Resume Reading

drew — Mon, 30 Nov 2009 14:00:34 +0000

So we are in the hiring process here at the old office. It’s a process I hate being in just as much as I hate having to do. I try not to take out my aggression on applicants. They are in the same boat that I was once in….You send in your resume hoping that someone on the other side picks you to look at. When you are in the business filed I would think you look at where they worked before and what school they went to. In the creative world its a little different. Yeah I could look at your school maybe if you just graduated but lets say you’ve been out a couple years. Do you think I care where you went to school or your G.P.A? Not so much. I’m going to look at your body of work and what people say about you. So if by chance you are applying here and if by chance its for something in my department here are a couple of hints or suggestions.

1. You’ve got about three minutes of my time. [edit] Oh I will watch a DVD of you

2. If you send me to your portfolio site… do me a favor. Make sure I can download your resume and your portfolio. If I can’t make sure I can find it easily. Nothing frustrates me more than an overly creative site where I can’t find anything.

3. On your resume… in the objective line… if its too generic I assume you don’t want to work here you want to work anywhere.

4. Yes we are a christian org. but you actually have to have skill in what you are applying for. You can’t just want to do anything or just be interested in the field.

5. Related experience should actually be related.

6. You can actually find out who is hiring. If you type in “creative director” “Student Life” andy blanks comes up third.. who works here at student life who wrote a post about me. There you will find my name. Ta-da

Seems simple enough. We also post our stuff on employment sites so we get people who aren’t so much interested in us as they are a job. I know times are tough and it sucks but I wont give it a second look if it seems generic to me. Well that’s all I got. Happy hunting to those out there looking for work. Keep at it. Stay in the fight.

Praise Creatives

drew — Tue, 24 Nov 2009 13:58:30 +0000

Praising creatives. Doesn’t seem like something you should have to do…. Aren’t these the people that have so much energy and ego that they don’t need some halfhearted thank you. I’m starting to find out that they are the most in need feedback. I think whether its positive or negative they need something.

I tried something the other day in a meeting. It’s something I’ve done with my boss about the people I work with and I’ve done just for my own satisfaction. I came in before a meeting and decided to make a top ten list of the great accomplishments that we had last week. Well because of my tardiness in starting this project I was only able to get out six. I know we had more but I wanted to be specific and I didn’t want it to look like everyone got a participation award. When I was a program director I used to do something called a game ball. It was done pretty much in the same manner. Anyway I went around the room and talked about the great things we did last week. I did take some shots at THE MAN which isn’t always the best thing to do but I was on a roll. So how do you praise a creative? I’ve got three ways for that.

Way #1 Try to be specific. Don’t just give a hey you did great last week. They would probably ask, “With what?”

Way #2 Be immediate. You don’t have to wait until some special moment. If you think they did great on something that you are looking at say it.

Way #3 Believe it. Don’t just do it out of rote learning where you don’t really know why you are doing it. Really believe the things you are saying.

Peace

Drew Francis » creatives

Resume Reading

Praise Creatives