Creative Niche - Craig Hodges & Theresa Casarin

creativeniche.com

Craig Hodges, relationship manager
5+ years in creative recruiting
Expertise in web, account service and marketing
15 years of experience in advertising, marketing and client-side relations

Theresa Casarin, client services manager
5+ years in creative recruiting
Expertise in web, account service and marketing
5+ years of experience in marketing & communications as a project and account manager

Creative Niche is a creative recruitment and workforce management firm. Matching advertising communications, design, marketing and interactive professionals with clients' job opportunities. Made up from former account service, project management professionals.

Things to help land your first job.

Research and prep
Identify what role you would like
Conduct assessment of your abilities, skills and experience

Potential opportunities
Design
Graphic Design
Web Design
Jr. Art Director
Production designer
Production Artist

Potential employers
Agency
Long hours
Unstructured environment
Multiple brands
Fosters creative exploration
Mentoring opportunities
Social opportunities
Fast-paced and adaptive

Client-side
Better work/life balance
Benefits
Process driven
Career growth/performance management
Full spectrum creative (roll-out to multiple mediums)

Skill assessment
Do an inventory of your skills, abilities, accomplishments and achievements. Consider creating sample case studies for your contributions to clients and employers.
Conduct PAR exercise

What is PAR?
Problem-Action-Result. It is a great exercise for thinking about your accomplishments.
P- what challenge did you face?
A- what action did you take to overcome the challenge?
R- what was the result of your effort?

Soft skills
Soft skills relate to personality traits, social graces, communication, language, personal habits, friendliness, etc. They tend to be universal; meaning no matter the job, you'll use your soft skills to complete your tasks.

How to identify your soft skills
These are often innate skills that colleagues will comment on, such as;
We can always count on you to meet every deadline.
Your ideas are always incredibly creative.
You bring such high energy to work every day.

Highlight your soft skills
We recommend including your soft skills on your resume in a quick read format, for example:
Highly conceptual
Creative problem solver
Reliable with strong work ethic

Hard or technical skills
Hard skills are typically easy to observe
Highlight your hard skills ex:
Photoshop (advanced)
InDesign (advanced)
Illustrator (basic)

What is an accomplishment?
It's how your contributed to a project or an achievement that reflects your work style.
Identify your accomplishments

Writing your objective
Quick statement including your title or how your skills can impact the company
Relate your objective to your audience
It should be work-centered, not self-centered
Ex. To obtain an entry level graphic design role.

Writing your experience
Be concise and specific about accomplishments
They should provide prof of your potential value

Education

Showcase academic achievements, extracurricular activities, and related courses.

(highlight brands)

Does your resume answer 5 questions

1. who are you?

Name contact info title ect

2. what job are you applying for?

Your objective

3. what can you do?

Highlight your skills and abilities

4. what have you accomplished?

Detail your accomplishments and achievements

5. what projects have you worked on?

List projects created during your time at school

Edit and proofread

Design guidelines

Consider a skills-based vs chronological resume

Determine layout, format, structure, and content for opportunity

Should be visible pleasing and easy to read

Length (# of pages) depends of your experience

Avoid large blocks of colour

Standerd formatting

Vertical

8.5x11 size

Keep file size small: nothing over 2 mb

Have two versions: word and pdf

Keep the user experience in mind

Trends in resumes

It's not enough to have a traditional resume. You should consider including the following in your mix:

Complete linkedin profile with downloadable resume

Website including portfolio samples and resume

Video resume

Do’s and donts of online portfolios

Do ensure that it is designed by you- it should reflect your design aesthetic and style

Do ensure that it is user friendly- if it’s frustrating to find what I’m looking for, I’m inclined to leave the site early

Do ensure that is accessible to everyone- even those using internet explorer!

Do ensure that all the images are optimized and there are no dead links

Do ensure that you consider how a person views your website- like a book, people naturally read left to right and top-down… therefore ensure your best work is seen first

Do include context to your work. A simple description of your contribution and/or project outline

Do ensure that you’re authorized to post professional work

Do ensure that the work reflects your desired career path. if you’re gunning to work at a top creative shop- making sure it’s creative!

Do update your portfolio often. Your contact information, your work, perhaps even your resume

Don’t have unprofessional photos, images or word choices contained within your site. This also refers to any links to personal social media links you may include!

Don’t have irrelevant, or unpolished, work posted on your portfolio site. Put your best work online.

Don’t use poor colour and font choices.

Don’t take credit for work that’s not yours. If there is a collaborative effort, you may want to site your colleagues (and ask them too!)

Portfolio sites

Behance.net

Carbonmade.com

Coroflot.com

Creativehotlist.com

Career advice

Keep your resume up-to-date and ready

Stay informed and anticipate industry changes

Update your technical skills and knowledge

Continue to participate in portfolio reviews

Grow a personal network

Build a great personal brand