graphicpush

NO KIDDING. Fortunately I’ve never had to do more than assist in interviewing, but from my experience lack of simple honesty was the biggest problem I saw.

Worst example that I’ve seen: I was briefly an in-house designer for a Next-Big-Thing startup in Chicago, during the dot-com bubble when Next-Big-Things were thrown Big-Fat-Purses left and right. They hired a new C++ programmer, and he wound up sitting in my area. For the next week, when he thought nobody was looking, he would pull out his “C++ for Dummies” book and try to figure out what the hell he was supposed to be doing. It was hilarious, but I can only say that because he wasn’t my employee.

Of course, when the dot-com bubble burst, it turned out the CEO of the company had basically been doing the same thing, and they vanished pretty quickly. It was all very amusing to watch.

Best of luck with the hiring.

LOL @ #9

Six years of experience at the same company has helped me to keep my current resume at one page. I’m impressed with that myself.

great set of tips here, they’ll come in handy when I start working on my new resume. As far as design goes, LifeClever has a great writeup on revamping the design of the ordinary resume.

Great tips man. It’s funny how much I learned from just reading this and Mike Davidsons write up on influenceing art directors and etc. Being a recent graduate , colllege professors try as much as they can, but they definitely didn’t cover alot of these tips that are needed to survive as a designer especially for recent grads who are looking for jobs.

Thanks for the tips. As a soon-to-be college grad, I love reading these articles. Ill definatley be taking the next few months to fine tune my resume and portfolio so I wont be the negative inspiration you Creative Directors use to write these articles! :)

Agree fully. Some time back we had a situation where a guy mailed me a resume with one of my own project listed! I guess this is a global phenomena among designers

At first i was a bit taken aback by your description of “us” freelancers usurping the good graces of potential jobs posted by employers. I’ve never been called lecherous before.. But, I do that. on occasion. and with great results. Most employers really don’t know what they want. See my portfolio and will throw me work in my specialties while waiting for that perfect resume to cross their desk…They know it could take months. They didn’t plan ahead. Looking to hire a designer to fix the problem they are in now, isn’t the answer. helping them in the interim… I see that they are looking, and i might jump on it… But in the same breath i read your really well written explanation on why freelancers are better at times than agencies… I hope to pass it on to others. It explains well what i can’t…

jojo

I know I got my job by doing “most” of the tips you’ve written here including the Holy Trifecta.

But there are some here tips here which are new to me… so I’ll keep these in mind for my next resume revision.

Thanks!
Chuyski

After sever years working for the same firm, I found that having someone rewrite me resume made a huge difference. It went from noone answering my resume to getting five phone calls a week. I tried different “design” resumes that had a more graphic style appeal. Nothing. Not one reply. Companies now a days don’t even send a reply card to tell you that they are considering your resume at all.

In my opinion, it depends on who you are sending your resume to. Are you applying to be a graphic designer at a Real Estate company? Because if you are they are going to want to see something nice and neat. (Let’s face it non-Designers are idiots when it comes to design work and concepts.) They want to see in writing what your abilities are. The Human Resource person does not want to see your abilties in how you can design your resume to look pretty. They will trash that resume in a heart beat and probably make fun of it with their co-workers.

It also works if you hound the company until you get an interview with them. This is how I got my current job. They sadistically wanted to see how much I really wanted the to work for their company.

Remember this Motto: “They are not doing you a favor by hiring you. You are doing them a service by bringing your talent.” Companies have tried to get me to do free work for them before I even was employed by them. Do not do it. Do Pro Bono work for an organization that needs it. Do not do FREE work just to prove yourself to a company.

If you don’t beleive me, that’s fine with me. These are just my experiences.

Sometimes I wonder if it’s the right way to choose people for an interview on basis of an written application even if he meets the requested criteria. For me it’s more important to learn something about the person, how does he behave, how did he master crises in his life and so on. Maybe a small podcast would be much more telling….

These are great tips for young creatives! Hopefully, if we all keep spreading the word, we won’t have to keep complaining about these things!

I know next to nothing of the design or print businesses and what is more I came across this site (by accident) while Googling where on earth I could download the “Contempt” WordPress theme.

However, once here, I was taken with the clean simplicity and precision of this site and started having a sniff around. I found this article and had a blast reading it. Having worked as a professional staffer for an IT staffing agency I can thoroughly rubber-stamp everything you wrote in this informative and delightfully non-politically correct (thank goodness) article. There are gems of truth in here that not only should benefit the interviewee but should be burned with a laser into the eyes and minds of many recruiters and employers I have met over the years.

It’s really a cool content certainly going to help a lot. Being a recent graduate , colllege professors try as much as they can, but they definitely didn’t cover alot of these tips that are needed to survive as a designer especially for recent grads who are looking for jobs.

Resume preparation is an art mastered by years of practice.

The best would be to upgrade an initial resume to an interview. Maybe in Second Life employers can set up pre-interviews and get a better picture of their applicants.

I was looking up some tips for helping me refine my resume for my graduate app.
Your list was hilarious. It gives me some hope that any of my own weaknesses will be overshadowed by the plethora of imbeciles and assholes eager to announce their foolishness and depravity to the world.
cheers.

Some more Useful Tips for Designing UR Resume

1. Use Titles or Headings That Match The Jobs You Want
2. Use Design That Grabs Attention
3. Create Content That Sells
4. Quantify and Use Power Words
5. Analyze Ads and Job Descriptions to Identify Key Words
6. Identify and Solve Employer’s Hidden Needs
7. Sell the Benefits of Your Skills
8. Create an Image That Matches The Salary You Want
9. Prioritize the Content of Your Resume
10. Tweak and Target Your Resumes and Cover Letters

Regards,
Sai BPO Services (UK) Ltd