Critque on Resume?

KorJax · 06-01-2009, 09:27 AM

Okay okay, so it's for a Business Communications class.

But still, it's also a resume that (other than wanting to get a good grade on), that hopefully I can someday legitimately use in the future

I know your resume should reflect the position/company you are applying for. For this resume I decided to focus on Insomniac game's, simply because they seem like a nice bunch of people and their job posting page gives plenty of details that I can "work towards" accomplishing: http://www.insomniacgames.com/careers/design.php

I'm currently working on an assocates degree, so that's why my education area is rather short. Because of this I decided to try and play up "skills and experience"... which truthfully in my eyes I still see it as rather novice experience, it's better than nothing!

I also had questions on my Cover letter... I really have no clue what to do with it or where to start. What kinds of things are good for a cover letter? Should I take some of my stuff out of my resume and put it in there?

Thanks all

http://www.mediafire.com/?sharekey=e...4e75f6e8ebb871

yaustar · 06-01-2009, 02:46 PM

Resume:

Your skills should be separate from the Experience section. I completely missed the fact you knew Lua, Flash, etc when speed reading through your resume.

The "Qualifications for crafting quality design experiences" are a bit 'paddy', you need to show examples of your 'qualifications' rather then list them. Virtually everyone writes something along this line: 'Self-driven individual who works well with others and alone.'

KorJax · 06-01-2009, 04:23 PM

Thanks for the feedback!

I wanted to kind of lump all that in together because it has to be under 1 page in length :x

If I had a seperate section for both skills and experience then I'd probibly end up over the 1 page limit, and since they are rather closely related I though making them kind of in one section would be good... for a resume that I would turn into a company, should I "risk" it being two pages?

Yeah, I realize that might be a tad to paddy too, thanks for letting me know. I had it that way if only because the book we have suggests that kind of thing might be a good thing (to make it job specific).

I changed it to "Designer qualifications", is that any better?

Also I swapped out that self-driven line with "Comfortable working with others and independently", should I just axe that line all together?

ladyaurora · 06-01-2009, 05:44 PM

Hi Korjax,

A nice start here are my suggestions.

Provide your website address that shows your portfolio up top by your name.
You do not need to list that you have a B Average.

Utilize more action words in your resume here is a website that should help.
http://www.fpccolumbia.com/pdf/FPC_C...tion_Verbs.pdf

Yaustar is right I did not notice your skills right away. List your application skills in with your qualifications at the top.

Think about during your mod and school experiences what you brought to the team. When you worked on MechWarrior and CryEngine did you solve any difficult problems that you came across when making your mod? If so what were they and how did you solve them.

For your Cover Letter
Look at this website it sums up nicely what you will need.
http://www.quintcareers.com/cover_letters.html

Any other questions let me know.
I made some changes to your resume email me at ladyaurora34@gmail.com and we can go over if you like. The file attachment is too big to attach and I would rather just email it to you since it is a just a fairly simple rough draft with basic suggestions.
Thanks!

KorJax · 06-01-2009, 08:34 PM

Sure thing! I'd love to do that, it might be a day or so, I won't get a chance to get back on my PC till weds due to school.

So would it be bad that this would go over 1 page, or would it be better to cut a lot of things out?

yaustar · 06-02-2009, 03:02 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by KorJax

I changed it to "Designer qualifications", is that any better?

Also I swapped out that self-driven line with "Comfortable working with others and independently", should I just axe that line all together?

Axe it. A list of 'soft skills' just wastes space if you have already provided examples (i.e working as part of a mod team).

I would actually axe the entire section and incorporate the points into the examples of experience.

And definitely keep it to under a page.

ladyaurora · 06-02-2009, 03:09 AM

Typically when you are an entry level candidate you just want one page as you get more experience you usually will have to go to a second page.

I was able to get everything to fit on one page by slightly adjusting the margins.

Quote:

Also I swapped out that self-driven line with "Comfortable working with others and independently", should I just axe that line all together?

That wording sounds fine.

Thanks,

dzeligman · 06-02-2009, 12:56 PM

I would get rid of all your paragraph entries under experience and change them into bullets. Start each bullet statement with a specific action word and then use numbers or quantitative data to show what you did and how it helped that project, company, etc.

I'm not a fan of the whole qualification section as a whole. IMO, resumes are for showing not telling. HR people will read these in like 15 seconds and then decide whether to scrap it or put it for further reading.
You need to be able to give it to someone, have them read it for 10 seconds and then have them tell you the important points of the resume.

If you have a lot of experience and/or project work than you can go two pages, otherwise stick to one.