5 Tips for Creating a Creative Job Application
- Ben
- Apr 19, 2019
- 3 min read
Updated: Apr 24, 2019
Inspired by Nicola Robinson’s guest lecture about creating a good and creative CV, I decided it would be a nice feature to write a blog (with some of her elements) on this topic.
We all know that job hunting is almost a full-time job, where we have to make sure to stand out with our motivation and experience in a sea of competition. So, how could we do that if employers or recruiters regularly receive 25 or more applications for one vacancy? Well with just a few tips, I hope you can breathe life into your work history and hopefully stand out from the other 24 persons.
1. Personal Branding
Maybe we should see ourselves as a business trying to sell ourselves to other businesses… So, think from a marketing perspective and highlight your CV through your unique selling propositions with your experiences, values and skills. Show the recruiter that you possess the right skills, but also show them what extra things you bring to table and what they would lose by not choosing you. Perhaps add some extra personality to it, by adding a professional profile picture to it with some colors (see my previous blog) that reflect your personality.
2. Overview
Be brief with your CV. People tend to be fond of certain structures and recruiters/employers don’t have a lot of time reading and processing all the information of the applications. Thus, make sure that your CV is short, but powerful with the best and most important highlights of your career. Use colons to sum up things for a certain categories and add infographics or icons for some visual appeal.
3. Outstanding Design
In the creative industry of marketing and PR, there is probably no excuse for an ugly CV design. So, make sure, as mentioned before, that your design provides a clear overview with nice colors and an on-trend design, so the organization knows you’re up to date with your sense of style. Also make sure that there is consistency between the presentation, in terms of the same color scheme and presented colons, if you have more pages.
4. Evidence
‘Actions speak louder than words’ – Giving examples of your experiences is good, but strengthening your CV and cover letter with a portfolio is GREAT. It is a nice way to support and showcase your experience and knowledge with concrete examples. Possible options could be; blogs or articles that you have written, visuals that you created or projects with the outcomes that you were responsible for. A portfolio is especially perfect, when you’re a graduate since it provides more evidence of your level of professionalism and presentation of you and your work as a starter.
5. Cover Letter
Almost always, when applying for a job, an accompanying cover letter need to be sent with your CV. Make sure it’s presented in a formal and business style, where it complements your CV and you explain your motivation for the vacancy. Important aspects for your cover letter are:
A clear hierarchy with three paragraphs (introduction, job motivation, call to action) is a good rule of thumb. Avoid too long texts with too much information.
Spelling and grammar mistakes, make you appear lazy and/or uneducated. So, always double-check your CV and cover letter, or let others proofread it.
Extra: if it is possible, try to match your cover letter with them same design as your CV.
Other
There are of course, in addition to these CV’s and cover letters, other examples of remarkable out of the box job applications, such as with donut boxes or toys. However, I have considered that not everyone has the budget or the means to carry out these actions. I personally think that; if you present yourself as a business with USP’s and values, use you resume as marketing tool with the work experience as content, a portfolio as a testimonial and a touch of storytelling through your cover letter, you can still get far.
Check out Geekflare's list with 16 FREE tools to create creative CV's and cover letters:
I hope you found this post helpful, let me know in the comments if you have any other tips. Sharing = Caring!
Until next time!
Sources: Nicola Robinson, Mashable, Creative Bloq
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