Trouble with a CV

danielmasoomi

New Member
Hello everyone just a quick question..
as designers do we send out generic formal cv templates and layouts. or do we send out something different to catch the eye
i think it should have a little bit of individuality in the layout but im being told otherwise?
basically mine is set off on the left hand side - each section is below the previous almost as a list with a head title and it lasts about 3 pages.
how would you recommend doing yours?
 
I would personally give it some creativity, but you've got to be careful because you have to remember that some poor guy is going to be reading through hundreds of these things. If you make it difficult to read, then you're only going to lose points.
Design it well, don't make it a design. Remember that key aspect of your CV is to get the important information about you across quickly.
 
Depends who you are sending it to. Agencies need to copy information of it so a fancy flattened PDF probably isn't the best bet in that case where as a plain text doc would be fine.

You have to remember who is going to be reading it first of all, the creative director isn't going filter all the hundreds of CV's. More than likely it will be the receptionist or office admin.

Try can and keep it to 3 pages, tailor it to the position and keep it relevant.
 
Three pages, is that including work examples or something? I always thought it was better to stick to one page, two at the most unless you've got a ton of experience. As you said it's most likely going to be done by the receptionist who may or may not have the motivation to read through hundreds of CV's especially if they are all 3 pages long.
 
I re-did mine a while back and got it down from three pages to one and made it super concise and skim friendly.
People want to see what's on offer not read War & Peace.
I also added some personal branding but kept it simple.
Some of these over the top "designer" CV's that you see on the net don't work for me as a lot of them you just can't see the information for the "design" and also remember that design is subjective.
Also consider that some admin person might be printing them off on some crappy, bandy printer so make it as clear as poss.
In a nutshell, short, sweet and clear. OMHO.
 
Yeah, I think you can add design flare to a CV without complicating or interrupting how easy it is to read - and that will be what makes you stand out.
 
great advice ive decided to keep it very simple black and white with my logo branding on it.
however my cv is 4 pages long
pg 1 cotact info - peronal statment
pg 2 awards and design skills
pg 3 list of freelance projects or do they not need this?
pg 4 hobbies and interests and references upon request?
 
Covering letter.......good point. Always send a covering letter.

If your applying for something you don't have much experience in its useful to include some transferable skills. Relate it to something that happened and show you are a person and not a robot.

Don't put your picture on it.
 
4 pages is far too long, sorry but you've got to get to the point with your CV daniel, can we see it?
 
Yeah, don't mess around with your CV. One page and a covering letter. People that employ people are far too busy to read through 4 and 5 page CV's. Just get to the point. They don't care what skills you learned on the job at 16 years old. They just want to know how you're going to directly effect their business and make them more money.
 
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