A rather bold young designer stopped by our office unannounced today to drop of a resume. I sit nearest the door so I am usually the one that meets these people and takes whatever resume/portfolio they have and thank them for stopping by the office. The guy today dropped of an 11x17 glossy resume/infographic rolled into a tube and held that way with a rubber band. I showed it to our design director and the look of confusion on his face was priceless. He kind of shook his head and handed it back to me so I could show it to the others.
The document was just plain bad. Bad enough that I feel like contacting the guy to tell him it is bad and to start over. I probably won’t as I have just spent my break time posting this.
Have any of you ever responded to a bad resume in an effort to try and help someone that does not seem to know they are drowning?
Yes, once when someone sent me a 35mb psd file as their resume.
What a nightmare, I was travelling and using GPRS, I was so unimpressed. I can’t remember what phone it was (Blackberry possibly?) but I had to wait til I was back on a laptop connected to broadband and go in and delete it as it wouldn’t download as theconnection was too flakey and it stopped me from downloading all my other emails.
In these days of portability and mobile internet, ipads and smartphones, people really need to think hard about what they are sending out. Flash and massive, bloated files won’t cut it.
So, yes, in this case I did have a word. Because I didn’t want my fellow shoe trade people to have the nightmare that I just had done. They were all probably schlepping all over the place clutching Blackberries too, in any case.
I have been known to contact school advisors if the person was an intern applicant or just out of school for the really bad resumes. Sometimes, I’ll send some constructive criticism - especially if it is requested. Most applicants are grateful for any response at all these days. Ideally I would help everyone. So many people helped me throughout the years (and still are!). There just aren’t enough hours in the day. I’m sure that if you put the effort into it and made sure it sounded constructive that your efforts would be appreciated.
And part of me wants to know if it was a joke. I never imagined that someone would seriously put SEX as a interest on a document intended to gain them employment.
I used to work for a director who would respond to absolutely everybody, but it was an amazing time commitment. When we are hiring, it means we have had a surplus of work for an extended period that warrants an additional team member be added to the permanent roster… So in essence we are already short handed, so I don’t reply to poor resumes, in fact recruitment will often per sort them anyway.
However what I do respond to are online portfolios. Our last three ID interns were all c77 forum posters. Their work was better than the applicants so I reached out to them directly or had recruitment reach out.
There are so many online resources to understand how to wright a resume, there’s no reason to have an unacceptable one.
Yes, absolutely. Those kids need to hear honest, direct criticism from professionals, because they may not be getting it at school, and they may have had zero exposure to professionals as students, for instance if their profs are all MFAs with tons of teaching but no work experience. I don’t know what their situation is and I don’t like to assume.
… if their profs are all MFAs with tons of teaching but no work experience.
What a complete failure, and utter disservice to a university’s customers; aka: students.
The days are long gone, but when I was interviewing with the Dodge Truck division in 1974, the Design Manager, Rod Taylor, actually took the time to “tutor” me via exchanged sketches , renderings and redlining. I didn’t get the summer internship, but I did get a great education, and this positive experience has obviously stuck with me all these years.