Designer’s CV - this is how it’s done
A few days ago I was harping on about receiving really really boring postal and emailed CVs from students wanting either job or work experience placements.
Expressing wonderment as to why on earth I was receiving sheets of white paper with black writing all over them; no attempt at ‘design flair’ in their application/CV and a complete absence of portfolio to show me either.
Well one of my previous work experience students Sally Howden read the blog and got in touch with me to show me the CV she’s sending out to firms.
Now this is how it’s done guys! ….. this is awesome and I’d be well impressed if this came through the post!
She looks just like this below (great cartoon rendition of Sally - drawn by Sally) and is just as lively and chirpy in person as shown right here! This CV not only displays a flair for design, it’s got that personality I was talking about as well.
Now wouldn’t anyone be lucky to have Sally in the office for work experience? But how would they even know this if she sent them a limp piece of A4 paper full of words only?
Hope you find this inspiring …. happy design job/work experience hunting!
March 3rd, 2010 at 12:45 pm
Wow this is fantastic. Its really inspired me to sort my CV out actually.
i am very happy in my current job so at the moment not in much need of my CV to be sorted but is always useful to have straight away if the worst does happen!
I always wanted to design mine in a web page kind of format, (being a web designer) but is just easier to write it up in word and quicker when desperately looking for a job. But I think after seeing this I will spend some spare time knocking my new improved CV up!
At the end of the day having something that will stand out from the crowd is what it is all about, and a simple word document generally ends up on a pile of the same looking pieces of paper.
March 5th, 2010 at 6:10 pm
Brilliant! I will tell Sally that she’s an inspiration!
It’s well worth putting the effort in, as you’ll get the best opportunities if your CV stands out from the crowd. Agreed, best to always have a good CV on standby ‘just in case’, you never know
A word doc full of text will definitely end up in the pile for a design job, I have a pile of them right here as testament to that.
If you are applying for design jobs or placements (bearing in mind how extremely competitive the design industry is) you’re going to be pretty much ignored if you don’t at least try to wow them with visuals.
March 5th, 2010 at 7:05 pm
I must confess. That’s one of the most creative and interesting CVs, I’ve seen in a while. I wish there was more scope for an informal approach to CV submissions in other areas too (not just the graphic design industry).
Working in the NHS; I often see some very bland submissions, from people who have obviously been pushed towards a very formal approach by the NHS’s standard submission process (a website and PDF/Word forms).
March 9th, 2010 at 2:34 pm
Nice isn’t it, glad everyone is liking it.
Sally said that she was advised against sending out something like this by her lecturer, but yet she then received compliments from design firms saying how they impressed they were with it, so it’s definitely the way to go for designers.
Not sure about sending out something that whacky and wild for a non creative job! BUT … I do think people could get a bit more creative with their CV’s than most people actually do. A bit of ’style’ to your CV will surely help to get it noticed in the pile without being seen as unprofessional as long as you don’t go too far with it.
Thanks for the comment Barny
March 12th, 2010 at 12:37 pm
Maybe simply using nice typography for “non designer” jobs would be enough, typography is a major key in getting things noticed
March 13th, 2010 at 6:22 pm
I think it would be good yes to use typography, and also I think colours could be used to great effect. It doesn’t have to be just black on white only.
Unless you are bad with colours and have little in the way of creative skills, then don’t risk it! Same goes for fonts really, if unsure I’d stick to boring rather than risk getting it wrong.
Someone badly picking the wrong fonts and colours for a cv is far more a disaster than sending just black on white simple text.
May 13th, 2010 at 7:51 pm
Hi
Read this post with mega interest! If going for non-design jobs, do you think a well designed ‘landscape’ cv could be acceptable?
I’ve been thinking of ways to ensure my CV doesn’t look boring/standard, and thought that having a ’splash’ of colour somewhere and using the lanscape orientation would help it to stand out a little.
Opinions?!
Thanks….By the way Amanda, I LOVE reading your blogs, you’re such a cool designer!
May 17th, 2010 at 12:38 pm
I definitely think landscape with a block of colour is going to be more interesting and professional than a swathe of white paper with black ink on it.
I think considering nearly ALL design students are sending me this sort of cv you can near guarantee that most people who apply to non design positions are doing the same and literally sending out colourless text only CVs.
You’ll probably stand out from the pack of CV’s by just adding a splash of colour and changing it to landscape alone without even getting any more creative than that!
Of course for a non design job one does not want to get ‘too creative’.
I recently went to Sally’s end of year student art gallery viewing, so will be blogging about that soon.
Thank you so much for your kind words about my blog!
I hope you enjoy today’s blog, I just finished it a moment ago - some beautiful images from the artists.