My CV: The story of my life...updated!

Okay, so as you all know I have unfortunately had to reduce my hours at the moment to part-time (which is due to happen next month). This means the CV is in need of updating to show off my new skills and experience, and of course the good old job hunt is being resumed.

Up until now I have been happily sending out my  CV to employers blissfully unaware of some of the amazingly creative CV’s that are out there. Since getting my foot into the door of the design industry, I have slowly come to realise that there are some fantastic examples of CV’s that think outside the box floating around in cyberspace, which of course now makes my standard looking CV look ever so slightly boring!

Check out some of these CV’s that I’ve been browsing and you’ll see why:

http://montiroxa.blogspot.co.uk/2011/04/beautifull-creative-resume-ideas-to.html

After finding inspiration from some other websites too, I have decided to get creative with my CV. Ideally I would love to create something wonderfully imaginative on Photoshop like some of the examples above, however my Photoshop skills are (ahem) non existent at present (though I hope to change that – boyf has got me a copy of Creative Suite 5 and I have bought myself a book on how to teach yourself Photoshop).

So for now I have settled with sprucing up my old CV in trusty old Microsoft Word, and hoping that this will be enough. I have changed the format a little, added a hand-drawn sketch to show my abilities,  highlighted all my skills and so on.

This is the first page. What do you think?

I have also included the usual cover letter explaining who I am, what I am seeking, and what I could offer in return for an employers time.

One piece of advice which I will always remember from my Diploma was to make yourself stand out when you are making yourself known to various people – employers, editors, colleagues etc. As I am unable to do this with a wonderfully Photoshopped CV at the moment, I have decided to focus on the presentation of my CV, cover letter and envelope.

One thing I have done is ‘gone back to basics’ and included a good old hand-drawing of myself to make my CV a little different, this is also serves an added purpose of showing employers that I do actually have great hand-drawing skills as I claim to on the first page above.

Something else I have done is use ‘shimmer’ paper and envelopes from my local stationery shop – the paper is slightly thicker than your usual A4 sheet (120gsm) and has a lovely iridescent sheen to it when in the light. Local stationers should stock a variety of different ‘sheen’s, though I did find loads on Ebay too.

One final thing I have done (this bit is my fave) is make the envelope eye-catching too…

I bought some ribbon from a local haberdashery and have wrapped it around the left hand side of the envelope. I then sacrificed one of my Primark pearl bracelets and have superglued a few pearls to the ribbon – though I have my doubts as to whether the pearls will reach their final destination!

All ready to go! What do you think?

So far I have five CV’s printed and ready to be sent out, and I have another potential 14 interior design companies and architects to send CV’s to as well. I have also been very active on Twitter about finding a job and have been amazed with how helpful fellow Tweeters are when they know you are after work.

Back to the job hunting I go!

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