"Artsy" or plain resume?

[joebatalla]

I'm looking for suggestions regarding my resume.

In your experience, would you suggest using a simple, straight forward resume, or go with an all-out, designer's resume?

Here is the fancy, "artsy" resume I've been working on:

Joe Batalla Resume

I'm just not sure if hiring companies will go for it...

Thanks, guys!

[DreamSky]

It is a creative position, I would say go for at least a little bit stylized resume. I think that when you don't overdo it you have better chances to stand out among the other resumes if you have stylized/designed it.
Overall I like your resume. It is a little bit too black for my personal taste but that's just me.

I actually wonder why a graphic designer would apply for a job position with a boring, template resume made in word - and it happens a lot.

[max4999]

I agree with DreamSky. it is always useful to keep the resume neat clean and simple. if you are applying for some designer or arts and craft positions then you should have example attched in the form of pictures and weblinks as an attachment

[T Graphics]

I think you can be a little creative but keep in mind with a resume that it's the content not the design that matters. Your portfolio should speak for your design skills. That being said when I did my resume I totally did it up haha It's fun.

One thing to keep in mind with a resume is the fact that it may printed out or faxed and having a lot of black (like yours) takes up their toner and that may be an issue with some people. But I like the look and feel of your design

[jecrt]

I don't think your resumé is too artsy - I think it could fall under a "standard" format. I mean, it's letter-sized, it's mostly left-justified, header at the top - it's all pretty standard.

I think it depends on who will be reading it - if it's an in-house design job and the resume goes to an HR person, you might want to make it so that it'll print out in Word. Some places won't take .pdfs. Agency jobs are different. I've mailed tshirts that I screened my resumé onto for agency jobs. I've also sent beer with miniatures of my resumé wrapping the bottles. (that I did for an internship position) You're really looking for something that's going to get you an interview slot. Personally, I don't think it matters what's on your resumé - you'll get jobs by what's in your book. Unless you have a mind-blowing job history, the content of your resumé will probably read the same as everyone else's (graduated with blah blah, proficient in adobe blah blah, creative blah blah blah...) Use your resumé to get attention and show that you're creative.

[joebatalla]

Jecrt! I must say the t-shirt and beer bottles have really got me thinking!

I feel you guys with the black. I was shooting for the "contrast" and "black and white" themes, and they work well on the web, but maybe the black is doing more harm than good on the resume front.

I've been running the same look across my website and business cards and everything, to show potential employers I understand the idea of consistency, but maybe it just ain't right!

And I agree DreamSky, why even send a design resume in if it doesn't have at least a little bit of an edge to it.

Thanks for all the help and ideas guys!

[B.T.Klemensowsk]

I have been wondering the same thing and still not sure. On one hand we are designers so one would figure we would design our resume. On the other hand, the guy hiring may not be a designer and he or she may not care or may even be annoyed if the resume breaks out of the normal word template. Some of these corporate people are so used to looking at the same thing that a weird looking resume may distract. Or at the same time it may stand out.

Its a hard one. My solution i guess is to keep the traditional style but make it more height end. Pick nice fonts, do some tracking, kerning, letting... If your sending a hard copy then get it printed on some really nice paper.

[B.T.Klemensowsk]

Agency jobs are different. I've mailed tshirts that I screened my resumé onto for agency jobs. I've also sent beer with miniatures of my resumé wrapping the bottles.

That is awesome. I wish i though of that. Did you get the job?

[T Graphics]

I've mailed tshirts that I screened my resumé onto for agency jobs. I've also sent beer with miniatures of my resumé wrapping the bottles.

When I was in college our last year project was to create something interesting as resume like what you talked about. I actually did a heat transfer on to some tighty whities that said "Want a designer who offers support to your company" haha Never had the balls to send out though.

I did however make a nice little PDF package and sent out. Here is the file if you are interested (it's a PDF inside and will open full screen)

www.tgraphics.ca/tomopoly.zip

I made a DVD case with a cover and on the inside where some DVDs would have the Chapter list I had my resume printed to fit that size. I got a couple emails thanking me for the dvd and thought it was creative but they weren't hiring... I did however manage to get one really good contact out of it that results in a lot of my freelance work.

Try different things. Update your resume every 6 months or so to something different and send it out. Try and see what works, what gets you responses even if it's just a "not hiring" response.

[T Graphics]

I did however make a nice little PDF package and sent out. Here is the file if you are interested (it's a PDF inside and will open full screen)

www.tgraphics.ca/tomopoly.zip

The file is about 10MB by the way.

Can anybody else show what they use when they send out a resume?