Graphic Design Resumé
ncdesigns (191 pencils) | Sat, 2012-06-16 19:09Here's what I have so far for a personal resumé. I don't have a whole lot of experience yet, but I wanted to give as much highlight as possible to my strengths, skills and the experience I do have. Just looking for someone with more experience than I have that can critique this, tell me whether or not you think it will get noticed, and what I might be able to do to improve it. I am currently using this one because I am in desperate need of at least a part-time job, and would like it to be in a field that I will enjoy. lol I have another one similar to this with different wording here and there that I use when applying for customer service jobs.
The blank white strip at the top under my name will have my contact info in it...address, phone number, email, etc.
*Note: If you don't like my resumé the way it is or if you think I've done a poor job at designing it, please elaborate and tell me WHY it's bad so I can improve it. Thanks! :)
Also, if there is a problem with the image or if it isn't readable on your screen/needs to be bigger, let me know and I will upload it again and try to fix it.
Commenting on this Image will be automatically closed on August 11, 2012.
attractive.
but resumes should be one page. ESPECIALLY if you dont have a ton of industry experience.
start by scaling everything down by about 20-30%
Niki, I agree that this is one page too long. As you trim it down, please pay attention to the disconnect between voices: you start out in first person (using "my" and "I") to referring to yourself in third person. This is jarring, especially for an "anal retentive grammar Nazi." And please don't use cutesy terms like that. Your prospective employer might be the grandchild of a Holocaust survivor and not find it funny to joke about Nazis, or else will just find it too flippant coming from a serious job-seeker. Others may disagree with me about that. Do what feels right to you.
You're taking up a lot of space telling prospective employers how YOU benefitted from your various jobs. They will be more interested in how THEY might benefit from this experience. You came closest to this in the description of what you did for Premier Design, though it's always better to go beyond merely what you produced to describe what the impact was on the client's business. I'm sure you get what I mean.
I'm not a big fan of "Objectives" sections in résumés. Your objective is to get a job. Nobody cares, frankly, how this fits into your personal worldview. That's wasted space. I would get rid of it.
While you're at it, take out the entire "Skills and Experience" and "Education" sections and combine all that into one short section headed "Proficiencies." You will detail your experience elsewhere. There is no need to mention high school. The new section will just be a sweeping statement about using industry-standard tools on both PC and Mac platforms and that you earned a degree (don't say what kind) in Advertising and Graphic Design at Isothermal U., etc.
As a courtesy to your professional references, they should be part of your cover letter, not mentioned on your résumé. (Show, in the standard business-letter fashion, that you have sent them copies of the letter and when you do, include the résumé to help them be consistent with the support they provide, if they are asked.) In the cover letter, based on how well you have think you know the prospect, you can let your humor peek through.
On the plus side, I like the graphic look. It will lend itself very nicely to pointing out how your background (a better word than "experience," by the way) can help your prospect's business to thrive.
Good luck!
Mara
Generally agree with the other comments. One thing you have to understand is you can't fake experience. Whoever is reading the resume knows fluff when they see it - so don't bother filling space expecting that to fool anyone. The good news is you're looking for an entry level job anyway - so they're not going to expect you to have much experience. The person who will hire you is looking for someone they can mold into whatever job they have open - and they probably don't want to pay much, so less experience can actually work in your favor.
So - my advice (take it or leave it) is cut out everything that doesn't have to do with design. The objective, highschool, all the jobs except Premier Advertising and the Air Guard thing (because it's current and military experience might appeal to some employers). Then rearrange the skills and experience into a more orderly manner - put all the skills on one side and all the "people skills" nonsense on the other (or skills first and nonsense after - however it works best). That should get you down to one tight page.
When I was hiring people the cutesy term was "Mac guru" (now it's "Mac evangelist"). If only somebody had told those folks that EVERYBODY put "Mac guru" on their resumes. It was totally meaningless to any employer in the business.
I agree with Art D. Rector about eliminating all the work experience except the National Guard and Premier.
Mara
At least I didn't get one of those "Good God What A Mess" comments so that's good. LOL
Would you suggest leaving the "Proficiencies" section as a [shorter] bullet list, or should I change that to a statement similar to the "Objective" section I'll be removing?
Good God What A Mess.
Leaky Penny
Check out what I've been up to lately!
http://petersonjoseph.com
I'm going to print it out and eat it.
-Unknown Artist
LOL thanks Leaky. Is it really a mess, or are you just saying that? If you really think it's a mess, tell me why. I'll take as many critiques as I can get because as you can see, I have no idea what I'm doing. :)
Your objective is really not an objective btw. An objective usually explains where you'd like to be one day.... "Working as an illustrator, hoping to get into 3D animation" (or whatever). I think you can keep yours if you reworded it... "Freelance illustrator and graphic artist pursuing a full-time... etc..." - removing the first person perspective. Short and sweet - no "thank you".
Then the order should be (imho)...
Employment
Education (no highschool)
Awards
Skills / Proficiencies (careful about the fluff here)
Online
References
That should make for one tight page.
PS: Whattup Leaky?
I'm concerned that the person reading my resumé would be wary of a 30-something with only two jobs listed in the work history, even if those jobs listed are the only ones relevant to the position applied for. Wouldn't that make it look like I've been jobless since high school? I'm not saying I need a full work history on there (because that would start spreading into a third page) but it just seems like there needs to be more there. Or a heading that says "Relevant Work History" or something, a blurb at the bottom about 'work history available upon request' and a supplemental page or two with a full work history if they ask for it? Just ideas. I'll post a new image shortly.
If you want, add in a new "job" at the top of your list... "Freelance Designer: 20xx-20xx. Working with clients on freelance basis creating... yada, yada..." You can have that one span from your college days to today. The problem here is not your work history - it's your perspective - you're still thinking like a Walmart-type applicant. You're now at ground zero in your design career - that's what is relevant to the person who hires... your design education, your design awards, skills, experience. They know you weren't sitting on your hands for the past decade. If they ask - tell them you worked for Walmart. But believe me - they won't care. Extra pages of fluff won't matter either.
And as I said - the person who hires you will be looking for someone LIKE YOU - someone with limited/no experience. That's where the entry level jobs go - to entry level people.
You're absolutely right. As usual ;)
Mara
Thanks - I'm going to need some ice for this swelling head!
You've probably been the person looking at resumes for some firm (or yourself) in the past - cringing at some. I almost feel like it's my duty to help if possible.
any competent pro can decipher "fluff"
ive worked with several and even hired a couple ex housewives converting from years of mom-dom. their resumes didnt show much but their ability did. and at the end of the day it was their ability and skills theyd obtained in "alternative ways" that made them right for the job.
Wise words. The days when people were expected to have an unbroken chain of upward mobility in one professional field ended sometime around 1986. How you decide to smooth over the rough patches is what determines how creative you are ;)
Mara
I appreciate all of the feedback...it's very helpful! Here's what I have now...
Let's see if I can get this to work...
What a difference! The only observations I can offer toward improvement would be to remove the first line under Proficiencies (a degree isn't a proficiency, and you've dealt with education elsewhere) and -- strictly a personal thing, probably -- not wild about the ligature in your last name in that typeface. Also, as to your online portfolio sites (some very nice work there), you might want to re-think the name of your Deviant Art account; it's a bit of a turn-off. I'll be curious to see what the others have to say.
Mara
Yes - much better. Believe me, that's about all they want to see for an entry level job too.
The tweaks I'd suggest...
- Change the first header to just "Employment" (or "Experience")
- Reverse the skills on the advertising job - you want the most important first.
- Drop the working experience in Proficiencies as Mara suggested.
- Drop "beginner knowledge" from InDesign/Dreamweaver. You can tell them that after they hire you. ;-)
Now that I see it all on one page - you should definitely put the "Freelance" thing I suggest before at the top. Surely you've sold something to someone (or even done free work for somebody). It would look better to have 3 jobs.
The portfolio is nice - I see the talent there. You should get something together on a regular website - 10-12 illustrations and send it to every publication you can dig up. You might find some editorial illustration work. Mara's correct though - "Krucify" is not very professional - don't use that one when looking for work.
You don't have any contact information?
I'm wondering if centering your name is the best suit here with it blocked out in reverse. It's not the same justification, spacing, typography, etc. used in your highlighted work experience/ degree to be that prominent and look at home at the top. Could use some tweaking if it stays to better match your other elements.
I still think it's important to echo what you did for those you worked for over what you learned and make that prominent and elaborate by comparison. If your employer ever asks more about them I'd definitely then elaborate about the time you had working for them and what you got from the experience but employers are more interested in what you can currently do for them as business-wise, you're an investment who initially poses risk. They need assurance you won't be an issue. If they can better imagine you doing these same tasks for them now that you're more experienced it will help.
For your online portfolio have you considered getting a Behance account or your own personal website? Behance can be free for the typical portfolio account (there is a premium option) and websites although such a standard for most people just help you control every aspect of what your visitor sees. No random ads, etc. Facebook is the last thing I'd want to personally use for something like this. It's copyright and ownership policies are atrocious and I'd never want to support them, and people will be viewing your work most likely from their personal account. You don't want one of their friends popping up a chat with you or sending them friend requests/ notifications to distract them from you. I include my professional Facebook account (posts all linked from Twitter, also provided) on my website in case my employer wants to learn a bit more about me and see how I think via posts but aside from that, it's too personal to be business-oriented.
Proficiencies sort could use work. If you're not using the latest version of Illustrator/ Photoshop I wouldn't provide the version- it doesn't look as impressive if you're two versions behind (I just took CS5 off my own resume), just put Adobe X Creative Suite, it's more ominous and vague but at least it may cause them to overlook that one thing until you're sitting down with them in person and can show them you know the differences and updates between programs and still learn them easily. Instead of "beginner knowledge" I'd also put "familiar with". To me, it means the same but doesn't sound as low for some reason. It makes it sound like you're just starting rather than knowing of certain faucets of the software. Do you do pre-press work? That's also an overlooked skill as is copyrighting, time management, etc. Those are the types of things I'd put there over work history. I'd also remove the degree + 1 year working experience. It occupies space and only repeats the above.
My contact information is in the white strip under my name, I just removed it for this posting.
What does it mean to "pre-press" your work?
Oh, looks like a design element because of the drop shadow, sorry :)
Pre-press, making sure that your artwork is as press-ready as it can get. If you know basic pre-press techniques you can reduce or eliminate the time spent by fellow employees proofing and getting all your work ready to be commercially printed. It helps keep costs down, reduce on mistakes and additional paid jobs. Stuff like this is typically having all your colours in the appropriate colour modes, images with proper formats and resolutions, all your dielines on proper layers with the appropriate marked spot colours or however your printed likes them set, crop marks where they need to be. Simple stuff like that. Not all printers require you to have this but it's never harmful to know how they do stuff as well.
id strongly suggest changing the font. im afraid im going to snag my shirt just looking at it!
Forgot why I came here - wanted to drop off this link to the first "honest" resume (since we're on the subject)....
http://designtaxi.com/news/352708/The-World-s-First-Completely-Honest-R-sum-Of-A-Graphic-Designer/
FANTASTIC!! It's the small victories that count.
>> Cookie cut the chaos >>
Thanks for that link, Art, it was a great read. I wish I had the imagination for writing that that guy has.
Here's my latest, along with a new portfolio site. Take a look and see if you think it looks more professional now...I'll be adding more to it in the next couple of days, but for now it has some of my favorites on there.
i still say the font drags the whole thing down. would like to see it in a more sophisticated, franklin gothic, helvetica, arum, or even univers
+1
Mara
Sorry for the delay, I've been on military duty for a couple of weeks. Here's an updated version with a different font...