new resume. please C&C!

[danedawg99]

well, after some pretty harsh crits from another forum (http://www.howdesign.com/forum/messages.asp?topicID=347024), and very few job offers from my last resume, I decided to redo the whole damned thing.

Here it is (.pdf). (http://www.angelfire.com/comics/dadesigns/newresume3.pdf)

Thanks!!

[cjoe]

only one page? The Resume format i use is rather more extensive, but i suppose what you have is good for a generic one. If you are answering a specific job ad, always try and match the exact criteria in the ad if possible, i know it sounds obvious but some companies actually use a text search when looking through resumes and try and match words from their ad.

I think you should lose alot of the graphical elements. They are rather distracting. It's just my opinion but resumes should be a simple as possible, neutral colors, no extravagent shapes.

In your work experience section, it seems like the the last line leading under every subheading is different from other lines, oh no wait i just had another look, the leading is different where you have placed a deliberate line break and where the text is just justified. Overall the leading should be a little looser.

You should try and mention any teamwork or leadership activities that you have done. Employer love that crap. So add more stuff to your skills section. You can communicate well, proof-read, just cram all that stuff in there.

BTW instead of the word 'Education' use 'Curriculum Vitae' it sounds cooler.

HAHAHA i just read all that stuff on the other forum. They sounded like a bunch of psychos, especially that JessieJane. Although she did have some valid points, the tone she used just made me want to punch her in the face.

[danedawg99]

only one page?
Yeah, I've only been outta school a year. I don't have enough to make 2 pages. that and I've always been told to keep it to one if possible. (are you in England, by chance?

In your work experience section, it seems like the the last line leading under every subheading is different from other lines, oh no wait i just had another look, the leading is different where you have placed a deliberate line break and where the text is just justified. Overall the leading should be a little looser.
yeah it was buggin' me too. I just couldn't figure out why, thanks for that.

You should try and mention any teamwork or leadership activities that you have done. Employer love that crap. So add more stuff to your skills section. You can communicate well, proof-read, just cram all that stuff in there.

BTW instead of the word 'Education' use 'Curriculum Vitae' it sounds cooler.

good ideas all!

HAHAHA i just read all that stuff on the other forum. They sounded like a bunch of psychos, especially that JessieJane. Although she did have some valid points, the tone she used just made me want to punch her in the face.
glad i'm not the only one. her and that other dude...

Thanks, joe!

[MD]

Dane I think you are trying too hard to "spruce" it up and make it more creative.
Remove all the clip art from the top and the lines and circles from the sides, they are kind of distracting and serve no purpose.

Minor tweaks:
The type size appears to be different sizes in the left and right columns under "Skills"
Under "Work Experience" The leading looks a bit odd, also try breaking it up a bit by using different styles (bold, italic etc.)

K.I.S.S.
Keep it simple stupid :D

[EC]

Isn't "Curriculum Vitae" a bit overkill for a subhead? And it's a synonym for "Resume", no? But anyhoo.

I think you're going in the right direction, but I gotta be honest. I'm not really loving the graphics, it's just too much.

Potential employers are going to give this a once over and skim it in about five second's time and form their first opinion about you. What are they going to get from this? When someone is facing a stack of resumes two inches thick, make they aren't distracted by anything other than your education, experience and skills.

This is a design problem, so what's the solution? What are you trying to communicate? Where are your strengths, what do you want do downplay?

An example -- you've had six positions since 2003. That's my first impression of your "Work Experience" section because the dates are the largest. Perhaps you might try making that text the same size as the rest and bolding your titles -- that's a more impressive message to me if I were to just skim this over. It shows that you've had relevant responsibilities.

Like that.

Work on making this a little bit more uniform with your text overall, the leading as CJoe said, but also the text size -- I don't think the "Work Experience" section needs to be bigger than the others.

I think you can probably keep some of the fancy schmancies as a header and/or footer, but I would definitely get rid of the ones near the meat of the resume itself.

I think what can give a resume real "style" is the way it's organized and the close attention to detail given to the text itself. You can get creative with this even though it's subtle -- play with margins, scale, bullet styles, etc.

I think you've got a mistake under the Shirtail Screenprinting description, it reads the same as the one below it.

Hope that's not too harsh, but I've read a lot of resumes and definitely lean toward the simple, clean, well-organized, easy to read variety. Good luck! :)

[EC]

Well, I guess MD beat me to some of that as I was writing that book up there, I didn't realize how wordy I was being -- sorry! lol

[Liam]

first off, given your incredible experience (congrats)
i would expect WAY MORE. maybye you could look back through your portfolio and try to get a general "jist" of your style, and then of course implementing it in your resume. It needs to "speak" to the employer. what i see at the moment is something that could be done in microsoft word using built in clipart. i'd recomend using something like "inDesign" if you are not allready, and add some of your personal style to it, i know you can do way better, and i think thats what the prob w/ your critiques is. people are seeing that you have a TON OF experience and are stopping for a second, and realizing that you are using clipart?

one idea would be to get rid of the overwhelming clipart syle grapics, and try to go for something a but more mellow and relaxing, try to make it "enjoyable" to read , so the employer will be able to sit there and read it comfortably. the graphics are kinda "in your face" maybye also add a TINY bit of color or shading on the text :)

keep us posted, look forward to seeing the next revision :D

[LeeIs]

danedawg99,
yes some of those comments on the other board are plain rude. But you should learn to extract what you're after and discard the rest in each comment ;) I personally don't even bother posting on that board as it seems to be infested with rude big heads that think they're the bomb.

Anyways back to your resume. I think you're trying to make it very graphicy or you're trying to put a bit too much in to it. Think about it this way, your potential employer gets a lot of resumes and they can tell by first glance if someone is trying a bit too hard.

They've seen the logos, colours, etc. I can tell you from experience! You don't wanna see my first few resumes. lol. I've tried to make them art pieces but I never got any replies either. I learned to make them plain text but classy.

Spend the time that you're using to spruce it up with graphics with taking extra precautions and making sure the leading, kerning, alignment & contrast in type boldness are right on. Subtlty is what you should be going after IMO. If you're sending them by mail. I would invest in the best stock I could afford and maybe even get them laser printed so the type is niiiice & shaarp! These are the subtlties that will make your resume stand out to your potential employer and not all the graphics, your portfolio could do that.

And trust me the employer is looking for the small things, legibility & flow. They probably don't even read resumes that are over the top graphic, etc.

Good luck.

[morea]

I am sorry that you have had to deal with some harsh criticism... in my opinion, it is completely uncalled for under almost any circumstances. Honestly, many people seem to think that rudeness is required in a critique, and that we just need to develop a thicker skin. Personally, I believe that a thoughtful critique can be considerate and given with respect, and that such a critique is much more beneficial to the poster... but that's a rant for another day.

As for your resume:

cjoe: as a general rule of thumb, every career counselor I have spoken to has recommended keeping a resume limited to one page. That's here in the US though, so it may be different than in Oz. :p

If you are answering a specific job ad, always try and match the exact criteria in the ad if possible, i know it sounds obvious but some companies actually use a text search when looking through resumes and try and match words from their ad.

Excellent advice! Also include the key criteria from the ad in your cover letter - the parts that apply to you, that is.

I agree that the graphical elements are a little distracting. It's ironic that we want to be hired for our creativity and talent in the graphic arts, but most potential employers don't want to see that reflected on our resumes! :rolleyes: As EC said, some graphic elements in the header/footer area are ok, but I'd keep them away from the body of the resume.

Bear in mind that a potential employer will only look at your resume for 30 seconds - or until they find a reason to put it down! Simple is usually more effective in this case.

I don't think that you want to use the term "curriculum vitae" - I believe that is what they call a resume in England, so it might be a little bit redundant (or confusing - you know HR managers :D)

Your objective sounds a bit canned... try to think about it as though you are advertising a product or service for a client - how would you word it to grab attention so that someone would say "ooh, I need one of those!" Also, a career objective is somewhat optional, so you can always leave it off.

Just a thought... you have "SKILLS" and then say "proficient in" - what if you just change the title of that section to "PROFICIENCIES"?

For work experience, I see the same thing as EC - to a potential employer, it looks like you change jobs rather often, and even on a subconscious level, that may put them off... you could consider only listing the last 3 jobs under a heading like "EMPLOYMENT" and then listing the collective experience under another heading called "WORK EXPERIENCE" or something... I'm not sure how that would look - it's just a thought...

Spend the time that you're using to spruce it up with graphics with taking extra precautions and making sure the leading, kerning, alignment & contrast in type boldness are right on. Subtlty is what you should be going after IMO. If you're sending them by mail. I would invest in the best stock I could afford and maybe even get them laser printed so the type is niiiice & shaarp! These are the subtlties that will make your resume stand out to your potential employer and not all the graphics, your portfolio could do that.

And trust me the employer is looking for the small things, legibility & flow. They probably don't even read resumes that are over the top graphic, etc.


^ great advice!

I remember you were saying that you used a grid with your layout, but you might want to consider making it a little more obvious... by that I mean that if you want to indent something, indent it a little more so that it looks more intentional. Do you know what I mean?

I'm also not too keen on the idea of centering everything, though I expect that you may have done that to accomodate the graphic elements. It might just be personal preference, but I think that left aligned text presents a more professional image. Just a thought!

Hope that helps some.

[Mitch Wood]

1st rule of design, don't get emotionally attached to your designs. You had some really good info there and it wasn't harsh at all, they all gave reasons why you should change things and how. I have found that cutting these attachments have helped me move on and not procrastinate over a design.

As Lee said, disregard the crap and take from it what you want.

Personally I would have taken some/all of Frutigers crit in, After all it must have taken some time to write and is much more usefull than a 'yes that looks nice...'

As he/she said, look at a solid grid, this will make you look solid as a designer, at the moment it has no structure and therefore makes you look unorganised.

I would deffo lose the images, they do nothing for you at all. Look at your neg space and make it legible so it is easy to read and therefore slick just for this fact.

Show you typographical prowess, and I don't mean Carson style intuitive random placement and structure, I mean showing your understanding of relation with type, space and colour.

Personally I feel your first attempt was more on the right lines, I would clean that baby up, and maybe add some style to it through good spacial awareness.

Remember the CV/Resume isn't for showing your wild creative side, it is to list your experience (and to get through the first filter of applicants) so you can elaborate on it later at an interveiw. I am not saying have a plain typed resume/CV, but less is so so so much more in this instance.

Good luck with it, and wish you all the best with your job hunt.


Edit: Some good advice here too. Take it in and get another revision up!

[reuber1]

Holy work experience Batman! I'd give my <insert body part here> for just one of those on my resume (minus the lab assistant...I don't think I could stand the idiocy of other students).

I read the other forum too and shook my head. I hate it how someone can act like a total jerk with some snide/asinine comment, then by merely following up with a valid point and they'll call it "constructive", and if you call them on it they'll always fall back on "You have to have a thick skin if you wanna work in this industry blah blah etc". That's not constructive, that's being a bully. I didn't look at any of their work, and although it might be good, it still doesn't change the fact that they were being rude.

Specifics:
I agree with morea on left aligning the copy. I would simply remove the graphics on the left side of the page next to your resume body and left align from there. You might get away with keeping the graphic line on the top.

The name is bugging me ("You have a dumb name!!!" :p , kidding), the alignment between each other looks off and since both names are four letters you could easily match them up; you could easily space it out evenly so it's part of it's own mini-grid. I don't know what program you used, but if it's Freehand or Illustrator I would simply convert the text to a path and match the width of the letters (what's the typog name for that?) to each other by narrowing some of those longer letters, or widening the shorter ones...whatever's easier and better looking.

Remove the graphics in the top left. They don't seem to fit in overall. Use this opened up space to left align your contact info perhaps? I would definitely uncenter the contact info, this way you have no text objects centered. And the font for the contact info, I think, should be more akin to the body font, as opposed to the font for your name.

I think you need to elaborate on your objective. morea's advice was excellent here, and I'll probably use it for my own. And definitely take into account that they may get suspicious of you if you have that many jobs listed. It may tell them that you can't commit, that they let you go, etc etc. List only a few of those? Maybe keep the one's that were the most recent.

MD was right. K.I.S.S. Resume's can be annoying for us creative folk because we're not sure how 'snazzy' it should look, if 'snazzy' at all.

[reuber1]

I page-jacked Mitch Wood's post while I was typing. He has some good info there, I would take a look.

[EC]

I know this is not the right thread for this, but everyone is discussing the "harsh critiques" over on the other forum ... and I just had to get this off my chest real quick --

There is nothing "harsh" about pointing out what someone feels is a negative in the design. That's really what a critique is for -- to point out areas that can be improved.

What *is* harsh, is behaving like an assjack. Making jokes and poking fun of things and talking back and forth with other members of the forum in their own language (that "private joke" thing) is NOT appropriate in the professional or academic world, so it's understandable why people get annoyed when it's done on a "professional" forum.

That said, it's not isolated to that other forum. I've seen people behave this way on THIS forum with certain members that come here for help, especially *cough* the younger members. Few people are ever called on it that I notice anyway.

Sorry to get all preachy like, but it's just something to keep in mind. ;)

[PersonasBinar]

OK here we go:

ALL IS MEANT CONSTRUCTIVELY:

Lose the elements on the edge of the page....when the pdf is printed these elements are/will be destroyed thus losing all effectiveness. Lose the clipart, IMO if you are looking for an illustration position and using clipart, there's a mixed message there. Create an illustration for the resume that is yours and yours alone...show them what you can do right off the bat. The text does seem to be all over the place in the experience section. Separate the elements through spacing or styling of the same font face and you're golden. I also agree that the objective sounds canned. Whenever I do a resume I agonize over the objective for seemingly ages.

[danedawg99]

you guys don't have to worry about stepping on my feelers. Just so long as we're not coming off with insults, we all cool!;)

ALL THAT WAS TAKEN CONSTRUCTIVELY.:D

that objective is in there right now as a placeholder. I'm actually trying to cement the design right now.

I don't get the 'clipart' thing. Is it just because it's kinda geometric? I dunno. I drew those things last night, kind of as a graphic representation of my proficiencies. I don't use clip art. (I wouldn't even know where to get any other than at work, since i work in a small t-shirt co. they use a LOT of clipart designs. I hate it!)

[reuber1]

Yeah, I read that you drew those. They do come off as clip-art to some...just assume that they're "clip-art looking". As for the obj., I guess that makes sense as a placeholder, though to me nitpicky the ol' "Lorem ipsum" should be used in that instance :) I will say that maybe just getting rid of the illustration at the top might be your best bet. I've read that resumes are more of a test of typography and layout than anything.

In any case, there's tons of good advice on here. Just make the necessary fixes and you'll be good.

[EC]

People don't and won't know that you drew those yourself. It's not that they are "clip arty" it's more that using graphics to communicate your abilities is probably better suited to a postcard or a self-promo piece of some sort, not so much a resume.

I know it's extremely tempting to want to do what you do best and demonstrate that on your resume, but I think now is the time to edit and refine. Take away all of those elements that are detracting from the most important information.

I've literally spent hours and hours combing through resumes on many occassions over the years. And I am just sharing this based on my experience -- don't try to be cute or clever or "try too hard" to stand out. I've seen it all, and when you see a lot of resumes trying to compete for your attention, they ALL start to annoy you.

The best resumes, from the perspective of your audience (the resume reader if you will) are the ones that give your eyeballs a nice break. "Aaaaah, this one is really nicely organized, lots of white space, the text is easy to read, I can see at a glance where to find the information I'm interested in reading more about ..."

Why not try picking three things that you REALLY want to communicate with this resume, and then think about how you'll organize that in a way that really stands out. I think you'll find that you DON'T want those three things to be the graphics that you've included. You want your experience and education to really shine.

Right now, the graphics are the first thing anyone is going to focus on, and maybe if they are giving you only 30 seconds of their time, that's just burned up the precious majority of it.

[reuber1]

I will backup dane's last comment on the other forum before everyone stopped responding, but where are there examples of GOOD ones? I go online and all I ever see is a resume that is tailored towards software developers or tech support people and all of your other generic this/that/and the other thing (actually, I find very little on monster or career builder or sites like that for anything related to GD). That or you see lots of bad ones. Maybe someone's got one buried in the showcase here.

[danedawg99]

Yeah, I read that you drew those. They do come off as clip-art to some...just assume that they're "clip-art looking". As for the obj., I guess that makes sense as a placeholder, though to me nitpicky the ol' "Lorem ipsum" should be used in that instance :) I will say that maybe just getting rid of the illustration at the top might be your best bet. I've read that resumes are more of a test of typography and layout than anything.

In any case, there's tons of good advice on here. Just make the necessary fixes and you'll be good.
I see. OK. consider them gone. (I can't update it until tonite, tho) I'm simmering all the good ideas here and at the other place, and hopefully the excess will boil off, and the gems will be left by 5 tonite. Then. I can get back to work on this.

On a somewhat related note, I have a phone interview later, any suggestions? I've never had a phone interview. :confused:

[PersonasBinar]

Sorry, I just meant more the "look" of clip art never ever does anything good for a resume

[morea]

There is some great info here, dane, and I hope that it helps. There really was some helpful information on the other board, too, but some comments are just rude.

"Um, I almost just wrote "I give up" but that would not have been constructive, would it?"

"whild i appreciate you took my advice to start over, i meant in a better way"

"you went from bad to bad"

That's just arrogance - people being jerks - and it's not constructive at all. That's why that sort of thing is not tolerated here. I don't care if someone has 30 years in the GD industry with a 7-figure salary and an award for every piece that they've done - it doesn't give them a right to be insulting.

the best example is Jeff Fisher - honestly - a very successful designer who many others look to as almost a mentor. I am sure that Jeff has answered some of the same questions 1000 times - but every single time he does, he is polite and constructive. If he doesn't like something, he will let you know - but without being insulting.

It says rather a lot about someone's character, don't you think?

[morea]

incidentally, I did some digging over there... this is the resume that they said was a good example:

http://vcn.bc.ca/~sfalkner/Scott_Falkner.pdf

[danedawg99]

There is some great info here, dane, and I hope that it helps. There really was some helpful information on the other board, too, but some comments are just rude.

"Um, I almost just wrote "I give up" but that would not have been constructive, would it?"

"whild i appreciate you took my advice to start over, i meant in a better way"

"you went from bad to bad"

That's just arrogance - people being jerks - and it's not constructive at all. That's why that sort of thing is not tolerated here. I don't care if someone has 30 years in the GD industry with a 7-figure salary and an award for every piece that they've done - it doesn't give them a right to be insulting.

the best example is Jeff Fisher - honestly - a very successful designer who many others look to as almost a mentor. I am sure that Jeff has answered some of the same questions 1000 times - but every single time he does, he is polite and constructive. If he doesn't like something, he will let you know - but without being insulting.

It says rather a lot about someone's character, don't you think?
it does indeed. That's why everyone loves Jeff!
:D

[morea]

On a somewhat related note, I have a phone interview later, any suggestions? I've never had a phone interview. :confused:

• relax and SMILE. It sounds dumb, but the caller really CAN hear a smile in your voice.

• have a copy of your resume / relevant dates / etc in front of you

• have a pad and pen handy

• be ready to answer common interview questions (there are some links in the Frequently Discussed Topics)

• relax!

• yes, it's common sense, but concentrate exclusively on the call - don't have your kids/dog/friends running around distracting you and making noise, don't eat, chew gum, drink, wash the dishes, vacuum the carpet, or play solitaire on your computer while interviewing. Pretend (to some degree) that the person is right in the room with you.

• picture the person in their underwear, if it will help you to relax and smile ;)

• no booze until AFTER the call

• be HONEST, answer the questions, and don't ramble.

Hope that helps some :D

[reuber1]

Thanks for that link morea, I'll just replace his name & contact info w/ mine :D
Seriously, though, that's nice to have as an example to use for reference.

Don't get too worried about the phone interview. Don't ignore it's importance, but don't sweat over it. The job I have now (the one that I beat others who were more qualified for but it's yet not the job that I really wanted) was after 1 interview. I went in, no worries, and answered each question like I was the coolest guy ever (difference between confidence and arrogance). Seriously, I just try to get along with them and act as personable/professional as I can. But then again, I haven't had a vast interview sampling, and I hear stories about the folks who are doing the hiring asking some difficult questions and are hard on their critiques.

huh-huh, I said...nevermind. :p

[cjoe]

Yeah, I've only been outta school a year. I don't have enough to make 2 pages. that and I've always been told to keep it to one if possible. (are you in England, by chance?



No mate i'm in Australia. Thats why i always take ages to get back to everyone. Like, for example, now.

[cjoe]

• no booze until AFTER the call




lol. yeaah.

[cjoe]

Isn't "Curriculum Vitae" a bit overkill for a subhead? And it's a synonym for "Resume", no? But anyhoo.



It depends where you come from. I like to think of the Resume as the whole document and curriculum vitae as the part where you have your proffesional and academic history. curriculum vitae means 'course of life' in latin.

E.g. you might have this structure:

Objective

Skills

Curriculum vitae

etc

I'm not sure what you Americans do, so do what you were taught, or you end up looking like a stupid Aussie (i'm sure i'm probly wrong in this matter but i'll argue the point anyway). Also to be honest Morea i never went to a guidance councillor or our equivalent, its not compulsory here. My last resume was 5 pages long, filled with lots of crap which could be interpreted as wanking.

[GreenThumb]

Dane,

I don't think any of us has specifics or knowledge of what entails the "perfect" resume-- all we have is educated guesses. I will tell you what I expect in in a resume when I hire someone:-

The position applied for has a direct bearing on how I critique their resume visually. If someone wants to be a graphic designer or Illustrator, I dont even care about their resume-- I wanna know their first name and their work. If someone wants to be an accountant I wouldnt mind if they had their resume in MS word with Comic Sans. However, if I had to critique a designer's portfolio I would lean towards minimalism- I LOVE crisp white paper with grey text (varying tints of it), instead of any kind of design. In some cases, they already have some element of pseudo-branding going on for them; they might have a website, a business card with similar colors as their website, a letterhead and a matching portfolio book. If so, I see whether their resume fits in nicely with everything else. I hate it when people try to mask their lack of real world experience with fancy graphics.

With all that being said, I will reiterate a point I made in passing...I dont care what he/she/it looks, smells, talks, farts like as long as they have 2 things:-

- Truly respectable work
- Humility

So, Ill say this...is your portfolio good enough? If so, you can mail a turd labelled 'Resume' to the design firm alongwith your truly awesome folio and no one will care. One of my friends got hired at a very large as a copywriter based SOLELY on the inquiry letter he submitted...it was THAT good.
------------------------------


All this is just my opinion and may/may not hold true for others/you :P

[GreenThumb]

incidentally, I did some digging over there... this is the resume that they said was a good example:

http://vcn.bc.ca/~sfalkner/Scott_Falkner.pdf

Morea,

At first glance I thought that resume wasnt anything special visually...but reading the portfolio is a complete treat...that guy packs in a wealth of technical information about himself in a very concise space amazingly.

The thing I love is that he listed his previous firms's phone numbers-which to me is an extreme convenience and a sign that he is on good terms with them.

Im all confused now.

[morea]

thanks for sharing Green Thumb! It's excellent to hear thoughts about resumes from a hiring point of view!

Incidentally, I realize that the way I worded that might have sounded like I was being sarcastic that the resume I linked to was a good example... if that's how I came across, it was not my intention ;)

[danedawg99]

would it be stupid or cheesy to include a kind of note to the viewer on the resume? kind of a "thank you for taking the time to read my resume, hope your search goes well" kind of thing? or is that stupid, and I'm getting too far ahead of myself?

[GreenThumb]

Leave that for the letter, Dane.

[danedawg99]

right on. thanks, green thumb. :)

[danedawg99]

Here we go:

the *newest* one (http://www.angelfire.com/comics/dadesigns/daneault.pdf)

hit me baby one more time!

in other news:

OMG! Thank you guys SOOOO much for all your help! :D

now,back to me with the midnite update:
I did well in my phone interview, so I have a skills test and mini-interview set up for tomorrow evening. (YAAAAAY thanks again you all!!) Hopefully this'll be ready by then. Question: when they say "you'll have between a1/2 hour and an hour and a 1/2," what's a safe timetospend on something (in this case, builidn an ad from the ground up). I ask b/c I did a skills test earlier in the summer and tookmy time and made everything as perfect as i could make it. and didn't get the job. Maybe i took too long when she wanted to see speed, is the only thing I can think ofthat I may have done worng.I dunno.

[GreenThumb]

Ill give you a few suggestions to save space--or create the perception of it:-

1) Capitalize Dane Ault and then move it a few lines to the top
2) Make the adress and email information a little smaller and space them out evenly but make your email adress bold.
3) Right now it seems set up like a newsletter...it dosent really catch my eye...but then again, its a resume...I like the grey now :P

[danedawg99]

really good suggestions!
like this? (http://www.angelfire.com/comics/dadesigns/daneault1.pdf)
I set it up kinda like a newpaper page since the job I'm trying for tomorrow is a newspaper.
thanks, Greenthumb! :cool:

on that note: I'ma go to sleep. Thanks alot, y'all! :cool:

[GreenThumb]

I think we should have a Dane Ault resume redesign contest :P

[LeeIs]

Dane,
I really like your new resume, I think it's a million times better than your original already. I have some suggestions on ways to improve it.

1. If you look at your address/phone line you'll recognize that it's out of alignment with
a. the right edge of your body text
b. the top & bottom of your name.

I would suggest that your right align it and keep it with in the orange area I've highlighted below.

2. Your right column hangs lower than your right. I think it is best for you to find a creative way to balance both sides.

3. This one is minor but the T just seems to hang too much to the right. as you'll see below at the red screened area at (3.) I say this is minor becuase this problem will probably go away once you fix your address line (1.)

Another minor thing, is that the left column doesn't have any strong features (the bold black text) as your employment does. This could be becuase you wanna draw attention more attention to your employment record which would be fine.

By the way, what kinda job will you be applying for in the newspaper? I work at one and if you have any Q's you can pm me.

Good luck man.

http://img301.imageshack.us/img301/994/dane2ga.gif

[Mitch Wood]

Hi Dane, that is better.

I feel you could use your knowledge of the golden ratio (http://www.designinflight.com/05April/feeling_your_way_around_grids.html)/proportions to give this baby some breathing space.


These titles seems a little patronising, but some sound info here, (http://www.markboulton.co.uk/journal/comments/five_simple_steps_to_designing_grid_systems_part_1 /) here, (http://www.markboulton.co.uk/journal/comments/five_simple_steps_to_designing_grid_systems_part_2 /) here, (http://www.markboulton.co.uk/journal/comments/five_simple_steps_to_designing_grid_systems_part_3 /) here, (http://www.markboulton.co.uk/journal/comments/five_simple_steps_to_designing_grid_systems_part_4 /) and here. (http://www.markboulton.co.uk/journal/comments/five_simple_steps_to_designing_grid_systems_part_5 /)

Here is his type series... (Some good basic info here, take note of the hanging punctuation..) (http://www.markboulton.co.uk/journal/comments/five_simple_steps_to_better_typography/)

[Mitch Wood]

A little more about the golden ratio (http://www.mcs.surrey.ac.uk/Personal/R.Knott/Fibonacci/fibnat.html) in nature....

[cjoe]

I don't know about you dane but this has been an educational experience for me. It's great to go through this exercise. I wonder what the HOW people think about your new resume? Oh well, i think we should declare war on them anyway. :) Yarrrr!

I like the new resume, much better than the old one. I think what Mitch said about giving it some breathing space is a very good point, but then i do resumes that are more than one page long.

Keep up the good work and let us know bout the final.

[Mitch Wood]

I used to do mine on two pages, but I realised less is more.

Give them something to talk about in the interveiw instead of having it all down before you get there.

p.s. I have taken in interest in CV's/Resumes for the past few months. Basically any site portfolios I liked, I downloaded there resumes. Some were very poorly executed compared to the actual work they had displayed.

[cjoe]

Basically any site portfolios I liked, I downloaded there resumes. Some were very poorly executed compared to the actual work they had displayed.


Funny that eh? I did a resume a couple of weeks back it was very rushed so i think i might redo. I must say mine is appallingly designed and very long.

[Mitch Wood]

Yes Joe I found it strange that the first impression a designer gets to give a possible employer is a cluttered one when their work was so slick.

I wasn't looking for cutting edge design, but all I got ressembled a word file. (With the gratuitous Times Italic bold, sometimes centered. All that was missing was Comic Sans, and a some clip art of a pencil/mouse!)

[cjoe]

but all I got ressembled a word file.

hehe guilty. :D

[morea]

Great resources, Mitch.

Looking good, Dane... my thoughts (for what they're worth! :p)

I like the font you used for your name... it might just be me, but you might want to take a look at the kerning. For your address and contact info, it might look a little more formal if you reduce the size of the type and leading and make that text box the same height as your name, so the entire header is "even" vertically.

I would like to see you remove the emphasis from the dates in your employment section... consider listing them in parenthesis after the name of the company where you worked.

This is probably just me being picky, but your "Professional Experience" and "Employment" sections are about the same length... why not put them across from each other, and then "Additional Experience" and "Proficiencies" side by side. It might make the page balance better.

I have been told that employers will balk at reading blocks of text... if you could break up the two employment sections into bullet points or even just some space between the statements, it will be more likely to be read.

Also, I've heard that you should never use the words "I", "me", or "my" on the resume - save that for the cover letter.

Your objective... it might just be placeholder text for now, but when working on that, bear in mind that you want to emphasize the benefit to the company hiring you.

Looking really good though! I think it's quite an improvement. :p

---

Edit: I'm going to add this thread to our "resume resources" in the Frequently Discussed Topics because it has been a great discussion.

[MD]

I would like to see you remove the emphasis from the dates in your employment section... consider listing them in parenthesis after the name of the company where you worked.
I totally agree, this would also give you the extra space to pull the second column up even with the other. Unbelievable improvement Dane.

[danedawg99]

yeah I got totally blocked on the objective last night... *UGH!*
I'll do a little tweakage, on it in a bit. Thanks, you guys! :D

[morea]

a couple helpful links on writing objectives:

http://resume.monster.com/articles/noobjective/

http://www.career.fsu.edu/ccis/guides/developing.html

[danedawg99]

maybe i'll just lose the objective altogther? :(

[EC]

Dane, I think that your last resume is a drastic improvement. Great job!!

I hope you don't mind but I moved a just a few things around on your resume really quick to maybe just give you another idea. (It could use some more fussing but I've got to get to work, I think it's enough for you to get the idea of where I'm going with this.)

I still think you're making the reader work a little hard by putting those blocks of text on there in paragraph form. Harder to "skim"

It's my opinion (for what it's worth) that would be better suited for a nice cover letter, and can probably be taken out of the resume entirely. Just food for thought.

Whoops, it was too big I guess. Try this: http://www.chepooka.com/daneault1a.pdf

[Drorain]

EC thats a sexy result, I like it. Looks a lot like mine in as far as the grid goes. Now that shows to me a refined and detailed designer with a sense of style and class and defined maturity.

[morea]

I love the white space.

White space is beautiful.

[danedawg99]

http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v433/danedawg99/daneault1.jpg
here's the most recent one. Again, trying to use as much af this info as i can. Lemme know whatcha think. :)

[Navian]

I hope what I'm about to post helps out.

You might get away with putting your additional and professional sections on your coverletter. I like your layout and the layout of EC's version. I'll post an example of mine (left it at home, and at work at the moment). I would also touch the "address/phone/email info" leadding.

Ive done my resume in MSWord, I utilized the header and footer options.. in the header I just had my name, in the footer (like a business document) I had my cell# email and address.. kept that away from the top. I figured once they are done reading my resume and they feel they could contact me, the info is at the bottom, thus I figured when you are done reading a page, your eyes flow to the bottom of a page. the bottom of the page indicates usualy the end of the reading, and questions arise.

Never ever ever put the phone numbers, addresses, employeer (boss) of the places you've worked at. Do try to get reference letters though (good to have when you turn in a resume/coverletter). Keep employment dates to the Years, if they want to know how long you worked at a certain place, they will ask you the question in the interview. the phone numbers, addresses, and name of employeer (boss/sup) should go on a seperate sheet for the interview, called a reference sheet. DO NOT present it or give it to them unless they ask. Also, put jobs that you've had that pertain/relate to the job applying.

Again I'll post my some what current (doesnt have my recent job on it) resume tomorrow.

I've had my current resume scanned by a few colleges, and even the Employment services (they gave me bad advice).

Print your resume on the good parchment paper, stay light with the colors, print your coverletter and references on the same kind of paper.

Before the job I have currently I have had responded to at least 100 positions. I call it personal law of average. The more "no's" you get you will eventually find a "yes" (but sometimes those positions dont work out).

Good Luck on getting the job Dane!

Edit: My resume (http://www.geocities.com/nfjohnson96/documents/resume.doc) (View it by print preview) its been created out of MS Word 2003

[uncle carbunkle]

lol@assjack!

[Liam]

much improved, keep at it, think youre profesionalism (from all that dam experiance) is starting to show throuh on the reume now, that being said, i did like "EC" redesign ;)

good work, and dont bother w/ how, im starting to realise that our threads on GDF are much more educational, and constrictive, and produce much better results (kinda like everyone on here is on your "team" ) not to mention vBulletin software for forums is way better, than that cheap PHP forum on the HOW site, hehe.

[Liam]

also, here is an interesting quote from HOW forums:

"Then lick my balls- cos yer just another clown that has some cracks of adobe products and no real design skills... excuse my honesty."

need i say anymore?

[Mitch Wood]

need i say anymore?

Honesty is the best policy...

GDF, How, creativebits & ihaveanidea are all totally different forums, thankfully with very different perspectives, for christ sake stop taking digs, if you don't llike it, then simple, don't go there. Just enjoy each for what it is.

Personally I like the veiws of folks there, they are blunt, at least you know where you stand, plus they share some really good info and insight.

Their design experience is exceptionally good for a public forum.

Design is a self opinionated business and this will reflect in the discussions, take it or leave it, but stop bloody winging about it.

[reuber1]

Let's all be nice now. We don't have to have mynock whip out the Bob Ross avatar again to get us in the mood to start thinking happy thoughts, do we?

[morea]

GDF, How, creativebits & ihaveanidea are all totally different forums, thankfully with very different perspectives, for christ sake stop taking digs, if you don't llike it, then simple, don't go there. Just enjoy each for what it is.

Very true. There are a lot of very talented designers on HOW, and many of them do offer helpful and insightful feedback. Yes, there are some folks there who can be rude, but that's not an excuse to bash their forum.

[Mynock]

Let's all be nice now. We don't have to have mynock whip out the Bob Ross avatar again to get us in the mood to start thinking happy thoughts, do we? You asked for it.

[reuber1]

Whew! For a second there I thought it was just the still image, not the animated gif.

[morea]

yeah, THANKS reuber. :rolleyes:

:p

[reuber1]

Hands down that is THE (with the drawn out "EEEEEEEE") happiest avatar.

[Mynock]

at it also has a white fro