Tips and tricks for a graphic designer’s CV

5 372 application per year!

At the risk of sounding preachy, here’s my modest advice on the eternal question of CVs, applications and cover letters. I’m going to start with a figure (and thus establish my legitimacy on the issue): 5372.

That’s the number of job and internship applications we received in 2010, or between 10 and 20 a day! Given that Graphéine is a modest branding agency, if we were rich and generous we could take on 5,372 people a year! Unfortunately, that’s not the case, and we’re content to answer 99.999% of them in the negative. However, even if the answer is usually generic, we at least take the time to answer! Because it seems that not everyone does…

So how do you stand out from the crowd of 5,372 CVs?

How do you make a good application?

Here is a short, non-exhaustive list of tips and mistakes to avoid:

1 – Avoid sending your CV to the first 20 companies found on Google. You can be sure that, like us, they’ll be completely inundated with CVs. In other words, it’s a waste of time for you and for them. So where to look? If I knew, I’d already have a book out selling on Amazon! Just don’t look where everyone else is looking!

2 – Your email. Avoid using an email like sweatheart_75@gmail.com or pokemon_69@laposte.net. Also be careful about advertising signatures (how many times have I thought that a graphic designer had La Poste as one of his references?)

3 – CCI: I would say ‘yellow card’ to anyone who sends a bulk e-mail and ‘red card’ if the recipients are not hidden.

4 – Find the right contact and write to them personally: on any self-respecting website, there is usually an email for applications. The No. 1 advantage of this email is that it channels all job applications into one place (handy for automatic replies…). With this in mind, you have every right not to do what everyone else is doing… but only if you do it creatively! For example, a few years ago, a student looking for a work placement noticed that he had the same surname as one of us. So he sent us a letter full of confetti to celebrate! The more you get your recipient involved (without being a show-off!), the more likely they are to reply… Not necessarily positively, but it’s something.

5 – The subject of your message is the first point of contact. Given that 99% of subject lines will look like ‘Graphic designer application’ or ‘Unsolicited web designer application’… Maybe there’s a way to be more original? Without turning it into a novel, as in this example: ‘Young graphic designer with a degree from the École supérieure des Arts Décoratifs de Strasbourg, looking for freelance work and collaborations’.

6 – Don’t send an e-mail just to find out if you can apply for a work placement or a job. If you don’t reply to a job advert, you’re making an unsolicited application. Asking permission to make an unsolicited application makes no sense 🙂
(Exemple)

7 – Avoid spelling mistakes: I’m not much of a speller myself, so when I see “one” I know there are 10, and that’s a bummer!
(Exemple)

8 – Avoid asking one of your parents to find you an intership.
(Exemple)

9 – Put some enthusiasm into it!
In short, avoid restrictive phrases such as ‘The school has asked me to find an intership…’. Or ‘as part of a compulsory intership’…

10 – Grab the recruiter’s attention: first impressions are often the right ones, and it only takes 1/4 of a second to see if the person has taken care with their presentation. All the effort is usually concentrated on the CV, but it’s often the last thing they look at. The first thing they look at is the email they’re going to open. This is the world of communication, so use your creativity to sell yourself! Don’t hesitate to use images (at 72 dpi!) in the body of the email (this avoids loading and opening heavy PDFs), and take just as much care with your text. Don’t hesitate to include your contact details in the body of the email.

11 – Mentionner son site ou son blog : c’est généralement plus rapide d’ouvrir un lien que d’ouvrir un PDF. Ce site peut être orienté spécifiquement pour la recherche d’un stage ou d’un job, à commencer par son URL. On sera plus enclin à visiter www.buymybrain.net ou www.desirsdemploi.org que “www.pierre-paul.com”. On peut même aller jusqu’à personnaliser l’URL du destinataire (exemple : on a reçu un jour 5 cartes postales “papier” avec juste une mystérieuse URL “www.monsite.com/Le_prenom_du_destinataire”… en recopiant l’URL, nous tombions chacun sur une animation flash personnalisée “Bonjour, machin, je me présente… “)

11 – Mention your website or blog: it’s generally quicker to open a link than a PDF. This site can be geared specifically to the search for an internship or job, starting with its URL. People are more likely to visit www.buymybrain.net than www.pierre-paul.com. You can even go so far as to personalise the recipient’s URL (example: we once received 5 ‘paper’ postcards with just a mysterious URL ‘www.mysite.com/name_of_the_recipient’… by copying the URL, we each came across a personalised flash animation “Hello, my name is… “)

12 – Attachments: avoid 15 MB emails with 10 attachments. Avoid zipped files and 96-page HD PDFs. Prefer the good old PDF of 1 or 2 MB maximum with a summary of your references (leave the exhaustiveness for your website).

13 – Avoid offbeat (and admittedly a little dated) ‘PS’: ‘PS: I bring croissants in the morning’, ‘PS: I’m very good at making coffee and photocopies’… Of course it would be nice to have hot croissants, but save your secret boots for later, because that’s not what’s going to make the difference!

14 – The CV: for some recruiters, the CV and covering letter are still essential. These documents deserve the same creativity as the rest. Bend conventions to surprise. For example, I remember a very classic CV that ended with ‘If you’re not interested in this CV, you can always use the back’ with games on the back (crosswords, sudoku, etc.).

A few examples of original CVs:

15 – After a negative response: avoid venting your hatred in a vengeful e-mail! (exemple). Take the opportunity to try and ask for some tips ‘Do you know of any agencies that are recruiting?’

WARNING:
Thank you for not using this good advice with our agency. Otherwise, I invite you to read point 1 again, because 5,372 emails is one thing, but you have to remember that we certainly get that many phone calls!