Week 5 Feedback
I week 5 I was given 1 to 1 feedback on my cv and cover letter design. I was a bit worried about being told to get rid of my blocks because I guess in a way they aren’t exactly a necessary addition. Luckily I wasn’t, I just had to make them a little less prominent.
During feedback I was made more aware of how the easier it is to scan through my cv, the better. I needed to make it so that who ever is handling my application can find the information they need quickly. My text was very large and I think the lightest font weight I used was semi bold both of which did not aid this at all.
I also didn’t have details of what I did in work experience or a couple references in which I would have to amend as well as fixing the aforementioned design flaws.
CV Changes
Design
How it was previously…
Updated design…
As you can see I made the cv much more easily scannable by placing all the sections to left and the details to the right of them. I used a much smaller font size and used a lighter weight for body copy to create more distinguishable typographic hierarchy than what I had before.
My contacts ended up fitting in the top left corner quite nicely under my name and I reused some of them icon designs for the contact details of my references.
Content
As a result of decreasing my font sizes and changing the over all layout, I was able to beef up certain sections as well as include a couple new ones.
I was able to add more info to my about me section incase i was ever in a position where a company doesn’t accept cover letters…
I also beefed up my work experience section by adding bit of what I did in each placement…
Then I also added a new section on additional achievements so they know I’m interesting because I also come from backgrounds in theatre and music…
I also added my references which I’m realising I shouldn’t put up on here so you’ll see them in the final submission pdf.
Cover Letter Changes
Ok so first and for most, tragedy hath truck me. I was getting ready to apply to a couple different placements who’s deadlines were coming up and I was going to apply to the Nintendo position I wanted but it wasn’t up anymore. This crushed me but I had to keep going so my next cover letter was for Rapid 7.
Design Changes
Before…
Updated Design…
Now the top section of both documents match. I was able to fit the whole letter into one page after choosing a smaller font size. To fill the black space in the left side that was were my section titles went, I added another block pattern creeping up along that side of the page.
Content Changes
For changes to the content of my cover letter now for rapid 7, I did the same research I did on Nintendo which was taking time to look for and understand their goals and values. Also very important, what they do. The I altered what I already had done for Nintendo to fit this position and Rapid 7 specifically.
You should be you can see the changes I made in the before and after above.
Thoughts
I think without getting feedback I would have thought my initial design was perfectly fine but I can see now after making all these changes how much better it is now and how flawed my original designs actually were. Over all I’m very pleased with how this updated design turned out and I think it does a much better job of reflecting me and my brand but in a much more professional looking way.