I began the development of both my CV and cover letter, as I would need to send these off as soon as possible to potential placement employers.
CV
I started with my CV, as this would provide me with a grounds on which to base my cover letter around.
As I had already made up a CV in the past, I decided to refer to it from which to base my work on. I would obviously need to change a lot of things, but it would give me an idea of the things that I have already included that I would need to include in my new CV.
My old CV was made on a CV maker website, so the design of it is pretty basic and impersonal. That is one of the main things that will need to be changed about my new CV.
I will also need to update my education, as I have started university since making this CV.
In terms of skills and qualities, I will need to tailor these towards a more UX/UI Design based criteria, instead of a sales perspective.
Inspiration
I decided to look into a few examples of existing UX portfolios from current designers, and these are few that I really liked the look of.
A composed a list of qualities that these CVs possess that I would like to reflect in my own:
- Short, simple sentences that are easy to read and understand.
- Very limited colour scheme – black and white, then an accent colour that is carried throughout the entire page.
- The most important information is placed first, with least relevant at the end.
- The name on the portfolio is bold and clear at the top of the page, drawing your attention.
My CV
The CV I have created is evenly spaced out, making everything clear and easy to find on the page. I have also used a colour accent to draw your attention to all the titles throughout the page. I didn’t want to just use black and white as I wanted to differentiate myself from other CVs, as it would have been a very simple and basic design if it weren’t for the colour.
PDF:
Jessica Donnan CV
Cover Letter
I wanted to keep my cover letter consistent with my CV, so I used the same typography and spacing. However, I removed all colour from this document as I wanted the letter to be more about the words than the overall design and display.
PDF:
Jessica Donnan Cover Letter
Daniel also asked us to make sure our LinkedIn profiles were up to date. There wasn’t much I needed to change from last year, as I had been keeping it pretty much up to date. I did, however, edit my description and changed my profile picture to a more recent photo, as I wanted to keep my profile as relevant as possible.
