Creative director CV examples to help you build yours

Whether you’re the creative director of a graphic design house or you want to become the creative director of a high-profile clothing company, you’ll need a CV that shows you can juggle all the roles and responsibilities of a creative director. 

 

Becoming a creative director isn’t easy and usually takes many years of experience and refining your skills before becoming eligible for the role. That’s why it’s important to give yourself the best chance with the best CV that shows you know how to be part of a creative team, navigate social media, design marketing campaigns and so much more!

The structure of a CV is largely defined by the CV format candidates choose to use. 

 

Candidates might choose a chronological or combination format CV. This will help them show off the necessary work experience and skills to become a creative director. 

 

Whether you choose a chronological, functional, or combined CV, your CV will still have similar sections:

 

 

The header section is usually the first part of a professional CV and includes your contact information. You should include these details:

• Name
• Location 
• Phone number 
• Email address

As you can’t go into too much detail on a CV, providing a link to a professional networking site like LinkedIn is a great way of giving the hiring manager or recruiter more information. This is also a good way of showing off how many industry contacts you have. 

 

You can also include a link to any portfolio sites you have that show off things like digital marketing campaigns and any experience you have as an art director or in rebranding. 

 

 

The professional summary section is a collection of brief sentences that summarize your CV content. This section is designed to grab the hiring manager or recruiter’s attention. You can do this by explaining any unique information such as certifications or key achievements that you believe make you the ideal candidate. You should explain how your creative direction can help the employer, encouraging them to read on or contact you for more information. 

 

 

The skills section is a very important part of a CV and helps the hiring manager assess whether you have the right hard skills and soft skills for the role. The perfect CV skills section should have a good mixture of hard, role-specific skills and soft, transferable skills. 

 

If you’re struggling to think of exact terms to sum up your skills, then consider including these bullet points in your CV skills section: 

• Budgeting 
• Copywriting 
• Project management 
• Use of Adobe InDesign 
• Mentoring 
• Photoshop 
• Adobe Creative Suite
• Interpersonal skills 
• Time management 
• People management skills 
• Designing marketing plans 
• Technical skills 
• Use of initiative 
• HTML writing 
• Business strategy planning 
• Multitasking 

Work history

 

The experience section is a critical part of a CV, especially for a job title as senior as creative director. This section essentially acts as a record of any previous experience you have in the creative process.

 

You should include any involvement in a creative direction, such as an associate creative director role and other director positions. You should list your experience in reverse chronological order, starting from the most recent role. You can also include the company name, location and the dates you started and finished. 

 

To give this section structure, you can use a CV template to help you format many job titles under the same heading. 

 

 

A creative director will usually need a bachelor’s or master’s degree in the correct creative subject, so the education section is very important. In this section, you should state your qualification title, the school from which you graduated and your graduation year.

Do: 

• Study the job description attached to the job posting. This might help to inspire your CV content. 
• Use role-specific keywords when writing your CV. This can help you navigate applicant tracking systems (ATS) and ensure that your CV continues in the hiring process. 
• Use a CV builder. This can help give your CV structure and pick out professional fonts. 

Don’t: 

• List your secondary school grades. This might clutter your CV with unnecessary information. 
• Go into too much detail about previous creative director jobs. The hiring manager will contact you about this. 
• Use the same CV or cover letter for each application. You should customise each one to meet specifics in the job listing.