PortfolioLesson 1: Course Intro & Resume Writing

INSTRUCTOR: Gleb ShtyrmerEMAIL: gleb.fda@gmail.com

About this Course

Philosophy of this course

It is the pervading law of all things organic andinorganic, of all things physical and metaphysical,of all things human and all things superhuman, ofall true manifestations of the head, of the heart,of the soul, that the life is recognizable in itsexpression, that form ever follows function. Thisis the law.

Louis Sullivan

What is the function of a portfolio?

Share works with others?

Portfolio is a professional tool, with a clear objective:

Getting new job/clients

Course Objective:

The course objective is to help participants take their first steps in career development. Students will learn how to write and design their resume, design and print business card, assemble their works in an effective portfolio highlighting the best of their skills and experience.

Students will develop basic computer software and graphic design skills required for realization of printed catalogues and digital PDF documents with Adobe InDesign.

Students that will successfully complete this course will end up with three self-promotion any designer needs to starts her/his career: Resume, Business Card and Portfolio.

Course Topics

Design• Basic understanding of graphic

design principles. • Minimum set of software skills

required for realization of professional portfolio

• Real projects• And more…

Marketing • Elements of portfolio• Elements of resume/cv• Professional portfolio and

resume copywriting rules• And more…

Software:

In this course you will get a very solid software base

BUT IT IS NOT ABOUT SOFTWARE.

It’s about building the tools required to face professional challenges in the real world.

Course sample schedule: • Lesson 1. Course Presentation. Resume: sections, layout and formatting, language and more.

• Lesson 2. Resume: layout examples online: discussion in class

• Lesson 3. InDesign: Interface and navigation.

• Lesson 4. InDesign: working with texts and styles. Resume: example in class, part 1

• Lesson 5. InDesign: working with tables and shapes. Resume: example in class, part 2

• Lesson 6. Printed and digital images: introduction to basic graphic design concepts. Understanding professional technical printing requirements.

• Lesson 7: InDesign: working with images, shapes and effects. Photoshop: Creating grayscale images. Business cards: examples 1 and 2 in class.

• Lesson 8. InDesign: working with vector graphics. Business Cards: example 3.

• Lesson 9. Midterm submission deadline. Portfolio: Function and Elements. Discussion of past year portfolios.

• Lesson 10. InDesign: setting up a printable catalogue, working with multipage documents, master pages, page numbers etc. Portfolio: example in class, part 1

• Lesson 11. InDesign: creating content tables. Portfolio: example in class, part 2

• Lesson 12. InDesign: working with links, errors, exporting documents. Portfolio: example in class, part 3

• Lesson 13. Final Projects

• Lesson 14. Final Projects

• Lesson 15. Final Projects

Course Projects and Tests:

1. Midterm:• Project 1: Resume writing and design• Project 2: Business card. Design a print ready business card• Deadline: 9th week of the semester

2. Final Project: • Portfolio: Design a printable catalogue of your work• Deadline: 14th and 15th weeks of the semester

Course Materials: During each lesson you will get materials: 1. Examples2. Presentation PDFs 3. Useful links4. And more…

Lesson files can be found on FDA SERVER: \\server\lesson files\Gleb\Portfolio Projects

As well as on the dedicated web page: https://courses.shtyrmer.com/fda/

About your instructor

Gleb ShtyrmerArtist, web and graphic designer and software engineer with morethan 10 years of experience.

Download CV: Visit website (art):

https://www.shtyrmer.com/

Writing a Resume

Hiring Process

• Take a look on the title and movie poster

• Read the description

• Watch the trailer

• Read the reviews

• Watch the movie

When you decide on a movie to watch, it may all or some some of the following steps:

• Quickly scan the resume and cover letter

• Read resume in detail

• Read the portfolio

• Ask for references

• Make an interview

And this process is somewhat similar to job recruitment:

You should pass through every one of those steps to get the job

Gathering materials

• Thoroughly research the employer – it will help you with both resume and interview

• Understand the requirements of the job• Match your skills for the job • Target your resume• Prove that you are the best fit for this position

Research employers

• What products and services do they offer?• What are their competitors? • How many years are they in business? • How many employees do they have? • How many locations do they have?

Resume targeting

• Employer is looking for very specific things expressed in job description

• One-size fits all resumes force the employer to search through your resume for matching skills

• Targeted resume highlights specific skills that are relevant for the specific job

Your resume should not be vague

Conventional Resume Formats

Chronological: best for solid professional experiences

Functional: best for new graduates and employment gaps

Chrono-Functional: more flexible format, best for most of the situations

Resume Sections

• Personal Information • Headline• Qualifications Summary • Skills Summary • Education and Professional Experience • Technical Skills • Languages – remember to add level of your ability and in some cases specify separately

writing/reading/speaking levels.

• Other RELEVANT information

one more controversial section: Objective

Objective is a problematic section that may narrow yur possibilities. Some of its disadvantages include:

• It is about what you want, not about what your employer or your prospective client wants

• If objective is too specific: it may prevent you to be called for an interview

• If objective is too vague: it looses it’s purpose

• It’s position (on the top of the resume) is very precious and should be used wisely

If you are applying for a job – it is your objective.Fortunately, it is an optional section.

Headline

Think of headline like a title of magazine article or Ad copy.It makes you want to read further.

The most important information should appear in the first 1/3 of your resume

Qualifications summary

Surveys show that “Qualifications Summary” or “Summary of Qualifications” is said to be the most important part of a resume. Qualification Summary is a list of 3-5 short and powerful phrases highlighting your most impressive and relevant characteristics:• Professional skills, experience and education• Abilities and talents• Credentials and achievements• Most impressive quantifiable results• Etc.

Experience and Education

• REVERSE chronological – latest first.• Put the most relevant of this two sections first: for example if you

have just graduated or changing your career path – education should come first.

• Don’t make lists like: • Date: • Position:• Company: • Description:

• If you have a college degree don’t include the high school

Technical Skills

• Divide in sections when needed

• Use lists or tables

• If you do not know the software do not include it

• Don’t include outdated technologies

• Describing how proficient you are with a software is not mandatory. If you think

you can make a good impression by doing that – do it. Otherwise, just list the

programs.

Skill Summaries

• Take a close look to the list of responsibilities in the job description• Rewrite the responsibilities with your matching skills and professional

experience • Never use exactly same phrases, describe it with your words

• Learn more about Soft Skills: https://www.thebalancecareers.com/list-of-soft-skills-2063770

DO NOT LIE!

Exclude the following:

• Unrelated experience (but be careful about leaving gaps in employment dates)• Outdated experience (if you have a lot of experience, you may consider

summarizing this experience in an Early Career section, with no chronological list)• Obsolete technology • High school information• “About Me”, “Profile”, “Bio”, “Hobbies”, “Interests” and other useless sections

Resume Language: Personal Pronouns

Don’t use personal pronouns in your CV.Examples of personal pronouns: I, my, me, you, they etc.

If you create a section in yout CV entitled «About Me», you damage yourself twice: 1. It’s a usless section nobody will want to read2. You are using personal pronouns

Resume Language: Action Verbs

• Make a dull sentence come to life • Add a sense of energy and excitement • Show what you can do• Highlight what you have done

Learn more: https://www.ulm.edu/careerconnections/powerfulactionverbs.html

http://careernetwork.msu.edu/resources-tools/resumes/action-verbs.html

https://www.themuse.com/advice/185-powerful-verbs-that-will-make-your-resume-awesome

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Resume Language: Problem-action-result

PAR Statements, or Problem (or Situation or Challenge) – Action –Result Statements, are also referred to as Accomplishment Statements. They describe a problem that you faced, the action you took to overcome that problem, and the result of your action.

Strengthen these statements further by quantifying them. That will make PAR statements the most effective tools you can use to present your case. Add as many quantifiable results as possible

Resume Language: Problem-action-result

• Think of achievements in your career

• What problems have you solved for your employers/clients• What was the action you’ve taken to solve it?

• What was the outcome?

• Saving time/money? • Improving sales?

• Getting new clients?

Learn more: http://resumefactor.blogspot.com/2011/09/par-statements-best-weapon-in-your.html

https://www.pcc.edu/staff/pdf/1035/SampleresumeStatementsusingPAR.pdf

Dos and don’ts of resume writing

• Email with inappropriate or unprofessional username

• Usage of personal pronouns (I, me, my etc.)

• Including references in the resume

• Including the phrase “references available upon request” or similar

• Including irrelevant information

• Putting the word “Resume” in the title

• Including photographs

• Including hobbies unless they are relevant to the position

• Use your name as username

• If you don’t have a personal domain, get an email from current popular email providers as Gmail or Yahoo

• Check which personal information should be included in a resume in your country

DON’T DO

Resume length

Consider the following factors: • How much experience do you have?

• If you are beginning your career (recently graduated or less than 5 years experience) – try to fit your resume in one page

• If you already have many years of experience – you may consider expanding to two pages

• Do not make it longer than 2 pages

Visual aspect

• Professional• Inviting• Consistent• Easy to scan quickly• Easy to read in detail

Visual aspectFonts:

• Easily readable• Maximum 2 fonts• Less than 10 points for body text will make your Resume difficult to read• More than 12 points for body text will make your Resume look unprofessional • 13+ for headings and titles • 18+ for your name• It is better to use more traditional Serif fonts when applying to a big corporation or conservative

kind of company• It is better to use more modern Sans-Serif fonts when applying to a more modern company, start

up, architecture and design companies etc.LLearn more about resume text formatting: https://www.themuse.com/advice/12-tiny-changes-that-make-your-resume-easy-for-recruiters-to-skim

Visual aspect

Visual aspect

Layout: • Use white space generously• Create big margins all around the pages• Keep the margins and gaps between various elements of a consistent

size• Don’t put text too close to images and graphic elements

Visual aspect

Organizing texts: • Use bulleted lists, but don’t use only bulleted lists – blend them with

small paragraphs when needed. For example, describe your job in a paragraph and followed by a bulleted list of your achievements

• Be laconic. Don’t create big paragraphs. Try to use maximum 6 words in a phrase.

Remember: writing a Resume is like writing an Advertisement Copy

Visual aspect

Consistency: • Decide on formatting of various elements (titles, subtitles, dates, job

titles, company names etc.) • Keep this formatting exactly the same in all of the document. • Consistency is crucial to achieve readability and overall positive visual

appearance of your resume• In InDesign use Styles to manage formatting

Preparing to send the resume

• Beware of typos – bad spelling can ruin your resume, ask help of your friends

• Be sure to include or exclude everything employer requests• If a portfolio or cover letter were requested – attach them to the mail• If requested to send a pdf portfolio, do not send a link to your website instead• Respect requested file size

Assignment:

1. Write your CV/Resume in your favorite text editor (Word, Google Docs, Open Office etc.) • Follow the guide lines provided in this lecture• Use professional language• Do not use resume templates

2. Choose a resume layout for discussion. Search the web for resume examples and choose one layout you like, copy it on your USB drive and bring in class.

PortfolioLesson 1: : Course Intro & Resume Writing

INSTRUCTOR: Gleb ShtyrmerEMAIL: gleb.fda@gmail.com