Jul 09
What a designer has to do when looking for a job
2007 at 12.55 pm posted by Veerle
If I take a trip down memory lane to the time that I was looking for a job, I immediately remember very vividly how hard it was to get noticed or heard. I’m talking pre-internet days so things were handled via snail mail. If you were lucky, you got invited for an interview to show your portfolio and hope for the best. So fresh out of school with nothing much to show from the ‘real’ world in my portfolio, except for school work was a hard nut to crack to be honest. Even desktop publishing was in its early days so most of my work consisted of hand crafted dummies, painted logos and lots of sketches, paintings and drawings.
What to do back then to get noticed?
During my graphic design education, I was always fascinated by package design, especially packaging for food or cosmetics. I thought maybe I should create a small box for my CV and have the information nicely ordered on each sides of the box. At my family's company they had a few Macs running PageMaker so I was lucky to spend some time there to create my CV. To keep things affordable, I let it printed (in offset) in 1 color on a heavy (colored) paper. I used an existent box shape to save the extra cost of the die cutting form. The CV box was sent out in its flat form so people had to assemble the box themselves. Apparently this trick seemed to work well. People gave it the attention and when I called the agencies they remembered me from 'the box'.
How it is now
You should think it's safe to assume that in today's day and age every designer that is looking for a new job has set up a portfolio. From what I've experienced, a big percentage is still ignoring that golden designers rule. It's amazing because it's now so much easier to do so with the internet. Think about it for second, you are in charge of a creative agency and you are looking for a talented designer for your team. If it was me looking, then I like to see work so I get an idea if this person has talent or not. To me it's mind-blowing that so many just use a regular Word document with no styling and worst of all no link to a site or pdf with examples of their work. How can I judge your capabilities if I don't see any work or a sign that some thought went into the document I received.
What I think
Personally I believe that a design agency looking for a designer should at the very least receive a document that was created in Illustrator or InDesign. Why? Because it tells your future employer that you understand lay-out and typography for starters. Very basic things that a designer should have learned at school. I can't speak for other employers but a line in Word saying that you master all graphic applications doesn't impress me much. I judge on what I see rather than on what impressive studying you did. Of course that plays a role but it's not *the* factor I would decide upon. That would be your work and what kind of person you are, eager to learn, love to experiment, team player, curious how things work etc.
Some people write references available at request because they probably think it will provoke a response. This makes me wonder why you would take away more of the time from the probably already busy person on the receiving end. It all boils down to this very simple rule when you are a designer, your work should do the talking for you!
What I would do online
The first thing that I would do if I was looking for a new job is setting up a portfolio. Most people have internet access and some website space. Something to keep in mind is your domain name because I personally believe it's more professional to have yourname.com then users.provider.com/yourname. It doesn't need to be .com it can be whatever your heart desire :) Next, I would design myself a website using web standards of course. How far you take this is based on personal knowledge. If it was me, I would use ExpressionEngine to power my portfolio and blog. Why? Because it's a great way to get your name out and to show your work to the world. There are so many galleries you can submit your site to to get the word out. If you don't have any real work I would create a fake brand and work out the whole nine yards like logo, business cards, website etc.
It's tempting with your own portfolio to go overboard and showing your strengths. It happens too often that this becomes a fancy Flash or Ajax navigation that takes away the attention from the work or that it becomes so hard to figure out where to click and you'll miss it completely. Flash surely isn't bad, in fact it's great for portfolios. Just keep usability in mind when developing it. Also, add some explanation to accompany the work. The challenges you had to overcome and it's maybe not a bad idea to show the process from start to finish as well.
When you don't have the technical knowledge
If you don't have the skills to set this up from scratch there are other options too so don't worry ;)
SlideShowPro
One option would be to go for the excellent SlideShowPro from Tod Dominey. SlideShowPro is an ActionScript 2.0 component for Flash MX 2004, Flash 8 and Flash CS3 that helps you display photo galleries and slideshows on your own web site. Adding more photos or work is as easy as adding a new line of text to the XML file.
Carbonmade
Another option is to use a ready to use portfolio site like 'carbonmade'. It's an easy way to display and manage your online portfolio. You can show images, flash, video... and you don't have to touch any code.
CreativeSkills.be
A local initiative is Creativeskills.be. It's a website targeted to creative professionals covering a wide range of disciplines in product development, industrial design, architecture, graphic design, fashion design, interior design, 3D design, web design, photography,... You can manage and monitor your portfolio to see monthly stats.
Now that have a portfolio a job would be nice
With everything looking fly you now, go on a search to find yourself the dreamjob you always wanted. A great place to start is Authentic jobs from Cameron Moll. Here are a few full time designer jobs currently available:
- Senior UI/UX Designer/Developer @ Big Tent Design, Inc.
- Product Designer, Skype for Windows
- Associate Designer @ ESPN.com
- Web Designer / Visual Designer @ BitTorrent, Inc.
As a partner I can say Authentic Jobs is not US only by any means, so I think it would be great if there were more non-US job listings too. So if you are looking for a talented designer or developer keep in mind that these job listings reach tens of thousands of Web professionals world-wide each month. Would be wonderful to see some Belgian listings on there too so why not give it a try.
55served
1
Nice post, I’m actually trying to solve this problem at this moment, so I hope it will help me more than enough. Thank you :)
2
Great article Veerle, a lot of it is common sense, but easy to forget sometimes!
3
It’s short and clear, thanks for this article. It gave me courage!
4
What a great article!
5
I have just started to look for a job and I am happy to see your article. I am doing it exactly the way you have described it (I am using Wordpress instead of EE though). Let’s see how long it is going to take to find a first job :o)
Thank you for your good points.
6
I’ve been thinking about this a bit lately; I was lucky enough to get offered a CSS/Design job right out of school with a place I had worked at previously, but I know that I won’t be where I am forever. I think “the box” idea is a very effective way of differentiating yourself from the competition; my aunt is a graphic designer who did something similar, except that I think it was some more-complicated shape that only made sense after construction. She figured that the only people really worth working for would be those who bothered assembling her resume.
Another anecdote was from six or so years ago, when I was looking for colleges to go to after high school. One of the most promising ones was Embry-Riddle University in Florida, which specializes in aircraft engineering. Their name and pitch always stuck with me because their first bit of promotional material was a constructable pyramid-shaped paper object. The thing sat on the coffee table for a few weeks, and so I still remember it to this day.
So, in thinking about future self-advertisement, I’ve thought about a whole bunch of different approaches. My favorite concept is a small comic book in the style of Chris Ware that describes my skills, views, and that is both funny and a bit disjointed. I guess the point is to make a distinct impression on your hopeful employers, don’t get lost in the crowd or portray yourself as boring by presenting a typical-looking portfolio or resume.
Nick
7
Just found this site off another website and have added it to my blogroll on my site.
I know at least from my experience that this article makes allot of sense. I’ve been looking for about a year now and have been unable to find much of anything towards a real job. I’m stepping away from my freelance career and am trying to get into agency work. Either I’m offered way under expected salary or people want a freelancer to avoid paying any employment benefits (they told me flat out.)
I’ll link this article on my site. Thanks, Veerle.
8
Ok that is a great article. very informative and some handy links.
Certainly easy to follow for some beginners. Altho there are plenty of other slideshow scripts (like on that uses mootools library) i tend not to use them cause when you disable flash your website is stuck.
No more pictures and some advanced thingie’s so i think the best thing is to keep your portfolio site as failproof as possible.
Great job on that article
9
How hard is it to do this without a bachelors or masters degree?
I am a graphic/web designer but I really don’t feel like finishing my school education, I personally think I am wasting my time & money on the school.
Do you believe it is possible to find a job with only a good portfolio and a lot of motivation?
Maybe I could get some certificate at syntra or others, would that help?
Thanks a lot for any advice.
10
@ Ben Jansen
I sure think you can get a good designer job with a good portfolio, in the advertising company i work there are several people without a degree, but with a very good knowledge and skills.
Ofcourse it would be handy to still have a degree, I think there still are company’s who only want someone with a degree.
11
Thanks alot Veerle. As a budding graphic designer trying to get into the work force this article will be alot of help
12
Wonderful article, Veerle.
I currently have two graphic design jobs (which I think is pretty good for being an undergraduate graphic design student). To help give a very good first impression I made sure that my resume was also a piece of work but the design didn’t distract the reader from the main content. I believe that if one does have the skill, show it! And that’s exactly what you talked about. :)
13
as always a very nice write-up. I hope the site I’m developing will be as much help for creative people looking for a job ;)
14
Veerle…
this is a great article!
I have been on both sides of the table in this situation and have been able to see from several angles what can make a designer stand out. Of course they are only my opinions but i remember as a student everyone’s perspective was important to me when it came to job hunting.
So many students put a lot of work into what their resume says, but a designer’s work is what matters to me. If you are a strong typographer, thinker, and leader it will show in your portfolio and how you layout your resume. Filling your resume with BS language is a waste of time. Good designers design every detail.
Another tip you touched on in your article is have your work online! Especially if you are applying for a web design position. The best way to stand out is to go out of your way to exhibit your skills. Even if you feel like you aren’t very proficient at web development taking a stab at it shows initiative.
My last two cents: let your personality shine through and never pass up an opportunity to show someone your portfolio. In team environments personality counts a lot, and practice always makes perfect ;-)
15
Great article Veerle… this is a great resource! thank you
16
Thanks Veerle! This was a very good read. Since I didn’t study design at a school (I’m studying IT), letting my design work speak for itself is the best that I can do to give myself credibility in the design arena.
Perhaps I should put portfolio examples on my resume, right now I just have a list of a few sites and their URLs that I’ve done, and a message saying to go to my website to see an up to date portfolio.
17
I’m having some trouble myself, looking for a new position in my area (Perth, Western Australia isn’t a very big place.)
Though I’m not terribly designery (I usually bug you about the CSS stuff :D) I find a good way to show off some skills is to include a stylesheet & dummy template of a site (as well as linking to my own site.)
I find that this shows I can do stuff, rather than talk about being able to do stuff.
18
I can only speak for myself, but the reason my CV has references “available on request” is that I don’t want my current employer knowing I am applying for other positions before I’ve had the opportunity to see if the potential new job is the right one.
I don’t know about where you are, but in the UK references are pretty much only taken up once a job offer has been made, at least for ‘proper’ jobs - I guess when freelancing your referees are more likely to be previous clients, where it would not be such an issue.
19
Amazing article :)
20
Great article. As this is the season for graduates coming out of college - this is perfectly timed. A word document certainly doesn’t give the right impression and I actually don’t even look at the ones that arrive in my email in that format.
Love the blog by the way.
21
Nice Article! I’m looking to update my own portfolio who is quite old (2 years, but still xhtml and css valid :P) and maybe do an english version.
I got 2 questions about Expression Engine CMS. Does it requires an SQL database or you can setup a website without it? and can you make a bilingual website with this CMS?
22
Great to see you’re embracing Creativeskills.be! We’re working hard on the next release which will feature many improvements and much more project slots. Keep you posted!
23
This is a great post filled with lots of fabulous advice, but I have to disagree with one point.
When I was still in art school they made us talk to all these career resource people, and take classes specifically for putting together your portfolio, website, tear sheets, etc.
In all of this they told us to keep your actual resume as simple as possible, and try to limit it to one sheet, because people doing the hiring have to go through so many. This rings particularly true in an age where many employers only accept your resume as pasted text online or a small PDF attachment. My employer actively discourages paper snail-mail resumes. I think if your portfolio speaks strongly enough, the resume is only going to be anecdotal anyhow.
Now perhaps what you mean is to make a simple resume with your own nice letterhead designed in Illustrator or InDesign, which I completely agree with, because it is absolutely important to demonstrate your competency.
24
Thanks Veerle!
As someone who is trying to find a first job in the creative world, your experiences are eye opening and thought provoking.
I’m going to try and implement some of these during my job search.
Thanks again.
25
While I agree that we really should be doing CV/résumé layout in Illustrator/InDesign, I’d just like to share my recent experience with doing so. I designed (at least in my opinion) a fun, witty one sheet cv that contained the usual information, but of course showcased my layout and even illustration skills. I started using it, and was dumbfounded by the amount of people who required that I send only a Word DOC; PDFs were “not acceptable.” Trying to recreate my cv in Word was a nightmare, required my doing some of the work on someone else’s PC (Word on a Mac cannot embed fonts, apparently), and eventually lead to my completely redoing the layout in a less creative, more HR dept friendly manner.
It felt like they killed a part of my creativity when that happened, but I guess it teaches you something about knowing your audience as well. I guess the best option is to plan for some oddity and try to design to accommodate the differences.
26
Great advice! All of it! And now I am very curious to see the box you’re talking about :)
27
As someone who hires designers, I will not consider a candidate without an online portfolio. Try to keep it current. Also, 5-10 examples is enough. You can follow up with more samples when requested. Another suggestion: unless you are applying for a whiz-bang website designer position, don’t have your website overwhelm your examples. Let your work shine, not the site. Images on black or white with an easy nav is fine.
The resume is for the stats. Essentially checkboxes. Of course a polished resume sends an additional message as Veerle recommends. Good idea. I have sent a poster, scupture, booklet, etc. as/with a resume. Showing creativity here is OK as long as at the end of the day, I can also have the stats in my file with the rest of the candidates.
As to finishing college (just a personal line of thinking here), it shows that you are well rounded, can think in multiple disciplines and have perseverance. All good traits in a candidate.
28
Thank you for all this feedback, didn’t expect ‘that’ many comments :)
Ben Jansen said:
If your work is good then yes, I believe so.
David Tremblay said:
Yes, ExpressionEngine does need an SQL database and yes you can make a bilingual website with it.
Bart said:
My pleasure ;)
beth said:
Yes I agree on keeping it simple and try to limit it to one sheet. Mine was only 1 sheet, plus a cover letter, but when folded it was a small box. About the paper snail mail, I didn’t encourage people here to do this, I was only referring to how it was done in my time, when I was looking for a job. That was 15 years ago, pre-internet :) It was the only way to reach employers back then. Now that I think about it, they even encouraged us in school to have the cover letter (not the CV itself) handwritten instead of printed from the computer, because it’s a more personal approach and it showed your efforts. See how time has changed so drastically over the past 15 years? That’s what I wanted to show in the introduction of my article.
gb said:
It’s really awkward that they don’t accept PDFs. It tells you something about the agency. I would start wondering if they are a ‘creative’ agency :) The only option you have left is to add a URL in there and put all the work online I guess. Typography in Word sucks and if you’re used to work in professional layout programs and want to be creative, you curse the app every minute you spend in it. It’s frustrating, because it’ll always feel incomplete and unfinished.
Chris K said:
That’s really good advice there. Thank you for this valuable comment :)
Jesper Christiansen said:
And I want to find it :-\ I still have stuff from school etc. but I have a bad feeling that I don’t have a copy of the printed box anymore :( I’ll definitely search for it again in my stack of old stuff I saved but I have a bit of bad feeling I won’t find it.
29
Matthew Pennell said:
I don’t understand the difference between asking and then eventually showing and showing it directly? I guess your current employer will find out anyway, right? Because eventually you’ll show them the work and your prospect employer talks to your current one. I personally immediately would have a good idea if the agency would be right or not by looking at their work and how they present themselves. Only difference is I asked for it. Or do I miss the point here?
Does it mean you never show references if you approach the agency just to present yourself? It’s weird because how can you grab their curiosity? Only by mentioning your previous job locations? Of course for me it’s been 15 years so I’m out of that routine for a long time, but I get e-mails from people and those with nice work I save the others, sorry.
30
Great tips! And indeed a confirmation that being creative in everything you do—including your rersumé—really pays off in the end.
31
Thanks for the wonderful post.
I agree with designing a non-Word resume. A PDF with hyperlinks looks and works so much better. The viewer can just click to view your work. The shocker was when 2-3 design / IT career placement firms asked me for a Word .doc. !? Maybe they were trying to level the playing field. It didn’t make sense to me. Funny story is when I went for the interview they asked me for my “well designed” resume while poking fun of the Word versions they received. The interviewer told me that someone actually handed them another copy of the Word Resume - that was their pretty one. Opps. Thanks again for all the useful info.
32
Nice article Verle. As a person in charge of hiring another designer here at Jive, I must say that I whole-heartedly agree with you.
I’ve been a bit shocked at exactly how little effort some people put into their portfolios. At least half of the resumes I receive don’t even include a portfolio link or URL’s to work examples.
When a designer sends me a Word Doc, especially one utilizing fonts I don’t have on my system, I am inclined to dismiss it completely. Most interviewers are incredibly busy with the rest of their jobs. You really ought to do what you can to set yourself apart. All it takes is a little effort to prove that you really want the job and something to show for it.
33
Hi Veerle, very interesting article!
I work in a small design studio, and we wanted to hire a designer recently. The offer was saying: “No .doc attachments please”, and “remember to send us some links to see your work”, however, most of the postulants had no portfolio nor links to show their work. And, of course, everybody was sending their CV in a .doc attachment.
I agree with Michael Sigler, people in this business is just too busy and tired to work a little for themselves.
PS: would you mind if I translate this article to spanish?
Sorry for my bad english :)
And greetings from argentina!
34
hoi veerle, goeie post, het is altijd lastig om een goede, duidelijke portfolio te maken en te kiezen wat je wel en niet laat zien en vooral hoe.
De lastigste keuze vind ik nog of je wel of geen schetsontwerpen laat zien, soms denk ik dat mensen die je site zien het liefst dingen zien die “af” zijn het liefst niet teveel zien, terwijl andere potentiele opdrachtgevers dit misschien juist wel interessant vinden.
Oh...ik had dit natuurlijk beter in het engels kunnen schrijven..nouja, bedankt voor de inspirerende post!
35
Hey, good article
i have just lost my job (webmaster)
I searching now place for me… its really hard :(
36
This is a really great article. Yeah, I remember it was really hard to get your first job after graduating from a design school.
Another tip is ask friends and family, and talk to people what you like doing. It took me many years to gain experience in web design and development,then I added other services doing print design and 3d visualization.
I am trying to shun away being a freelancer and working for corporations as a multimedia/ web developer.
Just hang in there, and learn every design tip from great people you work with. It is a lifelong learning experience.
I know getting your first job after school is really tough, but once you know what you want to do, and experiment projects will also show what you can do. Then this gives a nod to employers and potential clients.
37
It’s weird to read that there are designers who don’t have a portfolio. I’m not one but have always thought that designers come all prepared to impress and speak through their works. I’ve recently taken an interest in illustrator and find your tutorials useful. If anyone has any advice for ladies who are in mid career crisis and thinking of learning and dabbling in design and cartoons, pls drop me a comment!
38
Absolutely fantastic post, it has helped me a lot! Thanks!
39
Great post, it’s reassuring to know that everyone is (or at least starts off) in the same boat. Great site!
40
Amazing article…
41
Holy crap, this entire post felt like one huge ad. You’ve managed to pimp:
1. Expression Engine
2. SlideshowPro
3. AND Authentic Jobs
All in one post. How much did this cost?
42
Smith said:
So anytime I mention a product or service I can get paid? Holy crap what a fool I’ve been so far. Sorry need to call all companies or products I mentioned in the past and collect. Thanks dude ;) FYI it didn’t cost a thing because I love these and use them myself and I mention that I am a partner of Authentic Jobs.
43
Smith said:
In Veerle’s defense, I read blogs to get some recs like these. I’m happily using EE for MyFirstMac in part due to her. And I love it.
Even though she mentions Authentic Jobs, she discloses she’s a partner.
44
it is a challenge for new person in webdesign to work in good webdesign company and show skills. In my company at recruit most people dont know how to show skills, how to talk.. I dont know perhaps it is stressfull :) Your article is veryy veryy usefull for all of us. I saw many of similar articles on the net but I read yours 2 times. thanks nad respect.
sory for my english :)
45
Good article, but the poor spelling and grammar drives me nuts! Please have someone review your writing before posting it.
46
Kyle said:
English isn’t my first language, so sorry that it isn’t up to your standards. I’ll call up on you everytime I post something. Please be available at any time for this so that I don’t have to wait to post. No excuses. This isn’t a magazine but a personal blog so get over it ;)
47
This is the stage I am at currently. Graduated from college with a design and web degree and now been working at my current job (newspaper, doing ad design and other little projects) for a little over a year.
Defintely a lot of good advice and useful sites!
Thanks!
48
Good read. Thanks
49
Verlee,
I agree with your article wholeheartedly, and since I’m just fresh out of school, on a personal note, many people that were in my major did not have a website/portfolio which in effect was sad. So, I’ll be sure to pass the article along. Thanks for the read.
50
Good post, Veerle. As someone who recently graduated from college, I can identify with the difficulty in finding that first job. It’s both funny and amazing to see how technology (and business culture) has changed with the times, and how this has influenced the job application process. Many potential employers ask for PDF copies of the CV/resume with the cover letter pasted into the body of the e-mail. This seems rather impersonal, no matter how much effort you put into differentiating yourself. There’s nothing tactile about reading a PDF on a computer. Sometimes, it seems kind of hopeless from the end of the applicant, as all we can do after we submit is cross our fingers and maybe make a follow-up phone call. But, maybe that’s how they separate the good designers from the mediocre ones - if you can grab their attention in something as lame as a PDF file, then you gotta be able to make something great on the internet.
Thanks again for the read.
51
Good post but…
Whoa--learn how to take criticism ok?
52
rob said:
My dear friend Rob, you don’t have to learn me how to take criticism, it’s a big part of what my job is all about. I can take criticism brother, but it’s the way that guy told me about it I don’t like. If I coudn’t deal with it I would just delete the comment. Like I said it’s a personal site get over it.
53
Great artcile Veerle.
well, as it good as it seems to send a PDF of work done with the email, out of 98% ads i see request a .DOC CV.
Partly I think is, in my country...if it is a big company..then it is the HR / placement people who screen the CV and the pass the required people to the higher ups for review.
Being a web designer, most of my work is online and that is what I show… If my previous jobs didnt show any part skill set of mine, I put that up on my personal website.
Veerle, you can check out www.coroflot.com . this one is another portfolio showcase site and great one too.
54
I wonder if it’s possible to find a well paid job in the graphical sector without having the right degree. I have a degree in IT, was more interested in graphical design and took a 2 year evening course. Maybe you are right, I should take the time to make an online portfolio. But then again, the are so many better artists.
55
super,
anything’s possible. even if there are better artists, you can still do it for fun and perhaps it’ll fuel the desire to become better than the others or to be unique, but it’s all in the eyes of the beholder. i for one wouldn’t mind seeing your work.