From the course: Preparing to Interview for a Creative Role

Effective résumé strategies

From the course: Preparing to Interview for a Creative Role

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Effective résumé strategies

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- Your resume is critically important to landing job interviews and I always suggest you know the purpose of your resume. You may, in fact, have multiple resumes depending upon the type of positions you're applying for. Make sure you use keywords in the resume. This way, when they search through them or they are doing a record search, your resume pops up. You're going to want to use effective job titles. Things that accurately and quickly describe what experience you have and be sure you proofread this as well. And instead of using long written explanations, bullet points are important. People are going to want to scan through and quickly see that you have the experience. You also want to put the most important information upfront. You don't necessarily need to have a chronological resume. Another thing that's critically important is avoid negativity. We all have had jobs that we weren't crazy about in the past but stay positive. Show that you got something out of it and what that job meant to you. Also, don't be an expert in everything. You don't want to try to convey that you are amazing at all things because that's pretty much impossible and people are going to have doubt about your capabilities. Promote achievements instead of responsibilities. Show what you did at the job and what you got done, not just what you were put in charge of. And, don't put pictures in your resume. It's also a good idea to make one resume for each job. You can go through and remove any irrelevant information and make sure that you pull off any experience that does not really apply to the job you're going for. Also, make sure you don't lie on your resume or overembellish. If you do this, people are going to not have confidence in you and they're likely going to check up. Now generally speaking, I recommend a one or two-page resume. If you can get it down to one page, all the better. More than this, and it just looks like you're being long-winded and really don't have confidence in your position. Update your resume regularly to remove old information. And because you're applying for jobs in the creative field, make sure that it has good design. Pay attention to typography. You want something that is attractive. Even if you're not applying to be a graphic designer, people expect that creative professionals have professional and creative resumes. So spend the time to make it look good or hire somebody to help you out.

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