Overview Your resume and cover letter are often the first impressions you make on a potential employer or client. Therefore, you should ensure these documents capture the best of your knowledge, skills, and abilities while being easy to understand and captivating. Your resume should convey all the essential information a prospective employer or client needs to know about you in ideally one but no more than two pages. It should also stand out among the large number of resumes employers are likely to come across. For example, you can create an impactful resume by using your layout and composition skills to highlight your unique skill set and achievements that will appeal to potential employers. A cover letter should be customized to the description and requirements of the job or project you are applying for. This should be a brief one-page letter highlighting your skills and experience that are specifically related to the job profile. Remember to use keywords from the job listing in your documents to ensure your application aligns well with their requirements. This activity will help you complete Project Two in Module Seven, where you will apply your personal brand components and upload the resume to your portfolio website. Directions Create a print-ready resume and cover letter using Adobe InDesign. To draft your cover letter, use the websites provided in the Supporting Materials section below to select a real-world job that you would like to apply for. Specifically, you must address the following rubric criteria: Draft your basic personal and professional information for the resume. Use a new InDesign document with a page size of 8.5″ x 11″ in portrait mode. Include your name, contact information, education, and work experience. Include any additional certifications and achievements. Draft a professional objective or summary that highlights your career aspirations. List the career-related skills you are proficient in in the resume. List your design skills and areas of expertise, such as illustration, logo design, web design, and so on. List your technical skills, including tools and technologies such as Adobe InDesign, Photoshop, and so on, that you are proficient in. List your other relevant skills, including soft skills, such as communication, presentation skills, project planning, and so on. Apply layout techniques to organize the content of the resume. Use bullet lists, columns, text boxes, and other layout techniques to make the resume easy to read and help readers find your strengths and other essential information quickly. Use no more than two pages for your resume. Note that you may need to edit the content to focus on only the most important information and skills to keep the resume concise. Draft a cover letter that reflects how your skills and expertise align with the chosen job profile. Use no more than one page for the cover letter. Include the job details, including the job title and organization. Emphasize how your skills match the listed job requirements using keywords from the job description. Explain what value you will bring to the organization. Apply elements and principles of design to the resume and the cover letter. Use elements and principles of design to improve visual appeal and effectiveness. Ensure the resume and cover letter have a consistent and professional look and feel. Note: A best practice for including text in InDesign is to first create the text in Microsoft Word so you can check for grammar and spelling errors. Once finalized, the text can be copied and pasted into the InDesign file. What to Submit Export and submit your resume and cover letter document as a 2- to 3-page PDF file. Supporting Material The following resources support your work on this assignment: Reading: Career Skills List Use this document for a list of graphic design career-related skills you have been developing throughout this program. Resource: Module Three Job Search Resources This document includes links to several job search websites. You can use one of these websites to find a graphic design job you would like to use when creating a cover letter for this activity
