Avoiding the CV-jeebies.
Follow these simple guidelines and keep your curriculum vital
I’m kind and generous and I ALWAYS respond to people, even if it means working at the weekend. But I’m loosing my patience with mediocre applications, and I’m on the verge of creating a ‘bad CV – no response’ rule. Unless you haven’t noticed, we are living in difficult times, opportunities are rare and there is no room for not creating a convincing application that makes your audience at least sit up and listen. Here are some simple ideas / rules that I think will give you the edge.
First of all, view your initial contact as the opportunity to get a meeting, nothing else, just a meeting. Once you have the meeting then it’s your responsibility to win over your interviewer with your wit, charm and amazing portfolio. But before you get the meeting, I would create the simplest and most effective CV to send out, and a small work presentation to send out with it; don’t mess up before you’ve even got in there. Personally, I think CVs are an exercise in cutting the information back to the bare minimum, especially if you are a graphic designer. All too often, information is badly laid out, often in a Word document and instantly binnable. Strip out every bit of wordy, flowery language (unless that’s your audience).
The viewer makes a decision within seconds if they want to look further, so don’t trip up at the beginning. Design your CV using a simple and clear font. A tip — especially if you want to work for me – make your CV landscape instead of portrait. In these times of technological advancement and paperless offices, most CVs are viewed on a landscape screen and not printed out – landscape just works so much better. I work on a small MacBook, and all too often I have to increase the size of a portrait CV just to read the information. Why not think about how your CV will initially be viewed and create a one page, landscape CV with simple and clear information. It’s not brain surgery, and after all, you’re the designer.
Photo’s on a CV are a no-no, it’s just not right, we’re British and we don’t like it.
Put the information in chronological order: most recent first. Again strip back the education section. We’re not interested if you got a C in woodwork. All we need to know is that you managed to get your GCSEs, including Maths and English, similar for A-levels (unless top marks where gained).
When it comes to personal statements and hobbies and interests I would steer clear unless there is something genuinely interesting to say. The clichés always come trotting out, and they are a waste of space – ‘enthusisatic, positive and hardworking’; ‘love for music, cinema and socialising.’ Leave. It. Out.
All we need to know is where you’ve been, what you’ve done and if there was anything significant that happened along the way to make you employable! It’s your job as a designer to make information clear, accessible and enjoyable to read. Don’t delay: revamp your CV, I’ll even give you feedback if you want to send it to me.
Top: Illustration by James Graham.
Eye is available from all good design bookshops and online at the Eye shop, http://bit.ly/Eyeshop. For a taste of the magazine, try Eye before you buy, http://bit.ly/ebyb.
August 11th, 2009 at 12:03 pm | by Steve Price
wise words as ever Mr Radcliffe. I had a graduate email me recently with a 22mb pdf of his work. I was livid, he nearly crashed my mail server, not to mention blocked other messages from clients that bounced. I politely, but firmly informed him that his first mistake was a big one; 22mb’s too big and I binned it out of sheer annoyance!
August 11th, 2009 at 12:43 pm | by Alistair Hall
Top tips.
Also, for any work experience / job application covering letters: make sure you know who you’re writing to (any Dear Sir / Madam letters just come across as lazy and ill-informed); do a spell-check and get a friend to proof-read for the bits spell-check misses out; don’t tell us how you’d benefit from working for us, but how we’d benefit from you; and don’t CC a stack of companies in on the same mail (duh!)
August 11th, 2009 at 12:47 pm | by Jason Holland
Couldn’t agree more. It is also important how the CV is delivered to me. I don’t want the email sent to jason@underwired.com only to then be met with email content addressed to To whom it may concern!
The best I have ever had was almost a campaign - where I was sent a small movie every Friday, that when played back-to-back was an animation taking me through the person’s portfolio. After a couple of telephone interviews, I hired him all the way from South Africa!
Entertain me. Make me laugh (a recent successful candidate applied for a “Human Foot Stool” job, stating that he can being creative when not needed as a restful piece of furniture
August 11th, 2009 at 1:05 pm | by Steve Price
Email, whilst brilliant also breeds complacency. Not only bad spelling, but incorrect names, or no names at all. It’s great to get a digital pdf of peoples work, because that is a useful format to view it quickly, and landscape is a massive help.
Whilst it is difficult to constantly try and be ‘different’, all of these basic rules apply to anyone looking for a job; whether you’re a graduate or a CD with ten years experience. As so eloquently described by Mr Radcliffe.
I agree that it is great to be entertained without knowing it. A recent graduate sent me a postcard alerting me to the varying stages of her impending arrival to the UK for three weeks. I really wanted to meet her after that because it was simple, but different. Plus a welcome return to something that embraces snailmail wins in my book:
http://designweak.com/2009/08/09/thank-you/
August 11th, 2009 at 2:05 pm | by Paulo Pereira
I can not believe people actually put their photos on their CV? I’ve heard of the practice but have not seen it actually used. A bit embarrassing if you ask me.
August 11th, 2009 at 3:06 pm | by Pam bowman
Speaking as a tutor at Sheffield Hallam University and designer at dust http://www. Studio-dust.com
I do advise students that they should not expect a response and that Information should be kept to a minimum, with careful consideration of wording and audience. They are told to research thoroughly, as they would for any other project and reminded that this is, in some ways, their most important piece of work.
I hope the 22mb file didn’t come from one of mine.
August 12th, 2009 at 4:39 pm | by Catharine Scholes
I graduated from university twelve months ago and was shocked about the lack of creativity involved in our ‘Professional Practice’ modules when completing our applications. We even had a seminar telling us exactly what to write on our CV’s and cover letters. Passing the module is one thing but many of the students used these to send out to prospective employers! Surely as design students we should have been looking at ways to differentiate ourselves and be… creative.
August 12th, 2009 at 4:50 pm | by » Avoiding the CV-jeebies
[...] Here a really good article I found on the eye magazine blog, it has a load of do’s and don’ts in relation to producing your CV. http://blog.eyemagazine.com/?p=243#more-243 [...]
August 13th, 2009 at 11:59 am | by jessica jenkins
yes to all that, except:
ive talked to lots of employers. some want ALL the info right at the start as they dont want to have to back and forth getting more info. and they want a full folio which can unavoidably be heavy. im not sure that a mail server should really crash on receiving a 22mb attachment. (normally would just not get through?).
AND, ive known employers who insist on a photo too, which personally i find a bit discriminatory. you could be a 90 year old greek widow and be a brilliant designer.
August 13th, 2009 at 12:06 pm | by Steve Price
I did say it nearly crashed my mail server. The point is I wouldn’t send a 22mb file to a client, never mind to someone I’d never met in the hope of getting a meeting/interview/job. It did fill my mail server, which is in itself annoying. I think the point I was making is that sending large emails like this is not a good idea. Period.
August 13th, 2009 at 12:11 pm | by jessica jenkins
the point i was making is that different employers have different expectations which can make top tips less straightforward than they might seem. period.
August 13th, 2009 at 12:16 pm | by Pamela bowman
Hence thorough research every time, but never more than 4mbish. If you can’t say it in 4mb…
Full stop.
August 13th, 2009 at 12:19 pm | by jessica jenkins
exclamation mark.
August 15th, 2009 at 9:32 am | by Alex Szabo-Haslam
Choosing the content of a CV is something I find very difficult. Should I say I’m some kind of CS4 wizard? Should I keep my obsession with Freehand to myself? Does anyone really want to know I’m something of an expert when it comes to speaking backwards?
Something that works for me is having other people read it and suggest changes, particularly graduates from the previous year that found work. That said, professionals from other industries looking from a different angle could make a lot of difference.
Generally, I find human beings rather than cybernetic organisms make up the majority of staff at agencies, making it impossible to have a generic CV suitable for everyone. Of course, a little research about the recipient will help in deciding what to write (and what to leave out), but really the only way of gauging success is if someone picks up the phone and asks you to come in.
I’ve sent my CV to dozens of agencies, and only a small number have replied. Of those, most were of the automated ‘thank you for your interest’ nature. But, one kind fellow at a large agency did have the generosity to send me a personalised email, outlining the areas of my CV he felt were good and how I could improve others. Twix multipack, seven red roses (one for each day) and bottle of Pepsi Max sent by recorded delivery, your gustatory saloon is well catered for, sir.
Since finishing university in May I’ve glared maniacally at my mobile and incessantly clicked ‘refresh’ in my mail browser, so if anyone wants to put me out of my misery by actually giving me a job, or chat about local cheese production, feel free to get in touch via my website.
August 17th, 2009 at 10:30 am | by Robert Hempsall
It’s true that the advent of email has changed the way people apply for jobs. It makes it cheap and easy to apply, reducing the amount of research those looking for work will put in. In the name of balance though, it also makes it easier to reject. Although I’m not an employer, if I were I’m sure my general policy would be to look for the first excuse to bin an email application: the first spelling mistake; the first grammatical error – this gives me the chance to get to a manageable number of applications.
An email application is also a possible opportunity missed. If the reader doesn’t like the email, you’re toast, regardless of how good your work may be. If everything comes in an envelope though, chances are I’m going to save my time and look at the work first and if I like it I’ll take a look at the letter to check you’re more literate than a monkey (or at least as literate).
It’s no coincidence that the examples above that have impressed people are those that have a creative idea first, followed up by the conversation about qualifications, interests, yadda yadda.
August 26th, 2009 at 2:11 pm | by Richard Berry
I made some origami teeshirts for my CV to have on my Graphic Design Degree Show stand at Nottingham Trent Uni. Whilst very popular with the mums and college students who came to visit, didn’t seem so popular with actual industry types who might give me a job. Luckily enough for me its not always what you know but who you know when it comes to getting a job.
See my origami teeshirt CVs here…
http://richardberrydesigns.wordpress.com/
November 26th, 2009 at 7:06 pm | by Make a good CV or resumé for freelancing | Creative Agency Freelancing
[...] Eye Magazine An article by UK creative recruitment agent Mike Radcliffe on simple CV guidelines. [...]