Your CV or resumé will be one of between 20 and 100 that the lady in human resources have to wade through today. And let’s be honest, it’s a terribly boring job, looking at CV after CV. You studied this, worked there, you live for graphic design, yada yada. They’re all the same.

The lady in human resources is tempted to open, scan for something interesting and drop your CV on the “no” pile.

In fact, that is exactly what she is doing. Half of the CV’s on the “no” pile were not read.

Is that unfair to the applicants?

Maybe it is, but maybe graphic design companies rightly expect more from applicants who claim that they have creativity wired into their DNA.

This probably applies to creatives applying for any job, but I’ll stick to graphic design.

Given your proficiency with graphic design software, why do you send your CV in Word format? You can design, right? You can use awesome graphics to sell stuff? Show the lady in human resources that you are not a CV sending drone intent on adding to her misery. Make her smile. Make her remember your CV. And, for the love of Pete, send it in PDF format!

A word of caution: Don’t go ape either. You’re a designer, but also a professional. Keep it light.

While we are on the topic…

I occasionally receive email applications like this one:

“hi andre. attachjed please find my cv and sum examples of my sum of my designs. thanks. julie.”

Dear Julie,

Did you fall on your head as a child?

Is this a temporary impairment or will the emails that you send to my clients also come out of your arse? I’m sure that you are a wonderful person, but the home for the criminally incompetent is further down the street, on the left. If you have any trouble finding it, just ask the bum with the crazy eyes. He also is a really wonderful person, once you get to know him.

Spend time crafting your intro email. It is at least as important as your CV. It’s my glimpse at the person behind the qualifications – behind the formal face of the CV. Julie wasted a perfect opportunity here. Instead, she illustrated a complete lack of pride in her work.