It’s no secret that graphic designers, artists and other creatives are often introverts and may lack a certain level of social skills that come naturally to others. I’m putting together a simple checklist of do’s and don’ts that may hopefully help aspiring design students who may be looking to apply for a design internship, part time work, a contract position, or freelance opportunities.

For starters, let me start by saying that I don’t work in human resources, and I’m not a hiring manager. I was however recently tasked with reviewing resumes of applicants for a graphic design internship at the company I work for, and I must say I was actually quite surprised at the lack of common sense in around 70% of the responses I received. I’m not an expert on the subject of resumes or professionalism standards, nor do I claim to be, but the majority of applicants I received led me to believe that this is apparently not common knowledge. I am just writing about my personal opinion on the majority of the responses I received, and sharing tips from one designer to other designers. If nothing else, this can be used to understand how your application may be received and interpreted by the person who is reviewing it.

The Basics

• Spelling and Grammar

  There is nothing more offputting than getting an email with the word “inertnsihp” (I couldn’t make that up) as the subject. If you are applying for a job or internship that requires production work, you may have to type things out from time to time. If you butcher your spelling in your email, the person reading it now instantly believes they can’t trust you to use spellcheck or to be thorough about making sure your work is accurate.

• Knowing How to Use Email

  Your cover letter goes in the body of the email. Your resume gets added as an attachment. Your portfolio gets added as an attachment (if in PDF format) or linked (for online portfolios). Don’t copy/paste your resume into the body of the email. Don’t add your cover letter as an attachment (could it be any more obvious that this is not a personalized cover letter?). Don’t embed images in the body of the email as your portfolio. This should all be common sense. If you haven’t mastered the nuances and intricacies of sending emails, your ability to design and create complex catalog documents, etc., is put into doubt.

Your Cover Letter

• Include a Cover Letter

  Within one hour of posting the job listing online, I had well over thirty responses to read through and many more coming in for the next several days. If you neglect to include a cover letter when sending your resume, you’ve missed a valuable opportunity to make a first impression. In a competitive environment where other people aren’t making the same mistake, you’ve lost my interest before I’ve even looked at your resume.

• Professionalism

  Your email isn’t personal, it’s business. This isn’t the time to unload your personal baggage, such as how long you’ve been without work, how much you hate your current job, or how many mouths you have to feed. The only thing that matters is your ability to perform the job you’re applying for. Telling me that you were recently fired from your job is an instant red flag. It’s none of my business what you were fired for, but I can’t help but wonder. Asking about benefits, salary, etc., is offputting too – you’re asking me what I can do for you when I have 50 other emails telling me what they can do for me? Next.

• Language

  If you tell me that you can “Photoshop the crap out of stuff,” I’ll delete your email. If you can’t be mature and professional in a job application, how can I trust you to be mature and professional around clients?

• Copy/Pasting

  Don’t do this. Write your cover letter out as a personalized note. It’s very obvious when your cover letter is copy/pasted, because it is generic, dull and lifeless. If you’re going to paste a pre-written cover letter that says something like “your company sounds like a perfect match for my unique skills in web design” when I’ve neither asked for a web designer, nor given any details about my company, I can’t help but doubt your sincerity. Ideally, you should write your cover letter to individually address the various aspects of the job listing. Write your qualifications in relation to the requirements listed and describe your experience in comparison to the job description.

Your Resume

• File Format

  If the job listing you’re replying to specifically outlines electronic catalog creation as one of your job responsibilities, you probably don’t want to send your resume in JPEG format. Sending your resume in PDF format is sort of like passing an unofficial test that says “hey, I understand industry file format standards.”

• Layout and Creativity

  Microsoft Word templates, Times New Roman, lack of visual hierarchy, and other things that say “I don’t care how this thing looks” are to be avoided. If your resume looks like an essay you typed up for a history class, you’re not displaying your skills as a designer. If you list typography as one of your talents, and your resume uses the same font face, size, color, spacing, etc. for the headings as for the body text, you haven’t convinced me.

  On the other hand, your resume should still be readable and easy to navigate. Although you can and should think outside the box, you should still be thinking close enough to the box that your resume still resembles a resume. Keep it clean, sleek and professional with a touch of flair.

• Relevant Information

  Knowing that you spent 2 years as a pet groomer or went to school for electrical engineering doesn’t convince me that you know how to design or operate design software. Tailor your resume to the position you’re applying for. List only your relevant training / education or work experience within the design field. It’s better to have a 1 page resume of relevant material than it is to have a 3 page resume of mostly irrelevant info.

Your Portfolio

• Relevant work

  Again, this is something you should tailor to the position you’re applying for. If you’re applying for an internship as a graphic designer, and the job description says you will need to do basic catalog layouts, pamphlets and brochures, etc., your portfolio of photography and illustration is irrelevant. Although your work may be beautiful, it is not an indication that you know how to design marketing collateral. You don’t need to have a different portfolio for every job you apply for, but keep your illustration work in a portfolio to be used for applications for an illustration position and vice versa. A potential employer will be looking carefully at your work to determine how well it matches up to the type of work you’d be doing if you were hired.

  On the flip side, you may not have any relevant work yet, especially if you’re a student or new to the industry. You could always make a few conceptual designs just for fun as examples of your capabilities though. Try redesigning a brochure or some piece of marketing collateral for an existing company, or even make up a company and develop a brand for it – it’s good practice for you, and it will give you a chance to show off your capabilities.

• Web portfolios

  Printed portfolios are a thing of the past, so having an online portfolio is a very big edge over your competition. it is important to keep in mind though that a professional design portfolio website is NOT the same thing as a personal website. If your website is anything less than businesslike, make another website. For example, I use this site as my design portfolio, and a separate site altogether as my art website since it shows more of my personal art and illustration work. You could also have your professional portfolio as a separate subdomain of your website. If you don’t know how to make websites, there are many free online portfolio sites out there, such as Coroflot or Behance. Refrain from using Myspace or Deviantart for this purpose.

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