CV for graphic design student

peejay1986

Hi. I've redesigned and streamlined my cv and was wondering if I could get some feedback on it - design and content. It is available to view by clicking on the link on http:www.kelvinwins.com/files/kelvin_cv.pdf

I wanted to show how I can lay out a page and use an interesting font, other than helvetica or something standard like that. I hope this CV acts in a way, as a piece of work in itself.

Manager

peejay1986 wrote: »

Hi. I've redesigned and streamlined my cv and was wondering if I could get some feedback on it - design and content. It is available to view by clicking on the link on http:www.kelvinwins.com/files/kelvin_cv.pdf
prove the overall appearance of it. I felt I should design it properly instead of using the Word version I had previously. I was wondering if I could get some feedback on it please - design and content. I'm sending it off to my work experience placement tommoou

I like it its simple and straight to the point. People can go overboard sometimes with there cv and not always what the company wants. The only thing missing was I couldnt see any of your work. Maybe a few links to examples of your work would be good.

peejay1986

Manager wrote: »

I like it its simple and straight to the point. People can go overboard sometimes with there cv and not always what the company wants. The only thing missing was I couldnt see any of your work. Maybe a few links to examples of your work would be good.

Thanks for the feedback

I was a bit reluctant to put examples of my work on the CV for 2 reasons:

1) I felt that the quality of the images (depending on the printer used) may show my work in a bad light
2) It would take away from the clean look I was going for

I included a link to my work at the bottom of the CV

ztoical

Your website is listed to the side with your contact information so you don't need to add it again at the bottom. The massive Curriculum Vitae at the top looks odd, shouldn't it be your name? The employer knows it's a CV. You don't include work in a CV, thats what a portfolio is for. If an employer has asked for just a CV then that's all they want. Your CV contains your portfolio site address for them to check if they need to see your work. I wouldn't list your age or nationality, they aren't required for a CV and it's normally a CV don't to put any personal information other then your contact info. I also would change still attending to to be completed insert month/year

The about me section is more suited to your cover letter then your CV. Normally you'd see something like "Objective" followed by something along the lines of "To obtain a position as a insert job with a progressive company". I'm also not sure about your summaries under each of your schools in education, it's not something I've seen on alot of CVs, normally you just list your education and maybe the course modules.

peejay1986

ztoical wrote: »

The massive Curriculum Vitae at the top looks odd, shouldn't it be your name? The employer knows it's a CV.

I was toying with the idea of putting "I want to work for you". What do you think about that? I don't want to put my name as it looks bad in my opinion.

ztoical wrote: »

I wouldn't list your age or nationality, they aren't required for a CV and it's normally a CV don't to put any personal information other then your contact info.

Would you not think that listing my nationality would be important? I am using this to apply for work experience in England so I don't want them to feel that I am trying to mislead them in anyway.

ztoical wrote: »

I'm also not sure about your summaries under each of your schools in education, it's not something I've seen on alot of CVs, normally you just list your education and maybe the course modules.

The reason I have done this is that I personally feel it's important for me to express what I have learned in each level of education as these have moulded me as a designer. I also feel that in the case of Dundalk IT if I was to leave out the summary many people would assume that I had failed the course and for that reason I left early.

ztoical

peejay1986 wrote: »

I was toying with the idea of putting "I want to work for you". What do you think about that? I don't want to put my name as it looks bad in my opinion.

Then don't put anything, or design a company logo for yourself to go there. I dislike CV's that say CV, like an employer can't figure out what it is. When I look at your CV I find the giant heading doesn't sit with the rest of the page so from a purely design/layout view point I would reconsider it.

peejay1986 wrote: »

Would you not think that listing my nationality would be important? I am using this to apply for work experience in England so I don't want them to feel that I am trying to mislead them in anyway.

Most companies don't like people to list things like nationality as it could open them up to accusations of discrimination - someone not getting the job could claim it was due to their nationality, a CV should only contain information relating to your education, skill set, employment history and contact information. I've worked in several countries, not all EU, and have never listed my nationality, I would always make it clear in the cover letter that I was able to work in that location if there was going to be a question about work visas.

peejay1986 wrote: »

The reason I have done this is that I personally feel it's important for me to express what I have learned in each level of education as these have moulded me as a designer. I also feel that in the case of Dundalk IT if I was to leave out the summary many people would assume that I had failed the course and for that reason I left early.

That should all be explained in your cover letter. It's important that your cover letter should not repeat whats already in your CV, as it stands you've left yourself little information for your cover letter. Your CV should just be a list of information that an employer can check at a glance, while your cover letter should expand on this information.

mick.fr

Remove
1. Curriculum vitae

2. The fact your worked for 6 years in a furniture shop between 2000 and 2006 is irrelevant with your experience.

You are 22, it means you worked here between 14 and 20-21 years old, I am confused?

I worked at Pizza Hut too, before embracing IT many years ago. Pizza hut is long gone.

3. Never put your full address in a CV. Could be used for identity theft.

4. I very much like your work on your website, great sensitivy I can see, but overall your CV is not very appealing and looks poor for a designer.
Do what you do best and improve it if I may say.

HTH

peejay1986

mick.fr wrote: »

Remove
1. Curriculum vitae

Yeah that looks like a major negative for people

mick.fr wrote: »

2. The fact your worked for 6 years in a furniture shop between 2000 and 2006 is irrelevant with your experience.

You are 22, it means you worked here between 14 and 20-21 years old, I am confused?

I worked at Pizza Hut too, before embracing IT many years ago. Pizza hut is long gone.

Not that I don't appreciate your comments, I honestly do - but I'm keeping that in there because I feel that with such little experience in different jobs, this shows that I have worked in a tough working environment for a long period of time. Working in places like these can help build character.

It also shows how I advanced to working in their office environment in 2006.

And yes, I worked there until I was 20.

mick.fr wrote: »

3. Never put your full address in a CV. Could be used for identity theft.

Any person I've spoken to has told me to make sure I do include my full address. To be honest most things these days can be used for identity theft. I know from experience that some places prefer to reply via postal methods so I need to include this.

mick.fr wrote: »

4. I very much like your work on your website, great sensitivy I can see, but overall your CV is not very appealing and looks poor for a designer.
Do what you do best and improve it if I may say.

Thanks, really appreciate the kinds words. I'm working on improving the CV. It's not easy unfortunately lol.

Thanks again for your advise

mick.fr

You are 22 this is normal you have not so much meat to put in your CV yet.
Nothing wrong with that. Give time to the time.

As a professional I can tell you if I see a GFX designer who has worked 6 years in a furniture shop between the age of 14 to 21 I would think one, you are from Bangalore, two you do not make sense to have this along your GFX design experience. Nobody will ever ask you, or even think about asking you where did you work before the age of 18 and even probably 20.

With regards to the full address, nobody will ever send you a letter back home. Especially today with the thousands of applicants for a single job.
Simply specify the town/county where you live. That is more than enough.
If recruiters even reply to you by email, when you apply for a job, you will be very lucky.

p

Overall it's pretty solid. It's simple, it's clean, it's nicely designed, but shows you've got an eye for detail and design. This is all very good. I've seen a lot of designers CVs that miss the point. If I saw this CV I would definitely have you shortlisted for the interview.

I think removing Curriculum Vitae is a good idea, but I'd suggest replacing it with your name, and possibly your title.

Also, your 'about myself' section is fine, but it's more of a mission statement than anything about you. I think adding to that a bit more info on who you actually are would be useful. e.g. "I'm a graphic design student currently looking for work" or "I'm a recent graduate .. etc..." to give the viewer context.

I think the portfolio link in twice makes perfect sense because they're in a differnt context, and you certainl have the space.

My only small complain is that the font size looks very light and is hard to read on on my Mac. It probably looks nice printed, but maybe people don't read things printed as much any more. Perhaps you can use a slightly heavier weight.

p

ztoical wrote: »

I'm also not sure about your summaries under each of your schools in education, it's not something I've seen on alot of CVs, normally you just list your education and maybe the course modules.

I'd agree with most of what ztocial said, but I think this has real value. You did spend years studying, so it's reasonable to point out what you actually learned there. It's not that common on people who are established in their careers, but when you're at the start of your career and don't have as much actual experience it's very useful. Also, since you did 2 years computer science, it's a way of explaining it and making it sound useful and is an interesting talking point. (That will also only be a good thing in your career to have that tech base)

Small thing is I would add the dates of your current studying. e.g. (2006-present) or whatever it is to give context.

ztoical

p wrote: »

I'd agree with most of what ztocial said, but I think this has real value. You did spend years studying, so it's reasonable to point out what you actually learned there. It's not that common on people who are established in their careers, but when you're at the start of your career and don't have as much actual experience it's very useful. Also, since you did 2 years computer science, it's a way of explaining it and making it sound useful and is an interesting talking point. (That will also only be a good thing in your career to have that tech base).

But that is something that you would write about in the cover letter accompanying the cv rather then the cv itself. If it's left in the cv what will be in cover letter?

p

ztoical wrote: »

But that is something that you would write about in the cover letter accompanying the cv rather then the cv itself. If it's left in the cv what will be in cover letter?

Good point. I'd say it depends on what your cover letter is. I guess the main thing is just telling an effective story about you and why you should be hired, and making sure that all elements, CV, Cover Letter and Portfolio are all telling a coherent story about you.

experiMental

mick.fr wrote: »

As a professional I can tell you if I see a GFX designer who has worked 6 years in a furniture shop between the age of 14 to 21 I would think one, you are from Bangalore, two you do not make sense to have this along your GFX design experience. Nobody will ever ask you, or even think about asking you where did you work before the age of 18 and even probably 20.

You could not be more wrong. The fact that the OP worked in a furniture shop and may have assembled furniture is a valuable experience to a designer. The OP could use this knowledge to assist in design and layout of assembly manuals and instructions. Also, studying a course in IT in Dundalk Institute is also a valuable experience for any design discipline, as one would understand more about how software and systems work, etc. Sometimes a designer may need to do a graphic manual or a visualization for a particular system, to explain it better, etc.

What you done before the ages of 18 or 20 or before you started a design career also counts. You could be either working, travelling, being a layabout, but no matter what, whatever observation you're making and how you view the world will eventually feed into your design work. The more diverse your experience, the better.

If the OP wants to work as a creative designer who will be responsible for generating concepts, he might go a long way.

peejay1986

experiMental wrote: »

You could not be more wrong. The fact that the OP worked in a furniture shop and may have assembled furniture is a valuable experience to a designer. The OP could use this knowledge to assist in design and layout of assembly manuals and instructions. Also, studying a course in IT in Dundalk Institute is also a valuable experience for any design discipline, as one would understand more about how software and systems work, etc. Sometimes a designer may need to do a graphic manual or a visualization for a particular system, to explain it better, etc.

What you done before the ages of 18 or 20 or before you started a design career also counts. You could be either working, travelling, being a layabout, but no matter what, whatever observation you're making and how you view the world will eventually feed into your design work. The more diverse your experience, the better.

If the OP wants to work as a creative designer who will be responsible for generating concepts, he might go a long way.

To be honest this is exactly how I feel about my past experience which is why I have chosen to keep it included in my final CV.

I want to thanks you all for your feedback, it was all helpful and appreciated (good and bad!).

I know you all won't approve of my final CV but I feel it best reflects myself and my work. Its available to view here:

http://www.kelvinwins.com/about/


Thanks again everyone

p

Good work. I miss the typography you had in the header.

On second viewing I'd also suggest something else. I assume a graphic designer knows Photoshop, Illustrator & Office. Perhaps it's different for someone starting their career, but I'm really interested in what design skills they have.

e.g. Things like character illustration, icon design, type design, technical design, Photography, 3D, web design etc... I'm sure there's more but those kinds of things are very important.


Overall though, good work on the CV and the site, and also on the general attitude. If you keep that kind of self-critical and self-improvement attitude then you'll never have much trouble in your career.