Guide to landing a Design Job
This is a helpful guide to land that design job you always wanted. In this post you will learn the right ways to make a portfolio, resume, and where to look for jobs.
I’ve been in the same spot before, so I know how hard and challenging it can be for a designer. So I hope this will give you a little help to get you on the way to finding the job that you love.
Step 1 is always the most important step. A portfolio shows employers that not only do you have experience, but you can get the job done. Also, in a lot of ways, the portfolio represents you and your own style.
Key Points to know about a portfolio:
1.) A clean and easy to navigate website is always the way to go.
2.) If you don’t hold the skills to design a website, just know there are 100 places to get information. Places I normally buy from for wordpress, css, and html: (themeforest.net ) (woothemes) (activeden)
3.) Also display work on the homepage, but try to use your best work.
4.) If you’re going to post links to your facebook, twitter, myspace, etc, please try not to post an image of you drinking down 20+ beers; your friends think it is cool, but the employer is thinking you will never be on time.
5.) If you don’t have the time or money to buy a design, try posting your work on online community’s websites.
Here I have added some online portfolios that I found searching the internet. Some get right to the point of showing off the work, which is always a great idea. If you want to get some inspiration, search the internet. It’s a great place to find awesome and really well designed portfolios.
So as we move on to step 2, your resume should be as strong or if not, stronger than your website. Yeah you can use the standard resume that was made in Microsoft office or you can take it to the next step and be creative. (The creative resume should only be used once you have an interview set up.)
Key Points to making your resume right:
1.) Always add your website address on the resume. If you don’t have one, just put the address to your online portfolio.
2.) Always show your skills and your education on the top of your resume to give the employer a good sense of your skill level.
3.) Don’t use a hard font to read. Stick with the basic fonts like Arial, Courier New, Times New Roman, Verdana, etc. Also, don’t size your font bigger than 12pt.
4.) With work experience, add no more than 5 bullet points about what your role was and some of the tasks that you did. Also, in your points, try to add software that you used on projects.
5.) Always add references if needed at the bottom of your resume.
Good Sample of a standard resume:
Good Samples of creative resumes:
After getting past steps 1 & 2, it’s time to start the job search. Here is a selection of websites that offer job postings. Try to check all of them everyday as they will be always updating and adding new jobs to the list. No key points here; you just need to find the job that best fits you and go for it. Just don’t give up because the design field is a challenging one.
8 Responses
1.21.2010
Nice guide! You’ve posted some helpful tips.
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1.22.2010
Great guide!
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Creative Director Reply:
January 22nd, 2010 at 1:43 pm
thanks well i will be doing alot more post like this to help out.
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1.22.2010
Great guide man. Thanks for taking the time and creating this awesome guide.
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1.26.2010
thanks for this awesome post!
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1.28.2010
What a great resource!
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