Illustrators can be a hugely beneficial tool for many companies and individuals. Here’s how to spotlight your illustration skills and experience on an illustrator CV.
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The visual impact of different products can be an important part of a company’s outreach process and that means illustrators can be an incredibly important part of a company. However, if you want to get a job as an illustrator, you need to stand out from other job seekers who can do a very similar job to you. Here’s how you can write the best CV for the illustrator position for which you are applying.
Typically, the most important part of your illustrator CV is going to be the type of work you do. Work illustrating comic books is necessarily going to be different than work illustrating children’s books or creating infographics. Both of these jobs make you a professional illustrator, but a hiring manager is going to be looking for one of them, and knowing which one you are is extremely important.
Your first step in deciding on your illustrator CV structure is to create your CV format. If you want to get the most out of your CV, you must emphasise the most important parts of your CV. That might mean using the chronological CV format if you have more work experience or the functional CV format if you have less experience. Once you choose your format, you can move on to the headings.
The CV header is part of your CV design and that means it has to look great because you’re applying for such a creative position. One of the best options is to use CV templates from CVHelp to create your CV, as there are 15 options. You can choose whichever template fits your personal needs. The header needs to feature your contact information including your phone number, location, email address and your professional networking links, as well as your portfolio.
The first section on your CV is your professional summary or career objective. This is a short paragraph at the very top of your CV that gives a hiring manager an overview of your CV as a whole. A professional summary highlights your work experience and skills that will show why you are the ideal candidate for the role. If you don’t have a lot of experience, then include a career objective that outlines your career goals and intentions.
Your skills section for an illustrator job needs to be as descriptive as possible because this is often one of the ways you express what types of jobs would work best for you. Here are a few skills you might want to include as bullet points in your skills section:
These are all great illustrator skills to list in your CV as you will need to include both soft skills and hard skills. Your design skills can be a great way to differentiate yourself from other job candidates and showcase exactly the type of work you excel at.
Your work experience section can include up to 10 years of experience in all sorts of illustration areas. There are many different types of illustrators including medical illustrators, technical illustrators and company graphic designers. Note the type of job you were doing, as well as where you were doing it and when you were employed.
If you have a college degree like a bachelor’s degree in fine arts, you can include this in your CV. Not all illustrators have fine arts experience, but if you do, include that in your CV. This can give you more of a professional CV look.
Here are some additional tips to keep in mind when writing your illustrator CV:
Yes. A cover letter is always going to be an important choice for basically any work, and this is especially true when it comes to a highly creative area like an illustrator job. A cover letter allows you to talk directly to a hiring manager, which allows you to explain a bit more of your CV information. Plus, it also gives you a chance to ask for a job interview. If you’re not confident in your ability to write a cover letter, you can use the cover letter builder from CVHelp.
Illustrators typically need more skills than they do experience, which is good news if you’re someone who hasn’t been able to get a lot of experience. If you don’t have a lot of professional experience, you can also cite hobbyist experience, volunteer experience and internship experience. Just be sure to lean on your skills overall.
You must use an individualised CV for every job you want to apply to. Although an illustrator CV example can be a great starting point for your CV, you shouldn’t use it as a way to write one CV that you then submit to hundreds of job applications. Instead, look for CV keywords in the job description, then sprinkle those keywords throughout your CV to match the specific job role you are applying to.
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