Upping the CV Game: My Updated CV Design
Following the design of my own website and business cards in the past few weeks, and still looking at a veritable list of promotional items to tick off (or take care of), I decided that it was now time to have a fresh look at my CV and especially at its design.
Previous Research – Types of CVs in the UK
Already way back when for Professional Studies in LVL5, we’ve learned about the types of CVs that are in circulation and that are widely used for different purposes in the UK. This was especially interesting for me coming from a different country and only ever being used to a single standard of structuring CVs that roughly look like this:
This “German” design example is widely used across industries and follows a rather chronological approach, starting with the latest station in life (either in regard to work or education) and working its way back to the school where we obtained our Abitur (which is the equivalent of the UK GCSE). Only after that we include education, skills, hobbies and the like.
However, now being in the UK and attempting to integrate as seamlessly as possible, it was obvious that I now had to learn how to successfully identify and apply the right type of CV for the right type of job. Since that requires me to know about the various types of CV that are being used, I naturally conducted some research back in the day. And as I’ve already blogged about in my blog entry “CVs, Digital Catalogues and Getting Social on Instagram and Twitter”, these types are (in no particular order):
Skill-based CVs (used in the media industry)
Chronological CVs (used in various industries)
Academic and Scholarship CVs (used within FE, HE and the like)
My Previous Application
Based on this list, and the information from my research, I then moved onto rejigging my previous German CV into a more naturalised UK one, namely into the skill-based type, which looked like this:
From this, I then merely added and expanded the list of skills and work experiences over the course of my further studies.
Up until now at least.
New and Updated Research – Inspirational Sources for CV Designs
Now, looking at the fact that I want to promote myself as a freelance camera assistant, and with all the self-image, style, and design considerations in mind as presented in my last blog entries “From Camera Assistance to Director of Photography: My Plan for Employment” and “Designing my Own Website and Business Cards”, I figured that it was time to expand my learning surrounding CVs by researching design options and updating my CV design in tandem with my new style.
Thus, I started browsing the Internet for design inspiration for CVs. Since it was difficult to find CV templates and designs that were exclusively directed at filmmakers (there were merely some websites like Livecareer that advertised it but turned out to only having faulty search engines, and thus not producing the right search hits), I decided that I would branch out into CV designs that are used in the wider creative industries and see whether I would find inspiration there.
My first CV that I found venturing online was this one:
This one was the first to catch my attention as it featured an image of the individual, which I found quite natural upon further investigation. Since our minds are naturally wired to respond to images before text – we see the world first, before we learn how to read – it was only natural that this also applied for this CV.
However, what deterred me from liking this design was the choice of bold colours which distracted me from truly absorbing any of the information presented on the CV without my eyes scanning the entire page in circles. And since an “illegible” CV – to me – is the epitome of uselessness, I searched a bit more and found the very same version, just with a brighter colour.
But again, this CV now revealed an entirely different matter, which I hadn’t picked up on with the first one, despite them being very similar in structure. And that was the very structure of the CV itself!
I realised that the structure of both aforementioned CVs was too overloaded and thus not only gave a messy impression, but once again hampered reading the CV properly, which then led me to researching a bit more.
Thus, I found this sample, which I really liked just for the fact that it was divided into two columns by the means of colours and icons, and framed around the edge by the use of a nice pattern and different font:
And whilst I would really love to implement this kind of style, Word 2011 (the version which I own) sadly does not offer that many design features to create a personal template of this particular complexity. And I would most likely be restricted to using Word 2011 for this task as I don’t have access to Adobe Indesign anymore, which I was able to use in my previous occupation as a temporary editor in print publishing back home.
As such, I forfeit the use of patterns for now even though I like the visual quality of it. This decision was further aided by the fact that, this design – ultimately – does not quite fit the style and colour template that I want to go with for my self-promotion, so whilst I took note of the division of the CV into two different columns, I also decided against the use of patterns in the meantime.
This realisation then fuelled my further research, which led me to this template:
Here again, the portrait, the use of darker, toned down colours and especially the division into two columns was what caught my attention, especially in tandem with the use of fonts throughout the page that gave the CV a more personal, yet clean feel. I especially liked this style just for the sheer unity of its design.
However, that design – again – had two other disadvantages that I needed to note: Firstly, it was too full of information, obstructing a quick and easy read, and secondly, its style did not match the profession of a freelance camera assistant. Whilst this might have been the right CV for an editorial job or even the job of a screenwriter or scriptwriter, nothing of that design evokes the concept of a camera assistant (or camera technician or DoP for that matter), without me having to heavily edit it.
A Decision Made
My research up until this point made it very clear that I was not able to find a CV that would fulfil all my requirements.
Whilst I want to aim for clarity and modernism that borders on futurism, as well as a darker colour palette, I also have a very specific goal in mind, namely to create a CV that is very decidedly associating “camera assistance”. Since I had a very distinctive vision and there was no ready-made template to be found, I thus decided to recreate my own design by collating bits and pieces that I liked from other CVs and merge them into my own version of it.
My Application – Designing My CV and Finding the Right Font
Since I wanted sleekness and modern design, but also something futuristic to compliment the overall style of my promotional image that is to be closely linked with the genre of Sci-Fi, music and corporate videos, I decided to research some fonts to be used in Word 2011.
As such, I started researching fonts online and selected some of the modern and more futuristic ones that are free to use even for commercial purposes (which I would technically fall under wanting to use them for my CV).
Proceeding like this, I found various fonts, which I tested with my name in order to give me a first impression for a possible header (and possibly also for the rest of the text). As such, here is my shortlisted selection of fonts as of now:
All of these fonts I downloaded and ran a test within Word 2011 to see whether they could be used by that particular version of the software and whether they would actually look decent once I applied them. Running a couple of tests, and out of all of the above-mentioned fonts, only two fonts made it into the final round, namely the fonts called “Adam” and “ModernSpace”. Playing around with different font combinations, I ended up with a selection of four, out of which I took the third option from the top after a quick enquiry with my course mates:
As such, I picked “ModernSpace” for the header sub-header and “Adam” for the text. This I did because I felt that this was the most natural flow that was not too distracting for absorbing information but still eye-catching enough to be remembered and – hopefully – associated with me.
Last but not least, using tables, lines and the newly selected fonts, I finally managed to design my own personal CV template, which will follow in a bit and also be included in my final documentation hand-in. Since my CV contains sensitive information, please excuse the fact that it will be censored on this public platform in the meantime:
A Disclaimer on Headshots for CVs
As you may have noticed, and despite the fact that I initially liked the CVs that applied images and repeatedly found myself drawn to them, I will personally refrain from using them now, as I don’t want to be sorted out in any selection process just for the fact that I am a woman.
I want to give myself the change to be as neutrally perceived for as long as possible and not be rejected due to unconscious bias. For those who will be interested in hiring a woman will still be able to grasp who I am, but for those who don’t actively seek or look out for a female camera assistant and just go by assumption, I would at least love to get the foot in the door in a bit more to prove myself.
References:
Amy Clarke Films. (2016) 5 of the Best CV Writing Tips for Filmmakers. [online] Available at: https://www.amyclarkefilms.com/blog/cv-writing-tips-for-film-makers [Accessed on 15 February 2020].
Craft CV. (2020) CV Templates. [online] Available at: https://craft-cv.com/en/cv-templates [Accessed on 15 February 2020].
Kickresume. (2020) Business-Management Graduate CV Example. [online] Image taken from: https://www.kickresume.com/en/help-center/business-management-graduate-resume-sample/ [Accessed on 15 February 2020].
MyFirstJobInFilm. (2016) CV Advice. [online] Available at: https://www.myfirstjobinfilm.co.uk/resources/cv-interview-advice [Accessed on 15 February 2020].
MyPerfectResume. (n.d.) Film Crew CV Example. [online] Available at: https://www.myperfectresume.com/how-to/cv-examples/film-crew-cv-example [Accessed on 15 February 2020].
Novoresume. (2020) CV Templates. [online] Images taken from: https://novoresume.com/cv-templates [Accessed on 15 February 2020].
Resume Genius. (2020) Elementary Teacher Resume Sample. [online] Image taken from: https://craft-cv.com/en/cv-templates [Accessed on 15 February 2020].
Richard (2019) 15 Superb CV Examples To Get You Noticed. [online] Image taken from: https://weare.guru/cv-examples/ [Accessed on 15 February 2020].
TheResumeBoutique (2019) Resume Template and Cover Letter “Blackie”. [online] Images taken from: https://www.etsy.com/uk/listing/519394808/resume-template-and-cover-letter?ga_order=most_relevant&ga_search_type=all&ga_view_type=gallery&ga_search_query=resume+template&ref=sc_gallery-1-12&plkey=726711a131fdb96ebb11ae063074bb313d4ce178%3A519394808&bes=1 [Accessed on 15 February 2020].
University of Birmingham (n.d.) CVs for Media and Creative Careers. [PDF] Available at: https://intranet.birmingham.ac.uk/as/employability/careers/documents/public/cal-cvs-for-media-careers.pdf [Accessed on 15 February 2020].
Vault. (2020) Resume Samples. [online] Available at: https://www.vault.com/resume-tips [Accessed on 15 February 2020].