Resume Writing Guide: Resumes & Design Sheets for Design Jobs
< Design

Introduction

You are applying for jobs in a highly visual field, so your resume should make a strong visual impression. You are free to choose a format, even an unusual one, which shows your qualifications to greatest advantage, as long as your presentation looks original, but professional, rather than merely strange. As discussed above, you may also need a more conservative version which can be scanned.

The Resume


Some categories of information must be included.

• Name, address, e-mail address, and phone number where you can be reached.
  
  You may include home and work numbers. Use only phone numbers which you are sure will be answered by a reliable message-taker or answering machine. Include your URL if you have one. If you will be available at a given address or number before or after a specific date, say so. Any time this information changes, print a new resume.
  

• Education.
  
  In reverse chronological order, list degrees from bachelor's on, with degree-granting institutions and dates. You may include representative coursework, names of instructors with whom you studied, names of critics, studio projects, thesis, coursework for which you did not receive a degree, activities, and undergraduate major and grade-point average. You don't need to mention the basic coursework which was obviously part of your training. If you have little or no relevant work experience, stress studio projects, perhaps listing them in a separate section.
  

• Experience.
  
  List organizations you worked for, positions, and dates. You may include internships or free-lance work. In listing work for firms, indicate both the type of work you did ("presentation drawings") and the types of projects on which you worked ("300,000 sf retail space"). If you managed a project or supervised others, say so. Use verb phrases, not complete sentences.
  

• Your most relevant experience.
  
  If you have a great deal to list, you may subdivide it into functional categories ("Design," "Construction," "Preservation"). Within each category, list experience in reverse chronological order. Indicate all the experience you have had, but greatly condense the less relevant parts of it with a phrase such as "part-time and summer work to pay educational expenses included work as gardener, bar-tender, and cashier."
  

Some sections are optional.

• Objective.
  
  If you apply to a design firm it is usually obvious, given your background, what kind of job you want, so an objective statement is optional. Use one if there is anything unusual about your interest which you would like to communicate, for example, a strong interest in construction, or a desire to integrate planning and landscape architecture.
  

• Awards, Honors, Prizes.
  
  These may also be mentioned under "Education." Create a separate "Awards" category only if you have something fairly substantial to put in it. Minor honors such as undergraduate Dean's List can be included with the degree to which they pertain. International students should interpret awards that Americans may not be familiar with. For example: "Chosen as one of the top five graduates in Architecture in 2002 for all Korean universities."
  

• Skills/Additional Information.
  
  A "Skills" section would highlight abilities related to the jobs you want. For example you could include skills in photography and computer-aided design. Additional information could include: language competency and travel, your willingness to travel and/or relocate (if true), any interests which may be a point of contact between you and prospective employers, computer skills (if you do not want to emphasize them elsewhere). If anything on your resume indicates that you may not be a U.S. citizen or permanent resident (for example, an undergraduate degree from another country), make the most favorable statement which you can about your eligibility for U.S. work permission.
  

Unless you have several years of work experience (and perhaps even if you do), stick to a one-page resume. If you use two pages, make sure your name is on each page and that the most important information is on the first page.

Design Sheet

This page is designed to be visually appealing and to give an employer an example of your best work. It does not substitute for a portfolio. Unlike a portfolio, however, it can be included every time you send out a resume and cover letter. Feedback from employers indicates that a good design sheet is a highly effective way of demonstrating what you can do. However, a poor design sheet can easily eliminate you from consideration. If you do a design sheet, and we encourage you to, make sure that it's one you'll be proud of.

Choose something representative of your best work, which will reproduce well. It is often best to use one project, rather than a hodge-podge of unrelated ones. You may have copies made from a black-and-white photograph, or have a drawing reduced. Many printers can reduce pages by 1/2 with good results. Unfortunately, some colors don't reproduce well. Your name should appear on the design sheet, ideally in the same typeface as is used on your resume.

You will be limited to a one-page design sheet for the resume books. Another interesting option, quite acceptable for our resume books, is to integrate text and images on a total of two pages. For your own use, however, you may prepare an extra page or two. Some candidates feel that the investment in sending out color prints is worthwhile. However, do not send out a large number of unsolicited examples, or they will lose their effectiveness.

Examples of resumes and design sheets in architecture and landscape architecture are available for you to look through in resume books from previous years, at the Career Services Library, Suite 20, McNeil.

Click on the links below to see sample resumes.  Do not copy them.  They are here to give you ideas for your own job hunting materials.

Architecture

Vitas for Jobs Teaching Design

You will need a resume or vita which lists your professional experience, but which also gives more academic detail and which also mentions teaching experience, if you have it. Career Services produces a separate Academic Job Search Handbook. Ask for it at our office.