Your RESUME and PORTFOLIO?

Timberline said:

I'm in the process of re-designing my resume and portfolio from scratch, and was just curious what everyone else's looked like, what all you included, etc.

There's so much more pressure on making a resume look fantastic when you're a designer. Not that I don't love the challenge, but I have a much harder time designing for myself than I do designing for other people. I feel like I could just keep tweaking every little thing and it will never be perfect, and I'll end up starting over (as I'm doing now).

Just looking for a little inspiration during a time of designer's block

Thanks!

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A little over a year ago I was looking for a design job. I redesigned my resume in InDesign and made it Landscape and techy-looking, but still very clean. I looked at it more as a job I had been contracted to do than my own resume and then had a few people critique it.

I look at it now and realize it's not all that great, but it sticks out from the pool of generic resumes. Plus, I got an interview and an offer on the first try with it. My boss told me during the interview that the way it looked was a major reason why I got my foot in the door.

When I interned at a big design agency, one of my down time tasks was sorting through resumes. I, the $20 a day college kid, was screening them. I was told to look only for the required skill set along with a list of key words and place the qualifiers into a pile for someone else to screen before they go to the manager for final review. The best resumes that arrived on his desk were done in Microsoft Word. Maximum white space, one clean simple font and a few hairline rules and bullet points.

So my advice is, depending on who you apply to, if it's a good sized company more often than not your resume is going to be screened by lackeys or underlings. They're not going to be looking at the design. They're going to need to read it quickly with little to no fuss. Your work and experience will speak volumes while a snazzy design will only get you so far. And the last rule of thumb, if the work on your resume isn't up to snuff, all the design in the world can't conceal it.

resume

This was the resume/cover letter I designed for my sister about a year ago. Landed her a job doing green design for a firm in LA. She now is LEED certified.

why do you want to redesign your portfolio from scratch.

Unless you want to completely change direction (career!), your portfolio should grow, develop and mature with you all your life. It's a reflection of your style and shows your ability to progress (progress mind, not change) your style over a span of many years.

Employers will want to see how your work has changed over time and perhaps indicate where it will progress in the future and whether this suits their agency/company/upcoming projects.

That said, if you want to try a new style or move in a new direction, by all means start building a new portfolio, but be sure to maintain your current portfolio, or use it to show why you want to move styles (use it show how your old work was becoming stale, say, then show off your new fresh work with the new portfolio)

just something to think about...

I'd be interested in this too. Any graphic design or Industrial Design (aka my major - product design) portfolios, teasers or resumes would be awesome to see! More examples the better.Let's help ou the designers of the future (or current ones looking for inspiration) Tips and stuff about interviews or experiences getting a job in design would be awesome too!

Perhaps even companies you enjoyed working for or know people who do and like it or have openings. lets help eachother out!

My resume is a 9x9 square. I've designed an identity for myself which is carried throughout my business cards, resume, and web presence.

My resume is about 12-14 pages, printed on a good card stock - 110lb, i think - and contains my actual resume, plus a few samples/teasers from my portfolio. Lots of places have been asking for a few samples of work around here.

My website is a template using indexhibit - www.indexhibit.org. I highly recommend that for anyone who isn't really all that into web programming.

Finally, my business cards I got printed at psprint.com. I think the price was about $30 for 250 4/4 cards on 14pt. stock. The last page of my resume actually was designed to integrate the card. Just another way to reinforce my contact info in addition to my design abilities.

Backing up - my resume is very very simple. Education, Experience, Awards and contact info. Most of the time, I'd also include a cover letter.

I hired a photographer to shoot my portfolio for my resume package. I'd highly recommend that, as it makes it look a bit more professional.

An earlier poster was right when he said that all you really need is a simple presentation designed in Word. However, when you take a little bit of extra time to create an innovative design package, it does tend to stick in potential employers' minds.

And it's so much more fun.

In my other life I helped interview for a graphic design position. A few key items:

1. Don't include all your work in the portfolio. Keep it small and simple with your best work.

2. Yes, resumes should be one page with a lot of white space. If it strains strains eyes to read it, usually it'll get tossed out.

3. Include a cover page only if you plan on including any vital information, if it's a standard "Hello, this is me and I want to work for you" then skip it. Seen one seen them all.

SwiftLives said:

My resume is about 12-14 pages, printed on a good card stock - 110lb

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O_O Wow. 12-14 pages of card stock? How thick is the mailer for something like that? How do you fax it?

SwiftLives said:

Finally, my business cards I got printed at psprint.com. I think the price was about $30 for 250 4/4 cards on 14pt. stock.

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Personally, I prefer to avoid the internet print shops because of the cheap quality / look / feel of the products. Around here you can get 1,000 business cards on practically any custom paper stock with two color ink for around $150. They are more expensive, but are going to look and feel superior to the glossy quick run cards from the internet.

I actually hand-delivered all of my resumés. (Control issues with the delivery).

As for the business cards, as much as I would have preferred some sort of spiffy cool die-cut stock for them, I had budget and time constraints. And frankly, I've never had a problem with the online print shops, but that's because I know exactly what I'll be getting. No, it's not super high-end, but it is decent quality at a very good price. And the stock was similar enough to my resume that I could integrate them without a problem.

(Also, I only needed a very short run of them).

portfolio

I typically keep my portfolio updated every 6 months from my current employer with pieces I have designed.

Each gray 18"x24" board is wrapped in clear acetate. For pieces that require it, I built pockets on the board for the piece to sit in so you are able to take it out easily. The backs of each board are covered in gray to cover up any mounting tape.

Here are two examples. The first one is mounted directly to the board and wrapped, the second has a pocket that the piece sits in.




They rest in a standard black portfolio case with dual clasps. All told, I probably spent around $60 on the boards, backer paper, acetate, and mounting products. As I use production run pieces I don't need to personally print any of the pieces.


I agree /w the comment that resumes should be limited to one page, and the more "white space" the better.. I typically only use one font family, and usually only two font styles with that family (light / medium / bold etc) As for a cover letter, I've used them for all my interviews, and have created them for others as well - every one has landed them a job. Whether it was need or not who knows, but between the information on it, and the design it got them in the door for the interview, which is what a resume is for after all. Also I'd much rather show them my portfolio in person then send in one for "review" for one, you'll never get it back in the condition that you'll want to send to another company if at all, and again - the point of resumes / porfolios in my mind are to get "face time" with whoever is hiring so you're more likely to come to mind over the next person when they decide who they want.

In my experience fancy resumes tend to be bad resumes, even for design. Also many companies you apply to will have a limit on attachment size or only accept .doc and .txt. The bigger companies will make you create a whole new resume on their website instead of let you submit a file.

Just do a regular boring resume in Word. If you apply in person then by all means you should probably do a fancy resume that you print yourself (but how many places want people to apply in person these days?). Dont expect to be able to submit an 800kb+ PDF file, not only will they probably not accept something that large or in PDF format but they will probably print it out on some black and white laser printer or possibly a xerox copy from HR and make it look like total ass (happened to me).

Audience

I must have gone through about 8 different resumes over my career so far. When I graduated from school in 92 I started out with a nicely designed resume. I once made a laptop from paper that had sheets pulled for each screen. The end had that old apple bomb for a system crash and you had to contact me for assistance... Bottom line, my resumes were sent to an HR department and usually if not always, the HR rep has no clue on design and just weeds through the resumes recieved for specific lists of skills and thats it. So, since 2000 my resume is plain and still gets me a job because the portfolio is where its all at. And your skills in selling yourself. Just make your resume list the skills required for the job and show experience and you should be getting a call. No need for fancy designs unless you personally can target the CD or AD for the dept.

SwiftLives said:

My website is a template using indexhibit - www.indexhibit.org. I highly recommend that for anyone who isn't really all that into web programming.


And it's so much more fun.

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the template? a good way to learn. but if you don't know coding and scripting. you will hit some big ass rocks. by the way, my friend... you got to get rid of that Built with Indexhibit on your page. it's kinda cheap to have that...

Hey all, would you suggest adding a PDF porfolio with resume and cover letter when applying for positions or have a website to link or no work samples till interview?

SpaceJello said:

Hey all, would you suggest adding a PDF porfolio with resume and cover letter when applying for positions or have a website to link or no work samples till interview?

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Make three versions of your resume/portfolio. One online as a website, one printed (resume created in Microsoft Word, portfolio in a book/case) and one on a CD (as a slideshow or PDF). Employers will generally ask for all three, so they can screen you before giving interviews.

First I typically send the word resume (word sux, but everyone has it so they won't have issues opening it), along with a website link in an email, the body of which is my cover letter.

Secondly, if they call me in for an interview, I show them the physical portfolio and leave them with a printed version of my resume.

Lastly, some employers might like to have a leave behind version of your portfolio to consider. In which case, make a pdf or slideshow of it and leave it behind. And remember to call back to thank them and ask if they need anything else.

Z.Beeblebrox said:

Make three versions of your resume/portfolio. One online as a website, one printed (resume created in Microsoft Word, portfolio in a book/case) and one on a CD (as a slideshow or PDF). Employers will generally ask for all three, so they can screen you before giving interviews.

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Hey thanks for the suggestions, I guess I need to update my website ahah