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I'm at the very edge of completing my degree, but my family is a bad place financially and I need to get a job as soon as possible. While I'm also applying to intermediate stuff for a quick buck, I want to drop applications to actually use my degree—in my case, graphic design. I have confidence in my skills and my degree (great program, great networking), but I can only assume it takes more than saying, "Well, I personally think I'm good," to get hired. Some of my biggest issues include the family troubles and personal troubles have kept me from maintaining a job while going to school, excluding the year on my resume. The companies with positions I seem pretty qualified are often seeking young designers who have already lived the design firm experience, but I've only done in-house work. I have a broad skill set and worked with clients via my college classes regularly, but the projects were small scope. I've done quite a bit of freelancing, too, but I'm not sure how to integrate that into my resume. How do I work toward a resume that makes me look like a designer worth hiring, aside from glorious rainbow colors and shiny bevels? Resume Draft #1
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Jul 23, 2015 03:58
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Vulture Culture posted:They're helpful for a foot in the door, but resumes are almost useless for creative work. Have one, but don't focus your attention there yet. Put together a portfolio, even if it's of hobby projects, free WordPress themes, pro bono flyers for local businesses, and My Little Pony/Doctor Who mashup colored pencil sketches on DeviantArt. triplexpac posted:I'm a graphic designer, currently on the job hunt. Thanks, guys! I definitely feel like I could do something newer for my portfolio, but I'm always a little unsure. I've been interested in designing some concepts, but I'm dry on tangible projects to release to the public for the moment. It makes me nervous. I have a lot of ideas but I'm never sure where to start or who to connect with.
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Jul 24, 2015 05:26
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I’ve been recommended by someone high up in a major company to another large company, which is surprising, humbling, and scaring me to death. My most recent resume was slapped together after realizing how badly I needed to change jobs, and my portfolio is a weird blend of ancient work and a splash of brand new concepts. I’ve been catapulted from retail to referrals to popular brand companies in 2 years, and it’s giving me whiplash. I have a call with the department lead in the morning, and I’m trying to keep myself together. I’m used to doing formal interviews, which are mostly practiced answers with strategic humor/humanity mixed in… I can’t imagine this should go any differently. Out of curiosity, what should my LinkedIn profile look like relative to my resume? Should I be more detailed about my job descriptions on LinkedIn, or should the resume and my profile look similar/the same?
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Oct 14, 2021 16:33
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sim posted:Resume and LinkedIn should generally be the same, but you'll probably want to limit your resume to 1 page (assuming less than 10 years of experience), but LinkedIn can be as long as you want and you'll want to stuff it with the keywords recruiters in your industry are searching for. That makes sense—thank you! I worry about overdoing LinkedIn, but I can definitely list keywords for years.
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Oct 15, 2021 06:19
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There’s a possibility I may receive an offer from a company, which will involve a career shift and a pretty big pay and benefit increase. I’ve searched my area to try to figure out what I should expect, but there’s not a lot of results. It’s my inclination to instantly accept whatever they offer, because barring a lowball offer, it’s going to be a positive move. I feel like a mildly risky pick for this role—that is, I have experience, but there’s a fair amount of people with more that they could pivot to. This would be my entry into something more stable. It also comes with unlimited PTO and, based on what I’ve seen so far, they actually mean it. Probably. I hope. Should I attempt offer negotiation when I could be looking at a life-changing increase in salary? Even if I don’t like this job, it’ll give me a way to pivot into the field I want. My current role has no upward movement, constantly gets pushed around in restructuring, involves being managed by people I don’t respect, and has been blatantly ignored for salary increases (along with the rest of my team). This is a lot of words to say “how did I get here, why do they want to pay me, I am clearly an imposter,” etc.
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Nov 12, 2021 17:35
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Eric the Mauve posted:Everyone is an impostor so don't worry about that. I completely forgot there was a negotiation thread!  Still, I appreciate the response a ton. It’s almost comforting to know that my current company is a dead end, because it gives me the motivation to keep pushing for something new no matter what happens.If the offer comes through, I’ll ask about their expectations, then move forward from there. Thank you!
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Nov 12, 2021 18:08
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Late response to both, but hey, thanks! I’ll keep looking into info. I didn’t hear back today, but that would’ve been relatively short notice.
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Nov 13, 2021 08:04
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Congratulations to VelociBacon and Arquinsiel!  Also want to add to "thank you for the tips" pile! I received an offer, negotiated with my BATNA in mind, and signed a contract with a drat good salary. Might even be able to afford a whole week of vacation in 2022.
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Nov 21, 2021 03:15
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Applying for jobs in design-related fields sucks. I want to have a resume and website normal humans can use, but then the ones that get all the cool likes and shares are bright, huge, busy, and chaotic. I know rationally that people must appreciate a simple design, but emotionally I feel like I'm missing out on having a portfolio site that's the modernized version of Angelfire personal sites. I'm using a resume that was updated and written by a cool pro writer about a year ago, but I haven't received any responses across 40-some applications in the last two weeks (with consideration for Thanksgiving here in the U.S.). I still seem to be in the career field experience black hole of "I have demonstrable experience in this field for at least 4 years but that's not 7+ years so gently caress off." I've seen job postings making fun of the fact companies are asking for 10+ years experience in [specific field], but it's absolutely true. I've ignored a few of those signposts when it seems like I still match their needs, but it's not encouraging. I think I need to design a personal case study to add to my UX portfolio that targets what I want in my career. I feel like it's a huge waste of time, but I don't have enough data from my last company (laid off) to build a case study on what I did there. I'm grasping at straws to understand how to stand out when I know I have the background. Maybe I should do another pass on my resume, too, probably with someone familiar with my field. Really, this all comes down to me finding someone in my field willing to give my resume and portfolio a glance. tl;dr: I am complaining that design jobs suck to get, but I feel like I could do something more to improve my chances instead of complaining. I removed the graduation dates from my resume, but every single application website has asked for a year at minimum, with the majority asking for month/year. Wish they'd check my LinkedIn instead if they care enough, but eh.
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Nov 30, 2023 22:58
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It's been a week since I had a final round interview with a company. I was referred there, and while I managed to make it through the whole process, I'm getting huge imposter syndrome feelings while I wait. I know my experience is a little odd, but I have the skills. I think I'll always suffer some amount of self-doubt, since I started in poverty with no network? Even with the support and skill set I have now, it feels fake. Optimistically, they're looking to hire several people at once to cover their new projects. It's also not like I've haven't had to wait before. The difference now is that unemployment money runs out.
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Feb 9, 2024 00:07
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broken pixel posted:It's been a week since I had a final round interview with a company. I was referred there, and while I managed to make it through the whole process, I'm getting huge imposter syndrome feelings while I wait. I know my experience is a little odd, but I have the skills. I think I'll always suffer some amount of self-doubt, since I started in poverty with no network? Even with the support and skill set I have now, it feels fake. I didn't get the job, and I'm not clear on why other than vaguely not being what they need right now. My last interview was okay, but it felt like having 5 separate people asking questions about my work and process split my understanding of what, exactly, they needed. My experience at my last role was broad, and I ended up going deep on every level of the UX process from research to design and iteration. Maybe having a catch-all role shot me in the foot? Maybe I should have focused on one part of it in the interview? I'm pretty disappointed, but I won't stop trying.
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Feb 10, 2024 00:55
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Lockback posted:Remember that an interview isn't a referendum on you and maybe they had an internal candidate, a more senior candidate, or a cheaper candidate instead. You won't ever get good feedback. Thanks—I appreciate it. I've presented in front of groups plenty of times, but usually only 1 or 2 folks have the will/energy/knowledge to follow up. I sent out a few applications today, including one to a local company I think I'd be a solid match for. I'm looking forward to, someday, having a portfolio that shows my live work rather than concepts. The vast majority of my files at the company that laid me off contained large amounts of confidential/NDA info, which is a huge issue for displaying competence at a glance.
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Feb 10, 2024 10:39
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cheese eats mouse posted:UX is a poo poo show to get a job in too. I’m senior level and having trouble getting callbacks for stuff I’m super qualified for. I feel lucky in that I’ve had several first round to later interviews in one month. It's tough, but definitely something I expected. I mean, I'm one of thousands who pivoted from Graphic Design, and if any of us don't know how crazy [insert concept] Designer jobs are yet, now's a good time to learn. I hope your search goes well!
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Feb 11, 2024 11:28
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I've been posting around BFC while I search for a permanent, full-time role (and messing up contract rates), and I figured I'd get some eyes on my current resume. Fair warning that it's a little unique to the UI/UX and design industry, so it's a bit more designed than other resumes and includes things like example case studies based on professional feedback. https://drive.google.com/file/d/1uIWL1bgnEPHJ91IvoIqIpqYtW8UW6fAJ/view?usp=sharing The bulk of the job descriptions and personal skills were written with a professional writer, with minor tweaks to focus on my current goals. I don't love having a column crammed full of keywords, but it feels necessary when nearly every application I do requests that I list my skills and tool proficiency out one by one somewhere. If I were to remove them, I could try adding them into the job description or below each description. I don't know what format would be more valuable, since I applied most of the skills/tools across all the listed jobs. I'm also not positive I should have the personal skills section at all. Is there anything I could or should change that's noticeable?
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Apr 15, 2024 22:47
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cheese eats mouse posted:Have you had someone put it through ATS to see if it can be read? I had to stop exporting my resume from Figma cause Figma PDFs aren't readable somehow and someone flagged this for me. Quackles posted:What is Figma? gently caress Sincere answer: it's a website/app that's made for user interface designers to build wireframes and prototypes for digital interfaces. Others include Sketch, Balsamiq, and Adobe XD. It has dev tools, plugins, a Miro knockoff (if you're familiar with that), and more. It's the industry preferred version of that type of app, but should it be? Great question! None of the other do all things well or better. broken pixel fucked around with this message at 06:57 on Apr 16, 2024 |
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Apr 16, 2024 06:54
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cheese eats mouse posted:Adobe tried to buy it and I think that tells the thread how much of of a threat they considered it to be to their monopoly on the creative industry. For some reason, yeah. I can't imagine them not trying to replace it with something. I could see a future where they drop XD for an Epic Win AI Solution that'll be poo poo and/or kill even more jobs.  In the end, I don't like XD much, but it doesn't need to die.Same boat RE: Sketch, but it seems like they added prototyping at some point?
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Apr 16, 2024 07:08
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Lockback posted:I'd maybe call your latest job 'UX/Product Designer'. The titles in this industry are all over the place but you seem to me to fall more towards what I'd usually call UX vs Product Design, so having your latest title reflect that better might help. Good idea! I think I had it like that at one point, then tried to simplify when I didn't need to.
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Apr 16, 2024 20:22
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Double posting since I ran my resume through a tool designed to test ATS. Not going to pay for the full product, but some of the weird things it pointed out included:
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Apr 16, 2024 20:47
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cheese eats mouse posted:I did some resume reviews by outside help, portfolio reviews by outside help, many revisions. This most recent one I’m finally getting out to try and have re-done my portfolio 3x. I also paid for a cover letter cause I’m terrible at those and I’m pretty happy with what I got. Trying it out now. I've not had any luck with contacting hiring managers recently. It may just be an issue of my portfolio not adequately showing my skill set (doing a consultation on that today) or my LinkedIn profile needing another rewrite, but I'm curious what kind of messages you all write when contacting hiring managers directly. I try to keep it brief, but maybe I should include a snippet from my elevator pitch? I said come in! posted:For those that have been laid off, especially in the last year, how was your mental state? How did/are you doing? Myself and my team were just laid off this last week and i'm freaking the gently caress out about it. If someone's been laid off and can at all afford to take a break, I recommend it. That doesn't mean you have to 100% drop from the job search or ghost recruiters with good opportunities, so much as shift your priorities to caring for yourself for a bit. That being said, I know what it's like to need a job yesterday, too. Regardless of how you get laid off and how urgent your needs are, just know you're extremely not alone and the "oh poo poo gently caress" reaction is 1000% normal. All of this is to say, I went from despair to apathy to my current "determined and re-energized." I need a new job! It's not a great feeling! But it doesn't hurt like it did six months ago. I hope that you don't need to wait for a job any longer than you want to, but if not, keep looking at ways to refresh your resume and connect to your network.
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May 7, 2024 10:06
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