A job application has more than 1000 applications. That is the minimum number we have mentioned. For any well-established company, the number easily exceeds 5000 and this is only the start. You aim to get the interview and prove that you are the best candidate for the job position. The first step though includes getting shortlisted through just a piece of paper — a Resume. let us know more about that the Web Designer Resume-Know More.
A resume plays a vital role in any hiring process, it cuts you through the line of candidates that are not fit for the role and allows you to prove yourself worthy for any company. To make a difference any candidate must understand the difference between a good and bad resume.
We are here to do just the very job for you. Yes, we are here to help web designers draft a perfect resume for their next job search. Do stay tuned with all the steps and design your perfect resume today. Whether you are an expert or fresher, the guide has all the information that would meet your needs.
What format should you follow?
A resume needs to showcase your skills in the first look. They are like the selling points, and any hiring manager will not spend more than five minutes looking or searching for the talents you possess. To make a difference your talents need to be highlighted in such a manner that they catch the eye of the reader.
There are several resume formats that you can choose from. The major accepted resume formats include,
- Reverse-chronological
- Functional that focused on skills
- Combinational that include a mixture of both hybrid and chronology.
All the formats serve the basic purpose of informing the managers of their skills. The only difference that could be highlighted here is the main focus of the resume format. Every resume focuses on the individual aspect of the resume and makes the section pop out to the reader.
Now that you know the formats you might have a question. When should you use which format and what works the best? Well, the resume designs are curated according to the different needs of the job seeker.
- Chronological or reverse chronological order can be used to focus on the experience. This can be used by professionals who have great experience in their field. This helps them to highlight their expertise and experience.
- To highlight your work, projects, creative aspects, and other skills use a functional format. A functional format is often implemented to highlight skills and this format can work well for any candidate that prefers to showcase skills over prior work. Well, that’s the key highlight, isn’t it?
- If you are looking for applying for positions on an executive or senior level go for a combination resume format. It helps any candidate to showcase a perfect balance of work experience and skills.
Another factor that many candidates would need to pass before reaching the human eye is the Application Tracking System. Many companies use ATS to filter resumes and select the one that best matches their needs. So, it is necessary to beat the ATS and clear the first round to reach the human eye.
How could you do so? Follow the tips below.
- Perfect format of the resume.
- Right contact details in the correct position.
- Avoid graphics
- Use a proper text format that allows the software to scan the entire text easily.
- Use a proper format to send the resume.
- Use keywords that are mentioned in the job description.
Ensure to make your resume ATS friendly this can be the basic step that can make you clear the software round and get you through a human eye.
Writing a perfect objective for your resume?
Objective forms the top section of the resume. This helps the hiring manager to understand the skills and make a decision of whether you are right for the position or not. How would they decide that? Well, through the summary. Objectives are like a summary of the entire resume. Any person would go through the entire resume only if they find an objective that best matched their needs.
There are several ways to ace your objectives. We will be discussing majorly two aspects.
- For experienced candidates
- For freshers.
For experienced candidates
As an experienced candidate you would have a lot of work experience, and constructive number data that can prove the credibility and creativity of the work. It helps to add value to your resume by bringing out the accurate structure of your contributions in the previous workplace. Try out the below example and see if it holds your attention.
Example
” Adobe certified web designer with 8 years of experience. Seeking to improve the world of web designs and make constructive contributions to XYZ organization by developing 5 websites within a year. The websites have ranked within the top-level and proven to raise the stake of customer retention by 99%, improved UC by 28%, and also customer satisfaction by 18%”.
Solid numbers, yes that all it needs to impress the interviewer and say the words, ” This is just the candidate we are looking for”.
For freshers
Getting solid numbers on the resume can be a piece of cake for experienced employees, but what if you are a fresher in the field and do not have such numbers that depict how well you can perform in web designing. Don’t worry, there is a solution for this. If you are a fresher, include your skills in the objective.
Any interview understands the difference between an experienced and fresher resume and they know what to look for in the resume. If you are applying for a fresher, or junior level position try to include the following objective and see it work magically.
Example
” Passionate designer with skills in Adobe Creative Suite, HTML, CSS. Creates seamless UX and UI. Designed more than 25 websites that exceed performance in multiple forms. Implemented a website for live online games. Won web Awards 2015 for the same design”.
Use words that make you stand out from the crowd and do not just sell your passion. Telling them how passionate you are about the position can be good, but a better option would be to include skills to tell them why you are better than the crowd.
How to include an experience that holds the reader’s attention?
When it comes to mentioning experience candidates often get categorized into two categories. One with so much information that can fill up the entire page, and one that could not get through even a single line. Both the cases are extremely worst for any candidate. Try to balance out the work experiences and showcase only the ones that add value to your resume.
Let us go through the following examples and understand what should be included in the experience section that brings about the best for any candidate.
For experienced candidate
For an experienced candidate it wouldn’t be hard to mention the work they have done in the past eight years. What plays a major role here would be how they align their experience. If you have worked for more than 10 jobs you would only be required to mention only the first three to four jobs with the correct description and responsibilities you followed.
Let’s see this with an example.
Example
Experience
Web designer
Xyz company
2014-2019
- Managing head of the web designing team handling more than 50 employees under my guidance.
- Maintained and developed over 3 major websites in 3 months.
- Created a customer satisfaction of 45% for the latest designed website, and improved the graphical orientation for the past developed websites.
- Completed over 25% targets before the deadlines and handled all the major work like reviewing the position, color, illustration, typography, and branding for client projects.
- Created 80% responsive designs with UX and UI and improved the score by 34%.
The above example includes figures that indicate what work you have done and what value your contributions bring to the project. Any interviewer will probably look for a candidate that can bring positive changes to any work. Make sure to include projects that show how your contributions mattered and what difference they made.
Adding two to three such work experiences can be a great way to tell the interviews about your skills and passion for the work.
For freshers
Now, what if you do not have any experience that you could add to your work experience section. The answer is simple, add your projects, freelancing experience, or anything that got you started in the first place. Follow the example below and understand how you could write work experience as a fresher.
Example
Experience
Freelancer
2015- present
- Contributed to developing an e-commerce website for local vendors to sell clothes.
- Created an online gaming platform.
- Implemented graphics for several local shops.
- Involved in several charity designs for the church.
I don’t do freelancing, what should I include?
The projects that you have worked upon for interest. As a web designer, you would have created a few projects for schools and colleges, you can add the project to your resume indeed projects section. This would compensate for the lack of work. Mention any notable awards and precision style here to improve the credibility of the work.
As a fresh graduate, you might often lack work experience, ensure that you take a few freelancing or charity work around you to add value to the resume.
Lastly, be precise and to the point with your experience. Interviews do not need to know the time you spent on the project and the praise you got from the manager. Keep it short and to the point with supportive figures.
Can education be a key highlight for the resume?
Web designing is a practical field and experience is anyway preferred over a formal education for web designers. But does education serve no purpose, or does it not bring any value to your resume. Wrong.
A resume includes an educational section for a purpose. It helps the interviews to make decisions if they are stuck up with two candidates with almost the same profile. So, education all in all does play a role in highlighting your resume and making you stand apart from the crowd.
The key here is to use the section wisely and listing the necessary education in a manner that makes the interviews understand your strengths and a formal educational background you have been through. So, how to get started with education? Let’s take a closer look.
Example
Education
BTech in Computer science
ABC college.
2014-2018
GPA: 3.5
- Pursued a degree in computer designing and majored in UX and UI designing coursework.
- Publishes a research paper on web design patterns in an international journal.
- Completed an honors project in web designing.
Look how the educational section is formatted. The method used here is to highlight your strengths as a web designer and how you have backed your skills through formal education. The section needs to be precise and include the details of relevant coursework and projects you undertook during your degree. A generic detail like,
Example
Education
BTech in Computer science
ABC college.
2014-2018
GPA: 3.5
Will not make any sense. Try to add points that help you strengthen the resume and are not present there just for the sake of filling the space. Another thing to remember here is to use education as your support system only when you have recently graduated and had a strong GPA.
If you are highly experienced, you can do something generic for education like mentioned above.
How to mention your skills on the resume?
Skills are an inevitable part of any resume. All you need to understand while listing skills is to sell yourself with them and convince the interviews that you have got this job covered. Don’t just list your skills, they rather seem like words placed in the menu to select from, rather go for proof that supports your skills and gives the interviews an idea about how well you can use your skills.
Before diving into how to mention your skills let us understand how to make a resume that passes the ATS system based on just the skills mentioned.
Look for the job description you are applying for, it probably has skills for web designers mentioned that the company is seeking. These skills form the keywords of your resume. Include the keywords without any change to your resume, and viola the ATS system will pass your resume faster than ever before.
Now that you have keywords for a resume, go for additional soft skills and technical skills that corroborate with your web designer journey. How should you do it? Let us get through it with an example.
Example
Skills
- Used UX/UI to create creative responses and generate leads that improved the performance by 55%.
- Handle communication with different departments and ensure that all the demands are met.
- Completed a project 5% ahead of the deadline to give space for any last-minute changes or additions.
- Worked fast and efficiently to complete two major web designs in 2 months.
The bold words in the above section indicate the skills of a person. Rather than listing them as individual points, the skills are mentioned through a primer sentence that improves their credibility. The “creative response” tells the interviews that you are a creative person, “communication” indicates you are good at listening and speaking skills which can help you communicate efficiently with clients, ” ahead of the deadline”, indicates how punctual you are and respect time, “working fast and efficiently” indicates effort you put in the work.
Other skills that you could use as web designers can include the following words.
Soft skills
- Collaboration
- Leadership
- Problem-solving
- Detail-Oriented
- Meeting Deadlines
Technical skills
- Visual Design
- UX
- UI
- SEO
- HTML, CSS
- Adobe Creative Suite
- Branding
Beat the queue with the following tips and tricks
Now that you have followed the above-mentioned steps you are ahead of thousands of candidates applying for the job, but what about the remaining hundred. Well, you can beat the queue up if you include a few more sections in the resume.
It’s not about information dumpling here, rather it is based on carefully aligning yourself with company values with some extracurricular activities that you have carried out in your course time. To make your resume stand out among the remaining hundred you can use the following sections.
- Certifications
- Awards
- Additional activities.
Many candidates ditch the above in their resumes and this is where it can fall apart for many. Include the section listed and see it work magic for you.
How should you include the section?
Example
Certification
- Google Analytics IQ
- Adobe Certified Expert (ACE)
- General Assembly Bootcamp Courses
Awards
- CIW best responsive website design award for 2018.
- Creative web design award for nonprofitable organization award in 2020.
Additional activities
- Contribute to local NGOs and churches to make their web designs stand out.
- Write blogs and create youtube videos that guide students towards the right web designing tools.
- Hold seminars and meetings to improve local vendor websites for the locality.
Your resume just turned 100 times better with the above section. It is efficient, consumes less space, and adds value to your skills. What else do you want?
Include a cover letter for the position
Cover letters are meant to inform the hiring manager that you are here for the role. It tells your presence, but what should you do so that the hiring manager does not forget you. Stand out along with your cover letter as well.
If you are following us throughout the journey, you have aced your resume. So why slack at the last point. Cover letters help you make an impact on hiring managers and tell them how you fit the role of a certain job position. Understand here your cover letter does not need to be vivid and include basic details about the resume you have submitted and how they should look at it, rather make it personal and force the hiring manager to look at it — not literally of course.
Use a cover letter format that addresses the hiring manager with his or her name and highlights the keywords of the job description. Mention points that the company is looking for and add a section where you tell them how you would perform your duties. Well, doesn’t it make more sense than a simple ” do look at my resume to know about me” structure?
What should you include in your cover letter?
Let’s get through it with an example.
Example
“To Mrs. Nina Noami
Hiring manager XYZ company.
For as long as I remember today I have been passionately following the XYZ company design portal. The blogs and web design portal that is presented by the company have pushed me through my limits to develop a website that sells. As per your requirements, you always look for candidates who can improve the response of the website and make it competitive through SEO.
In my previous experience, I have worked with improving the response by 95% and received certifications to improve the SEO during the last 6 months. I would love to talk to you and discuss my plans of improving the company’s website by 10%.”
Well, here it is. The cover letter holds the attention of the hiring manager and talks about making a difference with the skills they require.
Contact information
You have aced your resume, right skills, experience, education, and even cover letter, but you forget one vital piece of information, your contact. No candidate may miss on including their contact, but here we are talking about having the right details included in the contact information. Apart from your name, number, and email, you would also need to add portfolio links to your resume. This helps the interviews look at your work and understand your skills.
You can add a GitHub link if you are a recent graduate and include all your projects and other work inside it.
Don’t forget to mention your LinkedIn.
Conclusion
Make sure you ace every section of the resume. Give your brain thorough thinking before you add formation to all the sections mentioned above. Add the information that holds attention to the top. This helps in creating a catch for the hiring manager and will force them to go through you the entire week. Showcase your creative aspect in the portfolio and align them in such a format that anyone can refer to them.
Use a proper format, proper fonts, space, alignments, margins, and other minute details and you have your resume ready to impress.
