In the movie "Legally Blonde," a Harvard law professor asks Elle Woods for a résumé so that she can apply for an internship with his firm. When she hands it to him, he says, "It's pink." She smiles and tells him that it's scented, too. "I think it gives it a little something extra, don't you?" she says.

It's a movie, so of course she gets a laugh — and the internship. Would a pink, scented document fly with a real Boston law firm? Probably not. But it might with a New York advertising agency.

Photos by LEITA COWART/Special (ENLARGE)

JoAnna Luiso, student employment adviser at The Art Institute of Atlanta, helps students (such as those who created the artwork behind her) devise résumés that express their personalities and convey key information.

(ENLARGE)

This Art Institute student's résumé uses colors and a unique cut at the top of the page to stand out. Some résumés include CDs with digital images of students' work.

To know when it's appropriate to think "outside the box," you have to understand your audience, said Gayle Oliver, founder and former principal of Execumé, a career services firm, and founder and CEO of G3 Agency.

Oliver noted that a client sent a 3-D shadowbox "résumé" to a radio station. The objects represented her skills and personality. It got her in the door, possibly because radio stations thrive on new ideas and creative talent.

In the corporate world, being too creative can be risky, Oliver said.

Venturing too far from the accepted document "can make you look like a less-serious candidate, or too much like a maverick," she said. "You might never make it into the main database."

Mainstream jobs call for mainstream résumés.

Creative résumés, however, are highly prized and even expected when the job calls for it, said JoAnna Luiso, student employment adviser at The Art Institute of Atlanta. Her job is to help students in graphic arts, animation, photography and other programs with their job searches.

"I get to have a lot more fun than most résumé-writing advisers. It's rare that I see a résumé with black type on white paper," Luiso said.

Her students combine color, different font styles, images, logos and watermarks to showcase their talents and market themselves. They use the tools that they will be expected to use in the work force.

"They want to stand out and grab attention, and, well, the proof is in the pudding," she said. "Employers in creative companies are looking for style and personality as well as skills."

Luiso allows students free rein to create, as long as they follow her basic rules.

"The content has to be there, and it has to be readable. It can be very attractive and eye-catching to run words diagonally across the page, as long as the employer can easily find the information he needs," she said.

Luiso also cautions students to make sure that their designs translate effectively to an online format as well as working on paper.

"One recommendation we make is for them to highlight their skill sets in the middle of the page, so that an employer sees that in conjunction with a person's experience," Luiso said.

A good design can lead the reader's eye to what an applicant wants to highlight. Of course, most artistic applicants also have digital portfolios or CDs of their work to share with potential employers. Many applications for artistic jobs go to art directors, but Luiso tells students to create traditional résumés as well, in case they'll be talking to the human resources department first.

Hire Profile Inc., a recruiting and staffing company that specializes in placing creative people with advertising agencies, corporate marketing departments and design firms, re-formats candidates' résumés before presenting them to prospective employers.

"One client wanted to see a stellar-designed résumé before talking to anyone, but most employers seem to like the standard format, because it allows them to compare candidates easily," said Nancy Pineda, president.

Creative people tend to take more license with traditional résumé formats, and they don't always include information employers want, she said. When the hiring manager has similar categories for all candidates, it allows him or her to compare apples to apples.

"Even in creative jobs, a well-written résumé doesn't have to be dull. It can be exciting," Pineda said.

It can be a risk to get creative if the job doesn't call for it, she said.

"If unsure, always err on the conservative side. . . . Hiring managers are looking for ways to weed you out of the stack and make their job easier. The less ammunition you give them to get rid of you, the better," Pineda said.

In artistic fields, the résumé is often secondary to someone's work.

"We tell candidates to take all their creative juices and put it into a digital portfolio or an up-to-date, well-designed and easy-to-navigate Web site. That's where they can show their own style," Pineda said.

She also asks them to create stand-alone examples of specific kinds of work (such as brochures and fliers) and to list the types of industries where they have worked, because companies often look for those kind of matches.

"What really impresses a company is when a creative person can talk about the business impact of the work he did," Pineda said. If you can show that your direct mail piece increased traffic by 20 percent at the trade show, "then you'll be so far ahead of other candidates," she said. "At the end of the day, no matter how great the work, it has to meet a marketing need."

Search for better bait

Noted résumé-writing expert and author Michael Holley Smith wonders why applicants can't showcase their skills and accomplishments in a more visually exciting way. Gleaned from his experience in creating résumés for top executives in New York, he wrote "The Résumé Writer's Handbook" in 1978. Expecting the Internet to change the composition as well as the delivery of résumés, he wrote "Bioblogs: Résumés for the 21st Century" in 2006.

He defines a bioblog as a résumé replacement and an attention-grabbing, graphics-enhanced art form to give employers a unique vision of your personality, character and potential.

"We have used advertising to sell every product on the planet, so why should a résumé be any different? It's bait — a marketing tool to get you in the door — and your bait has to work better than the competition," Smith said.

With millions of résumés in circulation, Smith believes it's hard to stand out using the old formats.

"People hire based on personality and character, and too many résumés don't show that," he said. "They focus on a person's past accomplishments and use the same 26 action words to describe them."

Books have been written about how computer programs select top candidates using "key words."

"So what do you do when everyone knows the key words?" Smith asked. "You hit a brick wall when you only go the language route. What have you got to lose by using a graphic, a clever catch phrase or other advertising method to get someone to look at your words?"

Smith believes a bioblog would help someone stuck in a dead-end job show his potential better than would a traditional résumé, for example. For one thing, it would show he was willing to make an extra effort to get noticed.

He advises applicants who decide to try using bioblogs to do their research first and gear it to the company culture or maybe even the style of its advertising.

"If it gets their attention and gets you in the door, then you can follow up with a more traditional résumé," he said.

Keep purpose in mind

All résumés, whether creative or traditional, need to answer four questions, said Jay Block, certified executive career coach, author and president of Jay Block Companies.

1. What do you do for a living — or are qualified to do — that has relevancy to me (the employer)?

2. What results can you produce? "This is a hot button for employers," Block said. "You have to get them emotionally engaged by talking specifically about how you can produce bottom-line results better than other candidates."

3. What are your core labor assets (skills, attributes, qualifications and strengths)? There should be only six to eight. Be specific. For example, perhaps you have a knack for turning around poor sales figures in a down market.

4. Where have you produced those results in the past? (In other words, a dynamite employment section.)

"A résumé without achievements is like a report card without grades," Block said.

When he interviews employers, he constantly hears how hiring managers don't have time to read the hundreds or thousands of applications they get for every posting. Block's advice is to keep cover letters and résumés short and to the point.

"Where you may want to get creative is in designing a power-packed, self-marketing, employment Web site. A simple one- or two-page site that lists your accomplishments and testimonials from others could set you apart," Block said. List the Web site with your contact information.

Creative marketing touches can impress an employer and be empowering for a job-seeker.

"When you dress up your résumé [by using a creative format or listing a Web site or digital portfolio], you feel more confident," Block said.