CVs & Resumes
Your online CV (Curriculum Vitae): PDF? Or web page?
Many peeps like to write their CV or Resume in a word processor like MS Word or Google Docs and then “print” it to PDF. Then they upload the PDF to their website. Then people who want to know about their work can download the PDF and then download a PDF reader, and then open the PDF with the reader, and finally actually see the CV.
Open Web?
As you can probably tell from the paragraph above, I am not a fan of PDF. I don’t understand why you’d want to put static and silo’d content up that’s such a fuss to actually look at when you could just put up a web page that anyone could read right in their browser and which Google, Yahoo & Bing could all easily crawl, index, and make available to anyone interested in you or the elements of your CV.
Do Both?
In spite of my own obvious bias, many people do like to put PDF CVs online. And actually, that’s fine. I’d recommend doing both, so anyone inpatient like me can just see your work already, and anyone who enjoys playing with files can download your PDF.
For the live web page version, just make a page, and use formatting elements, H1 – H6, Bold, Italic, Block Quote, and so on, to format your CV or Resume. For the PDF version, create it in your favorite word processor, print to PDF, upload it to your site, and put a link or links in the relevant pages.
Write Yours Today!
The thing about CVs, Resumes, and Websites too, is that the hardest one to do is the 1st one. For that one you have to put down something from scratch. You have to search your whole career to figure out what to say. Once you have one, all you have to do is update it. Decide what you no longer want to show, add new things, and perhaps brush up some that you keep. The sooner you put up a 1st draft, the sooner you can polish it to something you’re comfortable and proud to share with anyone interested.
Formatting your CV
Here’s some websites that can help you organize your content:
- Official CAA CV Standards & Guidelines
- Your CV in 10 steps from The Practical Art World.com
- CVs for artists without much experience from The Practical Art World.com
- CVs for artists from Art Business Info.com
Posting your CV/Resume and cover letters to unique urls can also provide you with additional benefits.
Several years ago I had roughly a dozen jobs hunts going on at the same time. By providing my customized cover letters to perspective employers and clients I could review page views daily and see which ones were generating any interest.
During that time only two received any page views. Allowing me to prepare for impromptu phone interviews. Which led to two job offers that same week. One of those is my current employer 🙂
That’s fantastic, Joseph!
First – congratulations on landing your current position!
Second – what a cool “trick” to use your web analytics to help determine which version of a Resume, CV, or Cover Letter gains the most interest. Obviously, that’s what analytics are for, but we so often hear about analytics helping determine which funnel design leads to the most widget sales for some corporation, we can forget that the same approach can serve an artist marketing creative work.
Thanks, Joseph!