Monday, November 1, 2010

Creating a Perfect Graphic Design Resume

Create a graphic design resume to outline your skills, experience, and education for prospective employers and clients. The most important thing to remember when creating your graphic design resume is that your portfolio is a separate item. Don't try to showcase your skills as a graphic designer within your resume by using fancy fonts, graphics you have created, page borders, or graphic page dividers. Keep your graphic design resume simple, professional, and organized.

Your graphic design resume should be tailored to showcase the skills requested for the opportunity or job offer that you are seeking. It is okay, and actually a good idea, to keep a stock graphic design resume on hand, updating it whenever you change positions or complete a significant freelance assignment. However, be prepared to make changes to the organization of your graphic design resume if it seems warranted by the opportunity you are seeking.

There are many things you should be sure to include in your graphic design resume. Make sure you list all of the computer software, technologies, and skills you have acquired, your level of expertise, and how long you have been familiar with the skill, software, or technology. You should also list any certifications or degrees you have received. If you do not have a college degree but do have professional certifications or awards, you do not need to list your high school education on your graphic design resume.

Your graphic design resume should also include information about your previous employers or projects. This may sound obvious, but many graphic designers are not aware of what information should be included in their experience. Any significant freelance assignments and any industry related work experience should be included in your graphic design resume. Do not list jobs like fast food or retail in your graphic design resume. It should be geared to showcase your talents in the graphic design field, and other jobs you have held on your way to your chosen career as a graphic designer are unimportant.

Your experience section of your graphic design resume should show the month and year of employment or the freelance assignment, and the month and year that the employment ended. Your graphic design resume should also highlight specific achievements at each position, or ways that the work you did or the freelance assignment you completed benefited the company you were working for.

Make sure that in addition to any educational references and mentions that you list all of your academic and professional achievements, significant projects, awards, and certifications on your graphic design resume. Many graphic designers neglect to include specific information in this section of their graphic design resume.

Finally, the best thing you can do to make sure that your graphic design resume is perfect is to proofread your graphic design resume. If you're not sure that you have caught everything, have someone else proofread it as well. If you submit a graphic design resume with errors of any kind, you will be labeled as not being detail oriented, and you will not get the job or project that you are applying for, regardless of your skills or talent.

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Wednesday, October 20, 2010

Reviewing your final resume - what to look for and who to ask for help

One of the most commonly made mistakes in resume writing that many professionals make is not taking the time to proofread the document before sending it to the potential employer. While writing a resume is a time consuming process, not reviewing your final document with fresh eyes may cause your resume to end up in a recycling bin. To assure that all your efforts are not wasted, make sure that you take the following three steps to assure your resume is in top shape before it reaches your potential employer.

1. Proofread the content for grammar and spelling mistakes. This step is the most critical in the resume review process. It is often hard to catch composition errors after you send hours writing and re-writing all parts of your resume. There are two ways to catch these errors: ask someone else to proof your resume, or give yourself time between writing and reviewing your resume. If you ask a friend or a family member for help, make sure that their strengths include spelling and grammar; they should be able to edit your resume for content and consistency in style. Asking others to review your resume, however, should be done with parameters. For example, let your friend know what you are struggling with, so that they can help you address those concerns. Because personal preferences can come into play when you are discussing resumes, make sure that the changes you make are the kind you are comfortable with in terms of content. Another step in proofreading, which should be thought of as a must, is stepping away from your resume for a day or two, and coming back to it for a final review. This gives you some space from the content, and will allow you to review for grammar and spelling errors with fresh eyes.

2. Print our and email your resume so that you know what your potential employer will receive after you submit your resume. Make sure to print your resume from the file that you are emailing to your employer. Make sure that the margins are set properly and are not cutting off any content. Look for spaces, and adjust the text in case of any large gaps on the paper. E-mail your resume to a number of your friends; have them open the file and let you know how it appears on their screen, as well as how it prints out. Addressing any formatting issues before your resume reaches the employer is ideal, so doing a couple of test runs will only assist in developing a winning final resume.


3. Compare your resume to the job requirements, and make sure that all requirements are addressed in either your resume or your cover letter. Essentially, review what the employer is looking for and make sure that your resume addresses all of their needs. When your potential employer receives your resume, they will look for key terms from their job description in order to match your qualifications to their available position. If possible, use some of the same terminology on your resume as the employer used on the job description. This will let the employer know that you are in synch with their needs, and make them more interested in you as the ideal candidate for the job. Ask one of your friends to review the job description and your resume as well, and give you their impression on how well the two match.

Poorly written or formatted resumes let your employer know that you don’t pay any attention to detail. Taking the extra time to do a final review of your resume is the key to getting employer’s attention and getting the job you always wanted.


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Addressing the cover letters – avoid these three major mistakes

Many professionals spend hours writing and re-writing their cover letter. With each resume submission, we tend to revise our cover letter to make sure that it is personalized for the position we are applying for. While we spend so much time on the content of the cover letter, we seem to disregard a very important and prominent area of the letter – the address line. Most mistakes in the cover letter are made in the address line. This is very problematic as this is the first piece of information that the potential employer sees on your resume. If mistakes are made in the address line, it is likely that the potential employer will discard the letter and you will lose an opportunity to be considered as a candidate for the job that you want.

The following three mistakes are most common in addressing the cover letter and should be considered before your cover letter is sent to the employer:

1. Not addressing the letter to a person. This is a big mistake in the world of cover letters. Generic greetings, such as “To whom it may concern” or “Dear Human Resources Team,” are not favorable. If the job description or posting does not include the contact person, you will need to do some research to find out who the appropriate contact is for the job you are applying for. Additionally, avoid addressing the letter to a job title. Call the organization and find out who is the hiring manager or the recruiter for the job, and address the letter directly to them. In case it is impossible to find out who the appropriate contact is, it is often recommended that you leave off any generic greetings and simply begin the cover letter.

2. Misspelling the name of the organization. Even if you are addressing your cover letter to a specific person, you will still need to include the name of the company and their address. Always make sure that the company name is spelled correctly. Hiring managers and recruiters know from experience that misspelling the company name is a common mistake, but it’s the easiest one to avoid. Triple-check the company name on your cover letter. If your potential employer receives the letter with the incorrect company name, your letter will never make it past the first person who receives it.

3. Your first sentence doesn’t explain why you are contacting the company. This is a common mistake as many people assume that stating that you are contacting the company regarding employment, as you are including your resume, is unnecessary. However, this is not the case. Let your potential employer exactly why you are contacting them; state the title of the job you are interested in, and how your qualifications make you an ideal candidate for the job. Your first statement needs to be straight forward, energetic, and positive, and it should invite the employer to read through the rest of the cover letter. Bland and generic opening statements will result in disinterest on the part of your employer, and your resume will not get pass the first review.

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