Vacuosity

Clueless need not apply

Okay, after reviewing the résumés of several hundred people applying for a job as a graphic designer, I have a couple of points of advice, as follows:

1. Your résumé is not a web page. I can read. I don't need cute little icons to navigate it.

2. Proofread.

3. Don't use gears. Gears are not an imaginative or creative way to depict imagination and creativity.

4. Design your résumé. You've got a page, use it.

5. You are not a brand. You don't need a logo. Along the lines of point 4, don't spend more time creating some logotype of your initials than you spend setting the rest of the page(s).

6. Mom will always love your stuff. Even if it stinks like Chinatown on Sunday morning. Positive affirmation of your artistic ability from your parents will not make me want to hire you. It will just let me know that you still live at home, even though you're 33, you've never had a real job, and if you worked here, Pampers would become an office supply.

7. Know your audience. And your competition. Me: hiring manager too busy to read résumés. You: nameless applicant, one in a pile of 300. What does this mean for you? It means you've got about a 6 second window in which to differentiate yourself. Be intelligent, be concise, be interesting. Do not be the guy who sends an 11 page résumé with the naive assumption that I will devote a half an hour to it. Incidentally, résumé means a "summary"; so, like, summarize.

8. Put the accents into "résumé". If you are going to convince me of your finely honed typographic sensibility, at least punctuate the word.

posted by David @ 11:54 a.m.