The Aesthetics of a Great Resume
We all know the resume (or CV, depending on where you’re from) template that we must follow to be taken seriously. In most cases, these templates are used for a reason – they work. For creatives, however, traditional resumes are not always the best way to showcase your talent and your expertise. You also don’t have to be shackled to the traditional paper resume any longer. Resumes are used to market yourself to a future employer. So why not take it a step further and use more modern marketing techniques?
Traditional Resumes
The traditional resume is a maximum of two pages that state your key expertise. For these, you include your contact information at the top, your objective (or summary), your work experience, your schooling, and your qualifications. You keep these as lean and to the point as possible because a clogged-up resume is tiresome to read for employers. You use strong, specific language, and, sadly, you look like every other qualifier. These resumes are all about clean-cut, professional aesthetics that focus entirely on your past expertise, rather than your talent.
Creative’s Resumes
How can you clearly communicate how talented you are at photography, if your future photographer has not seen your work? You can state who you have worked for, for how long and what your qualifications are, but when it comes to creatives, your talent will always outshine your work history. This is when you need to use a free resume builder to showcase not only your work experience, but also your talent. A relatively “inexperienced” filmmaker can be a certified genius. But on paper, a more experienced and less talented filmmaker seems like the better option.
When you are in a creative field, your work speaks for itself. Talent transcends the facts and figures you can put on a blank piece of paper. Wow them with the visuals they couldn’t possibly imagine. Because… you are the one with the vision, and that is why they need to hire you.
Portfolios
A mixed approach for artists is to create a traditional resume that directs employers to look at online portfolios. These portfolios can be on your own website or on a professional social account. You can create a gallery of your work, or you can create a master list of all of your creations around the web. For social accounts, you can prove how popular you are as an artist and your engagement rates. Online is the way to go for creatives, whether you need to incorporate a traditional resume on top of your online portfolio or not.
At the end of the day, how receptive a future employer is going to be when reading your resume, entirely depends on the situation and other factors you have no control over. You can read and follow as many articles on great resume’s as you want. Truth is, employers are individuals who vary person to person. Don’t be discouraged if your fantastic resume has been rejected. Chances are, you and that employer would not have been a good match anyway.
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