Resume

Hey! So recently I was working on creating my resume. I wanted to know how creative I can get with it in terms of colours and illustrations. Or do people prefer the traditional layout?

Thank you!

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This subject has come up before, but I can’t find the thread.

In my opinion, it depends on the company or person who will be getting the resume.

Mid- to large-sized companies have human relations (HR) people who handle much of this. For example, if you’ve applied for a job that’s been listed, a typical HR department will take your resume and run it through their software to extract the text, look for various keywords, then prioritize the results. In that sort of situation, a resume full of fancy stuff, not only doesn’t make any difference, it might even get garbled.

On the other hand, if you’re giving your resume directly to an art director or a company owner, that person just might like the looks of your more elaborate resume (or they might dislike it and make a premature decision without ever seeing your portfolio).

In my opinion, a middle ground is probably best. Keep it clean and simple, but make it nicer and better than a typical resume. This covers both scenarios. As someone who interviews quite a few job applicants, I’d rather see a nicely designed, simple resume where the applicant’s portfolio demonstrated the fancy stuff. That’s just me, though. The next guy might prefer something else. One never knows.

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Right. What about elaborating about yourself? Or listing down your favourite things or interests or things of that sort? How necessary is it?

Not at all, IMO. All I want from your resume is your education and related accomplishments, along with where you worked and how you contributed directly to the success of the organization(s).

Anything else is superfluous, unless it tells me something about you I find undesirable. Then of course it only works against you.

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I’m actually applying for a proper internship for the first time. I’m still a student and I’ve worked on a few small projects that is it… So in that case?

To some extent, in every case you have to do some research and find something on which to gauge the “personality” of the organization, then softening or hardening your presentation accordingly. As a student applying for internship, yes, aside from the cold facts of your history, some personal statement of ambition and acumen is appropriate, along with extracurricular interests and other insights into your personality. For a student seeking internship, a little bit more of a “get to know me” approach is fine.

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I had another question. How relevant is printing my resume and portfolio and mailing it today? Other than making a website?

You need to devise a strategy for reaching your target market. If your goal is to get a full time job, that would be reaching people who are in a hiring position or in the position to refer you to those people. That strategy could very well include a printed resume and portfolio. Personally, I’ve had quite good results with the printed promotional books that I make.

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