble”

So, if you’re really really wanting a Dribbble invite, don’t worry; you’re not missing much.

While I have written several resources in my spare time, and thoroughly enjoyed each, they are very time consuming. The exposure and nice comments they bring are great, but sometimes it’s hard to keep on putting in hours and hours of work in exchange for a pat on the back—that’s why so few people actually take the time to do it.

Photo by @suzehaworth

So, having gotten back into trials lately, combined with improving weather, I’m devoting more spare time to that at the moment. Evenings not spent with Suze will most likely be spent riding. Not at my PC.

This is not to say I won’t be writing articles any more, far from it. I love writing articles, and as CSS Wizardry’s exposure has rocketed recently (thanks to people like yourself) writing articles is even more rewarding than ever, and the quality of the comments and feedback is increasing too. I have article ideas all the time, and will post whenever I have the chance. All that’s happening at the moment is I’m stepping back from the PC for a bit, for my health and sanity more than anything. Too much time at the PC can’t be doing me much good. A result of which is that I haven’t been on email for a couple of weeks now…

If you have emailed and it is urgent, I apologise. Please tweet at me as I’m always on Twitter. I’ve also had emails regarding permission to translate Web Design+—if you’d like to translate it that’d be great, you have my permission to do so (provided you don’t pass it off as your own, of course).

Also, regarding freelance work; I shan’t be undertaking any form of freelance for the foreseeable future, sorry…

Keep following me on Twitter though, as I’ll still be posting links and things as ever, and add the CSS Wizardry RSS feed so any articles I do write, you’ll hear about first.

I’m not going, just relaxing. And I think you should too. Move away from your computer, get outside and have fun!

Cheers,
Harry

Do I need an iPhone?

Of course I don’t, but I do have one, and that’s what I’m used to. However, after a few days I kind of got used to, and almost enjoyed (almost) not being connected to the internet, the internet that I spend 8+ hours a day sat connected to.

The problem

Sure, the first few days were okay. And I had bought into a policy whereby the damaged item is replaced in 48 hours. I rang up and was told the it would in fact take 10–12 days. It took 30. Anyone who owns an iPhone surely knows that that just isn’t easy.

The insurers name? Read the opening paragraph again, closely ;) Shh…

Anyway, anyone following me on Twitter will know that this whole farce has really wound me up, with error after error on the insurers part. You will also know that I have refused to name them. This was for the sake of professionalism, while ever they were messing around, and I was keeping it amicable, they were 100% in the wrong, nothing could come back to me, nor could my actions influence theirs (i.e. me being rude making them even slower etc.). It didn’t really work to my advantage, but still, better that than be a rude shouty b*stard to them, eh?

Too much time on my hands!

Thai • Po • graph • e

The good

It’s nice to be able to say that lately I’ve been noticing an increase in good customer service rather than bad. Instead of boring you with reams of storytelling and recounts, I’ll just give a list and a few points on why I enjoyed dealing with each:

• Moo: I used Moo’s online system to make my new business cards. They quality was amazing, the delivery was speedy, the process was smooth and the company is great. I’d definitely recommend them.
• Tampopo: Suze and I headed to Tampopo yesterday for some lunch. If you live near a Tampopo and have never been, I urge you to go. The food is outstanding, the service is quick and the staff are extremely friendly.
• La Bottega Milanese: This is a tiny little coffee shop that has recently opened by my house. It’s not a franchise or a chain, it’s one guy who has opened up a lovely little shop. The coffee was excellent, he was extremely friendly, the shop was nice and it was just a more enjoyable experience than your typical Starbucks type coffee.
• North Bar: North Bar is a gorgeous little bar in the centre of Leeds, and a personal favourite of mine. The beers there are out of this world and the service is always superb. If you like world beers, you’ll love North Bar.

The bad

Unfortunately there is a flip-side. There are places where the service is not that good.

• PC World: Just after Christmas I bought myself a Dell Inspiron Netbook from PC World. I Suze called up the night before to reserve one black Netbook at the online price of £249. We arrived at the store the next day to find they’d reserved two red ones at £279. When we mentioned this they seemed to think it was our fault. ‘It says here you wanted red. It says here you want two. You don’t want to pay for extra security?!’
• Oporto, Jake’s Bar and Bar Room Bar: This might just be ‘one of those things’ but anyone following me on Twitter will know that this got me absolutely livid. I headed out with a good friend Joe Whitley for a few drinks in Leeds only to be turned away from three bars because they weren’t prepared to let two guys in without any female company. So much for organising a night out with a male friend. Three of the better bars in Leeds, plus my favourite, Oporto, really managed to annoy and alienate me last night…

In short…

So, in short, the products of all the above are completely acceptable, and worth the amount you pay for them. What made all the difference however is the non-monetary value added (or subtracted) through customer service. It’s something all businesses should definitely try and focus on more.

Any stories of good or bad customer services yourselves?

Naturally I designed the cards in Illustrator but my initial thoughts were to flatten these vector files and send them off to a print company to be done by them. However, after remembering Moo, I decided to give them a shot and get a limited run of just fifty cards made—this was because I wasn’t sure on just how good the quality might be…

The main reason for my concerns about quality was the fact that I was to print the cards from a .jpg image, rather than a lossless vector format. However, when they arrived I was amazed to find they were perfectly legible, totally flawless and perfectly finished. Nothing was even slightly questionable about the cards or their quality, I was pretty impressed!

As well as the quality of the cards themselves I was delighted to find they were presented in a gorgeous heavy card case along with some sorting tags for ‘Mine’ and ‘Theirs’ business cards. A beautiful way to present some top quality cards.

Moo MiniCards

As well as getting myself some business cards from Moo I decided to surprise Suze with some MiniCards with a few photos from her Flickr stream. The cards were, again, top quality, presented in a lovely shallow box. She was really pleased with them! Although she is wondering what exactly to do with them, so please post any suggestions!

A firm recommendation…

After the speed with which the cards were printed and delivered, their outstanding quality, the beautiful presentation and the sheer pleasure of using Moo (not to mention the extremely attractive prices) I will, without a shadow of a doubt, be using Moo again, and definitely recommending them to anyone who requires professional business cards or something novelty like their MiniCards. Five star service.