18 January 2010

Update on resume re-write...

I got the first draft of my reworked resume & cover letter today from careerperfect.com. I must say, I'm very impressed! It's not at all what I expected, but I think it will do a world of good in my job search.

15 January 2010

Job hunt progress update...

Since I began actively submitting my resume for jobs on January 8, I've applied to 14 jobs. Of the 14, one company wrote to notify me the position had been filled, and one sent me a resume submission confirmation but so far, there have been no calls.

Although I applied to 4 jobs today alone, I've decided to spend the rest of day posting samples on my portfolio site, as I should have my professionally redesigned resume & cover letter sometime on Monday. No one said this was gonna be easy! ;P

13 January 2010

Professional Resume Writing Service

After months of consideration, I finally broke down today and uploaded my resume to CareerPerfect. My sister used them in the past and said they did great work. At $299, their service hardly comes cheap, but if it lands me a job, it'll be well worth it....

I know you must be dying to know what I'll get for $299... so here it is:
"Get a powerfully written and distinctively designed Resume and Cover Letter in all three distribution formats (Presentation, Scannable, and ASCII)."

Distribution formats for your specific needs
  • Presentation: A presentation resume is visually appealing; it may be attached to e-mails, printed, mailed, faxed, or hand delivered.
  • Keyword Scannable: A scannable resume is optimized for scanning into an automated applicant tracking system; it may be attached to e-mails, mailed, faxed, or hand delivered.
  • Keyword ASCII: An ASCII resume is plain text optimized for electronic submission; it may be pasted into the body of an e-mail or into online forms.
It should take about 3 business days to get the final resume. It better be good! :)

11 January 2010

Pluggin away on the print stuff today

Making good progress adding a few print examples today. Not as far along as I would have liked, but at least it's progress!

09 January 2010

Lettres Ornées is my type.



http://www.pentagram.com/what-type-are-you/

Gotta admit, I LOVE this guy's accent! Apparently, I'm Emotional, Assertive, Traditional and Relaxed... I'm Lettres Ornées.

A busy Saturday planned.

I posted a plea for help on Facebook last night, asking my friends for alternatives to Monster in my job search. Here's the list of their recommendations:
Of the list, craigslist seems to hold the most promise. Indeed lists jobs from all over the web but appears not to inlcude craigslist. A quick search of krop last night revealed lots of art jobs, but none in my search area of NH, MA or RI

Interestingly, the first job I got out of college I found in the Boston Globe. It was a graphic design position with National Amusements in Dedham, MA. Basically, I designed movie ad layouts for newspaper - mostly in the UK. It was fun, albeit sometimes stressful, mindless work. I'd be given a bunch of ads and some "space" in the paper and I'd have to arrange them to fit the space as best I could. The pay was HORRIBLE but we could go to the movies any time we wanted for free with a season pass which, at the time, more than made up for it. Before I started there, I bought myself a gift to celebrate my first post-graduate job... it was a fossil watch with a chain-mail strap. I wore it faithfully for the 2 years I worked at National and on the last day on the job, as I walked out to my car at 5pm, the battery stopped.

The story gets even more amazing now. Immediately upon returning home, I stopped by a local jewelry store to buy a new battery for my watch. I walked in and a kind gentleman behind the counter struck up a conversation with me. He had a wonderful accent - I later found out he was from Lebanon. He asked "What happened, the battery just stopped?" And I proceeded to tell him the amazing tale of the watch bought as a new job gift that died that very day (the last day on the job.) Amazed by the story, he went on to ask what I was doing for work. I replied that I was a graphic designer. At this point, he got very excited. He leaned toward me and asked "Do you design websites?" To which I replied that I had yet to attempt that, but it was something I desperately wanted to learn. He hired me on the spot to design a web site for his business. Excited, I ran right out and bought all of the Lynda Weinman books I could find, along with an HTML reference guide and got to work. It took me about a month to design their site and it launched me into an entirely new and exciting career path!

But I digress! Back to the job search discussion... I applied to one job on Monster last night. This is a risky move because my portfolio site is still incomplete. But I work well under pressure, so I should be able to get that set up this weekend.

In the end, I wonder how many resumes I will send out... how many responses I'll get... how many interviews I'll land... and where I'll eventually end up? I plan to record it all up here for the curious. In the end, it's in God's hands...

07 January 2010

Gotta Getta Job

Today's my birthday. I'm thirty six today. It's a new year... a new birthday... and a new life with the end of the nisi period fast approaching (the first week of February). I have high hopes for this year. I think it's going to be a good one.

That said, and without getting into the gory details, I learned tonight that it is critical I land some sort of job within the next couple of months. My resume, online portfolio, and skill overhaul are nowhere near completion. To be blunt, I need to get a move on! My plan is to focus the online portfolio on my print work and start looking for work immediately. I'll worry about adding web samples later on...