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Getting creative with your resume; yes or no?

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Ashervisalis grand marshal polycounter
When I was younger, some resume advice I read was to stick to black and white, professional structure, no images or colorful designs, unless you were applying for an art role, like graphic design.

So now, I'm wondering, as an artist, should I have a cool resume? Something easy to read yet eye catching? Instead of using Word, maybe using Photoshop to design my resume? A quick google image search of '3D artist resume' brings up some interesting designs.

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  • CrackRockSteady
    Only speaking for myself obviously but any time I'm looking at resumes and portfolios for potential new hires, I'm primarily looking at your portfolio with a quick glance at your resume to see what your work history looks like.  I honestly could not care less what your resume looks like as long as it's formatted in a way that is easy to read and I can see what I need to see at a glance.

    If you spend a bunch of time making your resume look super sick and stand out from all the other candidates...I still don't give a hot shit.  What does your portfolio look like, and what is your work history.  That's all I care about.

    Even if it comes down to you and another person who is 100% exactly the same skill and experience level, it's going to come down to how the interview goes, not whose resume looks nifty. 

    I wouldn't spend time on making a fancy looking resume, it just doesn't matter.  Take whatever extra time you were going to spend making your resume look cool and use it to polish your portfolio that much more.
  • PixelMasher
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    PixelMasher veteran polycounter
    Ive written about this before but ill touch on it again.

    Context is king. Think about who is going to be viewing your resume. most likely HR types and Producers. less artistic, more business leaning people. Art leads will look at your portfolio first, and then look at your resume to fill in the gaps and answer any questions they might have before considering bringing you in for an interview.

    I have seen those types of resumes all done up like an RPG with stats/xp bars and to be honest, those are super cringe inducing. Lots of industry folk poke fun at them on facebook all the time. Don't try and be king of the nerds, even at a game studio, there is such a thing as taking it too far. 

    Not only that but it shows a lack of self awareness as to who you are putting your resume together for (hr types, producers, leads). Some geekyness is great, it shows passion, but decking out your resume with random stats bars that don't even convey anything meaningful...(3/7 stars for 3ds max?) like what does that even mean!? It's like your resume becomes a walking meme and brings to mind the equivalent of a neckbeard fedora wearing dude tipping his hat while addressing all women as "m'lady". 

    your resume should be clean cut and professional, people are going to print it out and bring it into interview rooms for quick reference during an onsite, that's the main purpose of an actual word/pdf resume these days when artstation and linkedin both have sections for relevant work experience.

    so yea, clean cut. use self awareness, and don't overthink it. It's a method of communication, your portfolio is what is selling your creative skills and ability. don't waste 5-10 hours doodling up a "creative" resume that will hurt more than help. 

    overthinking is the pretty much like this ;) just keep it classy. raised lettering...pale nimbus...
    https://youtu.be/cISYzA36-ZY?t=1m29s
  • Ashervisalis
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    Ashervisalis grand marshal polycounter
    On a side note, what is your opinion on a cover letter? Sending over a portfolio, resume, and a cover letter seems a bit excessive, and I've been wondering, every time I take the time to write a cover letter, if the hiring personnel is just skipping the cover letter and going straight for the portfolio.
  • JordanN
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    JordanN interpolator
    Last month, I saw someone who made business cards by using actual Gameboy Color cartridges which I thought was the coolest thing ever.
    I liked it so much, I wanted to do something similar by making my own Gamecube themed jewlbox, but I put it off when I couldn't go to the job fair.

    it's different for everyone but I personally like seeing some of the extra creative stuff. As for how receptive some studios are, I remember 90s Nickelodeon was absolutely chalk full of that stuff. But maybe those kinds of studios just don't exist anymore.  :/

  • CrackRockSteady
    @Ashervisalis personally I don't care about a cover letter and likely most artists who will be looking at a resume/portfolio will not care either.  However I know that for some studios a cover letter is a requirement for your submission, meaning that if your submission does not include a cover letter it may never make its way past an HR filter.  Doing a modicum of research on a studio that you're applying to and tailoring your cover letter to suit them can potentially be pretty helpful getting your submission past a hiring manager/HR person and on to the next level.
  • Ashervisalis
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    Ashervisalis grand marshal polycounter
    OK great. Thanks for your advice guys, always appreciated.
  • Amaury
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    Amaury polycounter lvl 7
    White page, black arial font, that's it. Easy to print, doesn't eat a full ink cartridge.

    No use in making a xX-s1ck-l0ok1ng-Xx resume and business card and whatever if they're pointing to an empty portfolio btw
  • Neox
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    Neox veteran polycounter
    9 out of 10 stars in any software... those resumes get directly on my personal ignore list. after 17 years in this industry i only know and use a fraction of most softwares i use. how should a free graduate know 90% of a software when only dabbling with it for a year, maybe two.

    As others have said, resumes are not in the interest of the art leads and the managers really do not care for a special gameart-esque design. If you wanna shine, work with professional great looking typography. The American Psycho sequence is a perfect example :D 
  • Ashervisalis
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    Ashervisalis grand marshal polycounter
    @Neox That American Psycho scene was my favourite scene from that movie.
  • Andreicus
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    Andreicus polycounter lvl 6
    This is a friend of mine resume, he got a job at Google as a Software Engineer, now he is earning over 200k per year, i shouldn't give away all these infos but...here we go:

    [spoiler]



    [/spoiler]
  • CrackRockSteady
    I'm gonna go out on a limb and guess that your friend was hired in spite of how his resume looks not because of it
  • danr
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    danr interpolator
    I’m also going to go out on a limb and guess that the hiring process at the happy faerie land of unlimited resource Google is very different to the hiring process at every dirty, hand to mouth game studio staffed by grizzly burned out cynics who are more likely to spit bloody phlegm on your resume than clap delightedly. 
  • garcellano
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    garcellano greentooth
    I really don't know if that works in games, maybe for UI or Graphic Design?
    Just keep it simple.
  • Brian "Panda" Choi
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    Brian "Panda" Choi high dynamic range
    If you want an example of a clean, but creative resume, you could see mine as a possible example.  I have yet to get a critical "this is too much" critique from anyone.

    https://cdnb.artstation.com/p/resume_files/attachments/000/003/527/original/Brian_Choi_Resume.pdf?1511826593
  • EarthQuake
    If you want an example of a clean, but creative resume, you could see mine as a possible example.  I have yet to get a critical "this is too much" critique from anyone.

    https://cdnb.artstation.com/p/resume_files/attachments/000/003/527/original/Brian_Choi_Resume.pdf?1511826593
    First off, a strip of green isn't creative. Secondly, it is too much, that neon green makes my eyes bleed and pulls my attention AWAY from the primary element of this document, your work history. Your typography work is pretty busy and hard to focus on as well, with too much text crammed into too little space.

    Seriously guys, just make a regular ass resume. Black and white. Clean, well spaced, with a readable font. Anything else is dumb/has more chance of hurting than helping you. Dear god, whatever you do, don't use your resume as an excuse to show off your amateur graphic design skills. For every my-little-pony-guy exception, there are 1000 PDF rage closes by exhausted art directors, leads, etc.

    If you're a student and you send me a fluffed up resume it tells me one thing: You've been faffing about with the design of your resume when you should be working on your portfolio. It's a bad look.
  • pior
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    pior grand marshal polycounter
    To the OP : no.
  • Alex_J
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    Alex_J grand marshal polycounter
    It's like dating. Act normal until some level of commitment is made. Then, once he/she's put in enough effort that it's not so easy to ditch your weird ass, you can safely let the real you shine.
  • NikhilR
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    NikhilR polycounter
    It's like dating. Act normal until some level of commitment is made. Then, once he/she's put in enough effort that it's not so easy to ditch your weird ass, you can safely let the real you shine.
    Couldn't that get you dumped/fired though?
  • CrackRockSteady
    It's like dating. Act normal until some level of commitment is made. Then, once he/she's put in enough effort that it's not so easy to ditch your weird ass, you can safely let the real you shine.
    Is...is that really how you approach dating?   :neutral:
  • Brian "Panda" Choi
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    Brian "Panda" Choi high dynamic range
    I think Alex was just being hyperbolic for comedic seriousness.
  • Alex_J
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    Alex_J grand marshal polycounter
    I think Alex was just being hyperbolic for comedic seriousness.
    ^^^


    I married the first girl I dated 2 weeks in. We're approaching our five year anniversary. Surprisingly, she's not a moron either. Smarter than me anyway. My approach was like a tick. Lots of people don't like ticks, but you have to respect the tick. Once it's on you, the only way to get rid of it is with fire. 

    On topic, yes I was just reiterating what had already said very plainly and very clearly, but with humor (what I call humor, anyway). I'd recommend to always act professional while working in a professional capacity, even if you're surrounded by clowns. You'll do better work that way, and when chaos happens, people will look to you, the unwavering oak, for guidance.
  • Brian "Panda" Choi
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    Brian "Panda" Choi high dynamic range
    Is this like Alaskan humor?
  • sacboi
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    sacboi high dynamic range
    When I snagged my first fulltime job a CV or Resume was a thing in the far distant future. Back then it was wholly 'trial-n-error' on the job prac, if you were willing to put in the effort and a quick learner and it showed in your work and you'd made it through to the end of the day without pissing to many old timers off...then you were good to go. But moving with times since the mid too late 90s an acquired skill communicating your skillset via documentation is basically a must have attribute so the best I think set of advice I recieved and now pass on is well...keeping it simple, concise, relevant and readable.

    Really as others have said, bin thoughts of generating fluff and convey a sense of professionalism which will only serve to enhance your chances supporting an initial application successfully past the applicable HR gatekeeper/s whereby onward to the next stage in the recruitment process.

    My 2 cents.
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