How to find an ID job

As an employer we have been frustrated with the poor applications that we have received recently. Here are some of the most major errors we’re seeing:

**1.**Poor grammar, lack of capitalization, typos, poor spelling, and no indication of which job they are applying to. Even if English is your second language, use spell check and grammar check! Ask friends to look things over. Craftsmanship is key.

**2.**Individual jpgs sent as samples. There is no way we are opening 10 attachments, period. Sorry. You’ve been rejected. Next!

**3.**Calling when the ad says no calls - this is a variation of the less common but more annoying version of the, “I’m just stopping by, can you see me now?”

**4.**No sketches or background material in your portfolio.

**5.**Not following pretty basic instructions in job wanted ad on how to apply

Here are the ingredients to a great application: Cover letter, Resume, and Samples
Cover Letter - research the company and write a personalized letter. This can be the email that you attach your resume and samples to. Please tell me in this letter which job you are applying to - DUH! I don’t care why you want to move to my city (I don’t care that your girlfriend live here) but I do care about why you think you are right for my company.

Resume: Please keep this to one page unless you have tons of experience. Sponsored studios don’t count as experience, sorry. Include a graduation date. My last post was for a true junior designer. I had juniors trying to appear as if they had 3 or more years of experience. I disqualified those people. Too bad. Be honest.

Samples could be a teaser or a complete portfolio:

Teaser: 1 project with support work or 3-4 projects in final form

Complete portfolio: Should consist of 3-4 projects (minimum 3) from start to finish. You should document your thinking and decision making process from start to finish. We are looking for how much exploration and research you did, mechanical ability, aesthetics, and sensitivity to the user. We want to see the bad ideas you rejected as well as the really crazy ideas your instructor thought were too blue sky. We also want to see your mock ups. We are looking for your visual communication skills - this means sketching. If you can’t sketch, it’s still better to include your thinking than to not include it.

This is some great advice! Thank you very much! Just curious, where are you centered out of?

Design applications can be shockingly bad. It’s amazing.

Some good tips there, Mdesigner. Here’s my 2.5 cents to add to it:

There are plenty of debates about what to include in the teaser and what to have in the portfolio. Just keep in mind the potential employer wants to understand not just you’re skills but also how you think and go about tasks. So make sure that whatever you send -whether sketches, renderings or photos, give a true representation of you as a designer and as a person.

great summary Mdesigner!

The one page CV is pretty difficult, I remember spending hours on it trying to make it look pro yet still getting all the content in their, once you take into account education, awards,publications, skills, design exerpience, hobbies, personal statement. Having seen one page cv’s and it being crammed full of text and making it near on impossible to extract useful information I personally dont mind it on two pages, providing its not 2 pages of essay’s. Be interesting to hear others on this, does it really matter?

A 1-pager has the benefit in forcing you to only include the most important information. However if that means sacrificing something essential, then spread onto two, but remember the second page may not get reviewed.

Hi, I have a question about the 1 page resume. How would you like to see work experience in unrelated fields? I’ve heard both that applicants should list every job they’ve had, while others have said to list only the pertinent ones. I have a background in land development. I left that career for an education in Industrial Design and am about half way through the program. Without anything ID related, my resume is currently a page and a half. What would you recommend to those of us who changed careers?

Good post. This person sounds mad. Are we that bad? I know there are many who meet and exceed all these requirements listed above. Always a cover-letter with research done, always clean 1 page resume, always a complete portfolio showing process, and packaged in one nice neat pdf under 2mb. How about looking for one positive thing in these applicants rather than look for new and interesting ways to disqualify someone automatically. A lot of people are just waiting to prove themselves. And its about personality, YOU’RE FORGETTING HOW COOL WE ALL ARE.
It seems that there is a disconnect between those who hire and those who apply. Read one designers point of view: http://productdesignrealizations.blogspot.com/

hmmm…what if you’re looking for internship, still in uni, and have…no ‘work’ experience. The resume would seem rather unexciting…

Great post. As a recent graduate, one thing I have found hard to do is make a different cover letter for every job I’m applying. I’m literally writing to about 15 companies (any company that has ANY soft of industrial design… with open positions or not) a day, how could I possibly write so many coverletters? Sadly, I feel my aspirations to work at any “cool” place have been degraded to simply make enough money to pay my upcoming loan bills. shit

As a young designer searching for a job, reading this article made me register to this website just to reply on this arrogant post. Here are some of the most frustrating things you have to handle with, searching for an interesting job:

  1. Spending a lot of time doing your research finding interesting companies, job openings and so on, preparing 1 page cv’s and bla bla… after sending the email your work is done and you hope for a reply. There are just a few, but really just a few companies sending a reply, even an automatic ‘thank you for sending, but at the moment we are not…’-one, but at least it is a reply and it is very much appreciated.

  2. After waiting too long but still seeiing on the net that the job is still available, you phone those companies to hear:
    -No, we didn’t recieve anything.
    -No, that job is already gone (then don’t show there is an opening)
    -…
    Than take away the ad, send a short, cruel email back that you’re not interested but don’t make me loose time and wait for nothing.

  3. Because sending an email is most of the times not working, you start calling companies (even if there is written, DON’T CALL US) to verify if they recieved your email with all your hard work in it. Usually then there is the promise to contact you back in a week with an answer.
    After the second week you have to call back yourself to hear a vague answer… job’s gone, you don’t fit the profile,… fair enough, but just tell me, I’m losing enough time already.
    Getting tired sitting behind your PC waiting for nothing, you invest money (that you don’t have) and print a nice flyer of your work and your CV (which is luckely just 1 page) and you go from door to door, “disturbing these companies by surprise” (Showing that you are interested working there, it means to me). Some of them are not interested, but at least you know it immediately, and that’s what is important when you are hunting for a job.
    Some of them are indeed searching and you have your first short conversation. You can see the office from the inside, you find out the website and the jobopening you have seen made you think this was a giant office, but there you discover it’s a studio whit three people working in it.
    It’s a lot of work ‘just passing by’, so if I read this post and see that this is more annoying, I don’t give a sh*t. When you’re searching for work, this is an encouraging way for not giving up. Plus there are also a lot of companies appreciating you just stopping by, leaving your stuff (small version of your portfolio and your cv) behind and continuing your search.

  4. I already put a lot of work in my portfolio, trying to make it nice and understandable (don’t forget, arrogant employers, that I’m a young designer with not much experience, so there is not much to show also, deal with it). If you wanna know more about the project, let’s have an interview, so you can see with your own eyes how passionate I am explaining it.

  5. Why a designer is supposed to be creative, but when searching for a job, you have to follow the rules. To hell with these rules, I’m trying to stand out and getting noticed, I will paint my CV on the walls of your office if necessary. I get bored filling in
    standard application forms, asking all the stuff you have already written in your CV, fighting to downsize my portfolio, just to upload it.

Here are the ingredients to a great job opening:
Treat possible candidates with respect and don’t think you are the only one we are applying for, so if the ‘personalized’ letter doesn’t seem to be so personal… get over it and read between the lines.
Give ‘any’ answer asap. Don’t make us feel there is a chance when you already forgot about us. Be clear and never forget that maybe I will be your boss one day.

Cover letter, Resume, and Samples
Cover letter - What is this obsession of recieving a ‘personalized’ letter? If I have to send everything to info@xxx I’m not able to make it personal. I prefer 5 minutes of your time to have a talk, instead of spending hours and hours creating personalized letters to every company I apply for. Get away from your screen and open the door, there is somebody ringing.
And I do care telling you why I moved to another country, because that’s part of my profile and why I’m perfect for your stupid organisation. It means I’m motivated, eager to gain experience, willing to learn, and so much more. Even if I’m not fitting the profile, there is always a reason why I contact you. Do some effort yourself too finding interesting people.

Resume: I like the idea of a 1 page resume, it’s difficult to make but I agree with your point of view on this one.

Samples could be a teaser or a complete portfolio:

If you’re really fresh, it’s difficult to show a portfolio, simply cause there is nothing to show. Participating at contests is nice, but it’s not a project and my experience is that companies don’t care about these projects.
Even if you have experience it’s possible to work for a whole year, getting a lot of experience but still not being able to show anything of your work in your portfolio. Why? cause you started to work as a mechanical designer, just because it was a big name you worked for… but if the company is giant, you are just 1 little designer in the chain. But the experience you get there is not something to put in a render. No, you learn to interact with suppliers, you learn to have responsability and you learn that that one single email you sended, will cost the company so much money, you are surprised you could still come the day after.
On the other hand, then you get the chance to work in a studio of a famou.s designer, that doesn’t pay you, but after this short period you’re able to add some real stuff to your portfolio, real projects you worked on. It’s a completely different kind of experience, one that you do show in your profile. But it’s a pity you are not able to explain the non-visible stuff to the company your applying to.
Also, don’t act so arrogant and be more open minded as a company. I’m an industrial designer, if there is 1 chair in my portfolio then that doesn’t mean I’m not able to design a mobile phone or a washing machine. I’m not specialized in 1 thing, that is exactly what’s getting me bored, I’m interested in everything, so that’s why I’m ringing at the office door now… get up and answer the door…

Teaser: 1 project with support work or 3-4 projects in final form

Again, you will get this information when I’m sitting in front of you and I’m able to give an explanation with it.
It’s not that I’m not able to sketch, it’s just that there is no way I can explain properly how things went showing a sketch that only the insiders understand, and all of that in 1 page.
I give you the result, the nicest image I can find… I can give you some sketches I made, just to show a bit my skills. But if you wanna find out the link between them, invite me over… so I’m sure there is no miscommunication about any project.

I appologize for my english, I learn from a book (manuel - fawlty towers) but I really wanted to show ‘the other side’ of the story also.
They say there is a crisis, but in my opinion a lot of companies are abusing this ‘crisis’ which is making them feel superior, offering shitty contracts (because there’s a crisis, it will be just for 3 months), demanding almost impossible hours, just because they know how difficult it is these days to get a(n) (interesting) job.


Well, this is just my little opinion, I hope I didn’t offend anyone.

good god, i would be afraid to work in the same office as you!

As a young designer searching for a job, reading this article made me register to this website just to reply on this arrogant post. Here are some of the most frustrating things you have to handle with, searching for an interesting job:

^not cool man. Calling the people that could potentially give you a job arrogant and having attitude about the procedures you have to go through is not a good way to make us feel warm a fuzzy about you. If this is the way you are approaching your job search than that is the reason you are not employed. The initial post was a well a informed post for job seekers out there. By posting this blasting response you have not only put a bad taste in his mouth, but you do not know who might be on these boards and may be hiring.

  1. Spending a lot of time doing your research finding interesting companies, job openings and so on, preparing 1 page cv’s and bla bla… after sending the email your work is done and you hope for a reply. There are just a few, but really just a few companies sending a reply, even an automatic ‘thank you for sending, but at the moment we are not…’-one, but at least it is a reply and it is very much appreciated.

Yes I agree that you should get a response if we are not interested. There are an abundance of people looking for jobs at the moment and only a small amount of them out there. I don’t think I need to tell you that, , but you have to remember that we get hundreds if not thousands of resumes depending on the firm for one job. We cannot get back to everyone, it is just not possible. This is not just in ID, but with every field.

  1. I already put a lot of work in my portfolio, trying to make it nice and understandable (don’t forget, arrogant employers, that I’m a young designer with not much experience, so there is not much to show also, deal with it). If you wanna know more about the project, let’s have an interview, so you can see with your own eyes how passionate I am explaining it.

Let’s see it!! Post it up here and maybe we can help you out with making it better so you can get it in front of employers.

  1. Why a designer is supposed to be creative, but when searching for a job, you have to follow the rules. To hell with these rules, I’m trying to stand out and getting noticed, I will paint my CV on the walls of your office if necessary. I get bored filling in
    standard application forms, asking all the stuff you have already written in your CV, fighting to downsize my portfolio, just to upload it

No matter who you are or what you do there are always going to be rules. Asking us to void these rules because you are special is not going to happen. When you do a project do you disregard part of the brief because you don’t think it is important? No you don’t (at least I hope you don’t)!! You stick to the rules. This is no different when applying for jobs. Many employers will toss your resume if you do not stick to the rules. There are many other ways to stand out from your cover letter, to creating and identity for yourself, or just as simple as having solid work.

I don’t give a sh*t. When you’re searching for work, this is an encouraging way for not giving up. Plus there are also a lot of companies appreciating you just stopping by, leaving your stuff (small version of your portfolio and your cv) behind and continuing your search.

Again not cool. If you don’t give a sht about me, frankly I don’t give a sht about you. What makes you think I would want to hire some on with this attitude.

If I have to send everything to info@xxx I’m not able to make it personal. I prefer 5 minutes of your time to have a talk, instead of spending hours and hours creating personalized letters to every company I apply for. Get away from your screen and open the door, there is somebody ringing.

With the internet it should be no problem to find a name to send it to. Again with all the resumes that come in we do not have the time to spend 5 mins with everyone, this is impossible.

Whew… looks like lots of sour grapes out there. Remember this fresh grads:

Finding a job IS A FULL TIME JOB. You cannot simply send out a resume and wait. You cannot count on that design director position going to you above someone else, you have to have other choices. It’s fine to follow up if you don’t hear back in a reasonable time, but only once. Beyond that you’re becoming an annoyance.

No one is going to just give you a job without trying. Times are tough, there are many many more designers than there are available jobs. There is no Summer Break, no Spring Break, no Holiday Breaks out here in the real world. If you want to get noticed, get that “interesting” job you have to work for it. Most likely, you’ll have to start at the bottom, making very little money and doing something you probably won’t enjoy for too long. But that’s what 95% of the rest of us did, and that’s what it takes to get work these days. If you wanted to get into a profession where you didn’t have to work hard to find a job, you should have been an actuary. They’re fun people, I’m sure you’d do just fine.

The original poster took the time from his day to give you a glimpse at what gets your resume tossed out first, from EVERY hiring manager in any profession. If you don’t like what he/she has to say, at least you know where you’re going to end up.

wow,

im a recent grad myself and am astonished by this. Guys come on think about it, thousands of college’s uni’s sending out fresh ID grads all wanting that killer job not including the fact you face competition from abroad to. There is a reason why most say no phone calls, can you imagine how many calls places like Nike, DC, IDEO,FROG,ASTRO would get? I wouldn’t wan’t to be on the receiving end of all those phone calls. In an ideal world you should get a response, but fact is you more than likely wont so make that follow up call and leave it.

What M designer has listed is a fantastic guideline, yes cover letters are a ball ache, tailoring everything for each individual job is a nigthmare, resizing to 2-5mb ensureing no loss in quality near on impossible and waiting and waiting and waiting sucks… but grow up, get over it and more importantly get over yourself. We as grads are nothing but small fish in an astronomically sized pond, if your not getting responses your simply not good enough at this present time. Somebody will be paying you real money to design real products, that is an amazing responsibly to be given and incredibly risky for a employer you could be hired and turn out crud for the next 6 months, how is the MD,CD going to justify that on the invoice to the client?

It’s hard, it was hard in school and its not going to get any easier, sour grapes and moaning will not help, you have to remain positive and heed the advice of others, best of luck to fellow recent grads and thanks again to M designer for the low down.

Just for the record for those hiring were not all that bad honest… :stuck_out_tongue:

I agree that you shouldn’t confine your application to any ‘rules’, but think of the process like a design -aim it at your target audience and how they will ‘interact’ with it. To help you understand the process to design for, here’s the inside story:

We recently received over 850 applications within 6 weeks! The person reviewing them is a Design Manager and has other ongoing design work to manage and could therefore spend maybe 15 hours max to sort them into in ‘maybe’ and ‘reject’ piles, averaging 60 seconds per application.

She’s aiming to select just 50 applicants to go into the next review so that we can spend more time on each application.

So in those 60 seconds or less she needs to scan the person’s resume to see that they are suitably qualified (in the recent case we were looking for 0-3 years experience), that they demonstrate skills in sketch-thinking and problem solving. She also needs to judge whether they have an eye for form, and what other (potential) skills they have.

Cutting 850 applications down to 50 means she also has to use a broad-sword; if there’s no sampler (or website-link), there’s nothing to judge and she sends a (personal) rejection letter. If there are no sketches it’s difficult to judge how the person thinks, so only if the resulting designs are particularly intriguing does it go forward and she’ll follow up asking for sketches.

The chosen 50 then got further reviewed by all three managers, leading to a top twelve. We gave all twelve a phone interview, and then flew the best five in for a face-to-face interview.

None of the above is meant as a complaint, it’s just the reality of the matter. I understand the frustrations of being on the other side, so I hope you can use the above description to help you design your application to make the cut. No rules just common sense.

.

Agreed.

Sponsored studios don’t count as experience

I applaud this, because this shows that an employer respects the individual effort put into portfoloi and looking for experience, rather than pure luck of getting a cool internship.

However, I would like to hear how getting into an innovation/design festival and working with a local city council sounds, from experience point of view - here’s the link to the festival: http://www.innovationdublin.ie/

I haven’t officially entered the work force yet–I still have 2 studios and a senior project to complete for Winter semester…but I do have an encouraging story to share.

I really worked hard my junior year of school (ended this April), doing my best on the studio projects and other classes. Didn’t land a dream internship this summer. Didn’t land any internship.

So, I just kept working on my portfolio. I went back and made validation models for a past project. I redid the sketches for the same project. I then re-designed that project. I redid sketches for another project. I re-designed another project. I spent 3 weeks prototyping and making my picture frame project (still in progress). I entered a sketch competition. I did two weeks of freelance work for a place I interned at last summer.

I pursued all the opportunities I could think of. Finally, one morning two weeks ago, my professor called to give me someone’s contact info. Now, this Fall, I’m working on an “innovation team” for a big medical company and having a blast doing front-end research and promoting the culture of innovation internally.

So, the one thing I learned from this was: be patient. I worked non-stop to achieve my goals, and it payed off after 5 months or so. Hopefully it won’t be as long next summer when I look for an entry-level staff position.

i also registered just to reply to this post, however, it was too agree with mdesigner. as a recent grad looking for work, i don’t think that most the things that were suggested are too shocking.

i’m not too hot on the whole cover letter thing, but if employers actually want them and pay attention to them, sure, i’ll spend some time writing one. even if they don’t look at least it’s there. if you have to write a bunch of them, use a loose template so you don’t have to start from scratch each time.

as for the “you’ll get that when we meet in person” argument, i’m on PackageID’s side. there simply isn’t enough time in the day to meet with each candidate. even more important than that is the fact that you shouldn’t have to be there to explain your work. it should communicate on its own, and be further enhanced if you are there to explain it. in my experience, projects on a teaser probably would require some explanation, but the purpose of a teaser really isn’t to have them know everything about you. it’s basically a collection of images that will get someone excited to receive the full portfolio, at which point they will find out what they need to know (your experience, how you think, skill set, etc.). you shouldn’t have to explain how something you designed works, and a portfolio is no different.

there is also this tendency to take these things personally (i’m not afraid to say i’m guilty of this). if you get a rejection, its more than likely not a personal thing. they don’t hate you or want you to fail, it’s just reality that they can’t hire everyone.