SPU Center for Career and Calling-Resumé Advide
Feedback from Chris Lowe-Freelance Recruiter at Tether
Resumés are a real pet peeve of mine and one where schools often do a terrible job. For some inexplicable reason most art/design instructors seem to think resumes should be one page and contain as little information as possible. Clearly these instructors don’t do a lot of hiring! A typical designer resumé will often include little more than title held, name of company, and duration of employment. Good info but it really doesn’t tell me a whole lot about what you’ve done with your career. “Name, rank and serial number” is fine when you’re a POW but a lousy approach to landing a job. Also bad are resumés that simply list clients with no explanation as to what they did for that specific client. At an absolute minimum a job entry on a resumé should state what tasks the person did on a specific project, when they did them, and what skills they utilized. A resumé isn’t supposed to get you a job but it is key to your getting an interview. Vagueness and lack of detail cause a recruiter to ask questions. If that recruiter has hundreds of resumés to review they will most likely just hit the delete key and move on to the next resumé. Every job should have at least one full paragraph detailing the experience.
Other resume tips:
(1) Don’t over embellish. Most recruiters will see right through such efforts. I actually saw a resume in which someone had worked at Anthropologie and described their experience as “Consulted with clients to improve their personal branding”. Ummm…..no, you sold clothes to people – and there’s nothing wrong with that. Stating you’re a janitor is far more honest and noble than saying you’re a “sanitation engineer”
(2) Don’t write about yourself in the third person. It’s not impressive sounding and leads us to suspect you might have a multiple personality disorder.
(3) If you’re working as a freelance designer don’t refer to yourself as a company and make it sound like you’re more than one person.
(4) Avoid objective/goal statements. The goal of a resume is to get you an interview. Period. No need to state the obvious.
(5) Avoid throw away statements. Prime example: “outstanding attention to detail” as a skill. Does anyone really think this elevates them above all the resumes that say “average attention to detail”?? Even worse: put this down on a resume and then have a typo somewhere on your resume! Yes, that’s the kiss of death on a resume.
(6) Have someone read your resume for you. Beyond catching typos, they can help make sure you’ve clearly explained your experience.
(7) Give credit where credit is due. If you worked with a developer to create a website then say so – don’t just say you designed a website. Being able to work and contribute as part of a team is a HUGE skill.
(8) Once you’ve begun to acquire industry specific experience eliminate any non-industry specific jobs. It’s probably good to list your job at the Gap when you’re just getting started but once you’re in the industry you need to drop it.
(9) Resumes should be simple and free of graphics, funky fonts, and complicated formatting. Almost all major companies use applicant tracking databases and these databases typically save resumes in plain text. I always tell people to open their resume in Notepad and see if it’s still readable because that’s how many recruiters will see it. Also there is nothing you can do in terms of formatting, graphics and fonts that an experienced recruiter hasn’t already see dozens of times! Ideally, have a nice PDF copy as well as a plain text friendly Word copy.
Feedback from SPU VCD Grads
Sarah Sullivan 07
These are my top resume hints
1. leave white space (don't be afraid to have a small font)
2. make your name the first read (but not screaming
3. add a little personality
Katie Carlson 07
Definately clean... My resume and business card got alot of attention b/c they were different (curved top) and they matched. (both the card and resume had a curved top). I think my brand was very fitting of my personality and my work. Thats probably the most important thing-not necessarily thinking of your business card/resume as it's own entity, but as a brand....
Mattie Mauseth 07
I don't think EVERYONE's resume needs to have the same sections in the same order, worded the same way.
Matt Wells 07
Resumes are huge too. Honestly, simplicity and white space is key!
Jon Weiss 07
Eliminate clutter. If it really isn't relevant, don't put it on there. Use strong lines, for example flushing all job descriptions, skills, etc to the same grid line.