Help- Making a CV

[Sophie27]

Hi,

I am a Part 1 in London and was wondering if anyone can advise me on how to go about making a CV. What format is your CV? Should I be going for the image based type of thing as a jpeg file or just a simple word document.....

Any other advice welcome....

[architecturesucks]

I would lay it out in a DTP software or perhaps illustrator or freehand.

It needs to be simple - unclutered but contain the correct information.

The obvious - name, dob, sex, address, contact information, nationality.

Qualifications

Relevant experience

Skills

Interests

I suggest that you do combine it and include samples of your university work.

Then create pdfs from this as a lot of companies now accept emailed CV's and this provides them with something that is simple and cannot be altered or printed incorrectly.

Good luck in your job hunting.

[AP]

Sending samples of work over email is a hotly debated topic. On the one hand it lets them see it without inviting you to interview, and on the other hand ... it lets them see it without inviting you to interview.

What i mean is, its easy for them to see the work, great, but you're not there to sell it, explain it, sell yourself, and unless you have soo much good work that it doesn't matter, when you do go to interview, they've already seen your "best stuff" and are bored with it, and nothing else is up to standard.

Also nobody elses moniter is ever colour-calibrated the same as yours. And many architects over 25-30 won't open unknown attachments (we asked around at our school), since they live in fear of the interweb infecting their machine with a virus, which also eliminates sending data CDs as an alternative to printed samples in envelopes.

[architecturesucks]

Yes of course people are worried about viruses - Hence why I suggested you send your cv in pdf format. Do not send powerpoint presentations or jpegs or exe's. PDF's should be no problem because the majority of practices distribute a lot of their drawings in that format to their subconsultants.

I do not suggest that you send entire chunks of your portfolio. I suggest you carefully select a couple of images to wet their appetite.

I would definately spend sometime to design your CV. Take a look at some graphics and typography books to get some ideas. You have to make your CV standout.

Sending in a simple Word document with no images or design flair will not make it standout from the hundreds that they receive.

You have to ensure that it catches the directors eye, whilst being carefully designed and easy to read and understand. Beware of over design.