Make your resume work for you!
Ziada Abeid
Communications Consultant | PR & Marketing Strategist | Fundraising Specialist | Travel Feature Writer | Driving Impactful Campaigns for Community Development and Tourism
Recently I was sieving through a bunch of resumes looking for a suitable and qualified candidate to fill an advertised position. Well, the said position is visual so I expected some of these resumes to represent that. However, I was disappointed to find that 80% of the resumes were in black and white and boring.
So, here’s the thing: if you work in the visual industry, make sure your resume has a visual representation of what you say you do.
For example, if you are a graphic designer, photographer or videographer, find a way to showcase your work through a portfolio. You can also share a link to where you keep your work. I mean sending in a resume that has been written in a Word document and your definition of beautifying it is a pdf, is not really ideal for a prospective employer looking for a person in the creative market.
There are several tools creatives can use to design a portfolio and showcase their masterpieces. This makes it easy for a hiring manager to quickly go through it and vet your work.
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Behance – For graphic designers, photographers, and anyone in the visual field, Behance is an excellent platform to showcase your work. Write your profile and share your projects. All you have to do is share a link and presto, a hiring manager can review your work. At least you have a foot in the door!
Adobe Portfolio - Previously known as Behance Pro Site, lets you build an independent portfolio website. There are several easy templates to download and install. Coming as part of Creative Cloud, Adobe Portfolio also allows you to upload your Behance portfolio without re-creating.
Crevado - Drag and drop your photos, graphics, videos, audio files, etc, into one of its easy-to-use templates. This free-to-use portfolio builder allows you to showcase your most impressive work easily and enticingly.
The days are long gone when your resume only included your skills in written form. Imagine, for an organisation getting 1000+ applications in a day, ask yourself who will stand out, a resume full of words looking like a policeman’s resume (nothing personal about a policeman, I’m sure even they have their own way of showcasing their work) or the one that’s visual, colourful and represents your work?