What are the main must-haves for creating a CV? I just can't seem to get my head around it, and always end up over-writing.
So far, I have a brief profile, experiences, skills, education and interests and my CV looks somewhat like an essay. And since I am applying for a design job, it would make sense to design the CV too or is that not necessary?
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- @iulia istrate Thanks a lot for te summary! Definitely not going to overdo the designing of the CV, I'd rather let my experiences and profile/bio speak for itself. :)
- @Fiona Abrahams Thanks Fiona, I had a look on canva and have taken your suggestion to create a small infographic in my CV. Thanks for the help!
- @Javier Navarro this is great, thanks so much!
- @Daniele Daldoss wow this is great, thanks for letting me know! I’ll definitely check it out
- I found EXTREMELY beneficial following a course organised by Google Digital Garage in Manchester. They tend to open temporary spaces where they organise 121 and group meetings with the intent to give advice on everything related to the digital world (CV included).They also have an online service where you can see records, slides and other useful material. I went there three years ago and since then I never restructured my cv (if not to update the experiences).https://learndigital.withgoogle.com/digitalgarage
- Hi Sushmita,I reckon @Geoffrey Bunting has covered almost everything with great advice. I would also suggest you find your onw motto, a couple of sentences that capture who you are, what do you do and what do you bring to every project. This short text, placed on the top of your CV will get people's attention and a better understanding of what they are looking at.In my experience when recruiting, cover letters make a huge difference as they give you a sense of context and can/should be trimmed for every application: may be part of the writing you are doing should be focused there and keep the CV concise, clean and technical?Hope this helps!
- Hey Sushmita, the CV you create needs to attract attention and be specific to the job you apply for. You want the reader to say after 30-60 seconds (not minutes) - yes I will call her up to discuss further. For creative jobs, usually a recruiter/agency founder/manager wants to see if you can do the job - what are the tools you are using and what is the level of knowledge, where have you worked before and how similar are the projects. A breel of your work will speak millions to them as they do not only need to trust what you have written in the CV, but can also see the skills applied in practice. Designing the CV - it can definitely help at attracting the attention, but take care to design it in such a way that they can still read the document. I have seen quite a few that are unreadable :) Keep them both to the point and simple.
- A concise summary of your main area of expertise and soft skills for example: I am a mid-weight graphic designer specialising in... Highly proficient in Adobe Photoshop and Illustrator. I excel in interpreting briefs, meeting deadlines, etc. The content of your CV needs bullet points underneath each role outlining your main day to day experience and achievements within each role. Be detailed and specific. Canva have an extensive library of free templates. Choose an infographic layout with a summary and bullet points you can expand underneath each role.
- One thing that people always say to me when talking about my experience is to talk about your achievements and successes whilst working as opposed to your job description or daily tasks.
- @Morphe Digital Design Thank you!
- Agree with all advice below. I have a design cv as well as a standard one.
- @Geoffrey Bunting This advice saved my sanity, thank you so much! I definitely needed to hear that employers “are not stupid” and over compensating on minute details about my experiences really isn’t the way forward. Much appreciated for the time you took to answer this.
- Keep it to one page. Don't over-design.
- You want to keep it as simple as possible. When they're looking through possibly hundreds of CVs - bear in mind just how competitive junior positions are nowadays - the last thing you want is for your CV to be passed over for being too much or over-designed.You want to cover everything that employers specifically want: mostly covered with work experience and education - that covers your qualifications, perhaps with help from volunteering and skills (specifically software proficiency). You also want to present yourself as the person you are, which you get from a short bio and your interests. So you seem to have all the sections in place. So don't overthink it.Now about design. The last thing design employers want is someone who has clearly put loads of effort into the design of their CV. Your portfolio shows what you can do as a designer, trying to make your CV look fancier than it should be is just going to put people off - not least as everybody I've seen do it gets it very very wrong. Keep it simple, easily-readable, and - if possible - to two pages max. If anything, a CV is a great example to show you can put together simple, functional work. Just make sure every section is well-presented and easily seen, as we're probably going to want to jump straight to your work experience.If you find you're writing too much - then don't. You don't have to write an essay under each qualification. You don't have to write anything, necessarily - especially if they come with references. But you can keep it to a simple list of skills you employed at a piece of work experience and don't overdo it. We're not stupid. We know if you're just loading your experience with every design thing you can think of.The main word you should take away from this is: simple. Keep it really really simple.
- Hey! CVs can seem difficult but it sounds like you have all the right sections. I would absolutely give it’s layout some consideration. Sections of digestible information with clear headings is probably a good idea. I could send you mine to look at if you’d like or looking on pinterest is a good shout. Good Luck!
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