Now was time to start creating my CV. I had actually already had a CV created from the past as I personally like to create multiple different CV’s that are tailored towards different sectors of employability such as retail, hospitality, marketing, healthcare etc. This meant I already had a CV mostly made but that did not stop me from looking at the previous CV through unbiased eyes and acting as if I had not created it to see if it met all of the items that a CV should have and if I was happy with the content.
After doing this I realised that a few changes had to be made
I redid did my short bio, reordered my education, fixed up my previous work experience, skills expanded on and added references.
While creating my short bio I used a word bank that I had previously created in order to get a sense of what I wanted my short bio to display about me. I felt that the short bio would be very important as it was what would give potential employers a sense of who I am. It needed to be something short that could summed up in just a few sentences.
After a lot of careful consideration this was my final short bio:
“A motivated, passionate and dependable individual, who is always eager to learn and that can easily adapt to
change. I’m an excellent team player with a positive attitude and the ability to multitask as well as work well
under pressure.
I have always had a love for design for as long as I can remember. Having an idea or being hit with inspiration
and then seeing it come to life and be realized is everything. “
This bio does a good job of naming some important skills and qualities that I have before it goes on to talk about my passion and love for design. This is a bio that I felt conveyed me exactly how a wanted and showed what I was passionate about.
Reordering my education was a lot simpler as it just entailed me writing facts that were very well known to me and arranging them from latest to least recent. I did decide that out of practicality it would be better to remove my GCSE results as they were not needed especially since my A level results were already there. I instead replaced them with the course I am currently doing at Ulster university (interaction design).
While considering the skills section the personal word bank that I had previously created was again very useful as it allowed me to see which skill, quality or capability I had and would like to display to employers. For this section I thought that it might be a good idea to group skills and qualities together as one group and have capabilities as another. This then meant that I could write out skills & qualities such as creative problem solving and innovation while also writing about capabilities that I have like wireframing or research. I felt that this was a good way of showcasing everything that I could do. I also decided to also write descriptions for each of the skill, quality and capability so employers would know exactly how they relate.
Skills, qualities and capabilities written out:
” SKILLS & QUALITIES
-
- Innovative – Creative and always trying thinking of new ideas
- Communication – Able to communicate across all levels of understanding
- Creative Problem Solving – Able to provide possible creative solutions to different problems that could arise at any point
- Customer Service – Uses previous experience to know what customers want
- Team Work – Can work well in a team
- Confidence – Friendly and a people person
- Listening & Learning – Good listener and always open to advice and input in order to learn more and expand my knowledge
CAPABILITIES
-
- Research and Planning – Able to research different topics to have a better understanding and know the work that needs to be done
- Wireframing – Able to produce wireframes and sketches to help visualize designs
- Design Services – Able to use services such as Figma and Adobe Illustrator when making designs digital “
Since I have not had any work experience that relate to the type of jobs I would be writing about I instead decided to just write about three different jobs that I worked and talked about the transferrable skills that I gained from each one, such as working independently and within a team
For my refence I added that it would be given upon request as I did not yet have someone in mind that I could ask to provide a reference.
As a portfolio is also needed due to the nature of the jobs that I will be applying for I added a link to my portfolio site at the end for safe measure.
With everything done I then had my final CV which I was quite happy with as I felt that there was no better CV out there that could represent me in the way that this one did.
Finished CV: Florence Alade – CV
For creating the cover letter I started by researching and having a look at other cover letters that other people had written for jobs
I decided to start off my cover letter with a “Dear …. Name….” as it felt a lot more personal, adding a personal effect and it would show that I actually put effort into researching the company.
since a cover letter should generally be tailored to match each job the one that I would have to write would simply act as sort of a guide line or how to for the other ones that I would write in the future.
I started by talking about the brand/company and how I knew there was a placement opportunity, from there I began mentioning my love for design and what I admire about the company. Afterwards I talk about why I think I would be a good fit for the role being advertised.
I found that this format allowed me to touch upon everything that I wanted to mention. While showcasing how passionate I am as passion and enthusiasm is very important and is something that employers want to see.
Finished Cover Letter: Cover Letter