The Viral Resume Lands Chris Spurlock a Job at The Huffington Post (Updated)
Chris Spurlock’s viral resume worked! Spurlock has landed a gig at the Huffington Post as a result of his resume going viral.
We learned about Spurlock’s new job from TechCrunch of all places, and Spurlock confirmed the news just moments ago. He has been hired as an Infographic Design Editor for the Huffington Post.
Craig Kanalley is the Huffington Post Traffic and Trends editor who helped the resume go viral in the first place and wrote the follow-up on the Huffington Post with five tips from Spurlock on how to make your resume stand out. He was also the one who decided to bring Spurlock aboard HuffPo, once he saw how many people shared his resume on Twitter and Facebook.
As Kanalley told TechCrunch, “It’s a step towards high quality content, stuff that people like. I definitely think it’s a continued move towards better journalism and a better site for us.”
It’s cool to see Missouri School of Journalism students are finding jobs in the way that makes the most sense on the Internet: by becoming a viral sensation.
Congratulations, Chris!
UPDATE 1: This is what Arianna Huffington had to say about the Spurlock hire in a press release: “I’m also delighted to add Christopher Spurlock as a Jefferson young reporter. We couldn’t resist hiring him after seeing his amazing infographic resume, which became a viral sensation.”
UPDATE 2: The story of Spurlock’s hire is getting picked up across teh Internets. NY Mag’s Daily Intel, Romenesko, TechCrunch and Business Insider are just a few of the publications lighting up Spurlock’s name in pixels.
UPDATE 3: Kansas City TV news affiliate KCTV even has this profile about Spurlock on the home page of its website right now. I smell a “home town kid does good” story angle.
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To not even mention the possibility of plagiarism in any post about this resume, whether or not you agree, is irresponsible.
First, I disagree in a blanket saying that it is not plagiarism. In that vein, permission does not mean it is not plagiarism. Plagiarism is presenting another’s work as your own. Second, am I mistaken, or did the original J-School Buzz post include a different version of the graphic, with rainbow colors? Why was that post updated without any explanation? Third, responsible reporting would dictate taking into account the other side of the story. The issue is not mentioned anywhere in any post on the subject. This site seems ready to champion anything and everything J-School; I don’t know how one could claim being a watchdog with that mindset.
I’ll be blunt: If you admit ignorance in design, talk to a designer.
This is not an argument, David. It’s plagiarized.
I think it is pretty obvious that he stole this.
http://www.coolinfographics.com/storage/post-images/resume-infographic.jpg?__SQUARESPACE_CACHEVERSION=1271423291528
How can you look at that and not think anything different?
He even tried to pass it off as his own creative inspiration in his huffington post fluff piece, until a commenter pointed out that he stole the idea. “The viral creation started in the simplest of ways: Spurlock was about to apply to some jobs, and one night, he decided to hop on Illustrator for a bit and doodle. “A couple hours later, I went to bed, and in the morning, I decided it wasn’t entirely useless,” he said.”
He obviously has some talent in making info graphics, but stealing ideas and passing them off as your own is a pretty low thing to do.