Communication

Making Contact

Email—simple introduction, ask their permission and preference (mailed or emailed) to send a resumé, pdf portfolio orlink to your website.

"Also be direct and upfront in why you’re contacting them and use a concise and to the point subject line."—Chris Lowe, Freelance Recruiter at Tether

Email—Respond with a pdf resumé and portfolio/and or website. Advantage of the PDF portfolio is that they can print out to review. Both pdf and website are necessary to forward to multiple parties. In this email ask for the interview.

Interview—You will bring your hard copy portfolio, a couple of resumés and business cards (you may meet with more than one person). At times persons have even left a leave-behind piece (this could be a CD of your pdf portfolio or a printed copy in a booklet form).

Be courteous, dress appropriately (do research on this), tailor portfolio peices for the interview (ie more print pieces for a print job, interactive for interactive company)

In the interview be planned to discuss your work (in detail, what was the project, the goals, the audience, and what did you do to respond, communicate and resolve the design challenge.

Be prepared at the end to ask questions. This is impressive!

Send—Send a formal hand written Thank You note. Make sure the note is designed to the appropriate aesthetics of the firm.

Email—continue to follow up with an email (but after you sent a Thank You note).

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