Creative CV's

Over the last couple of months I have been thinking about the possibilities of creative CV's as I know I need to have my own ready as part of this module. There is a lot of information online which is often contradictory about how best to design these. Some opinions say it should be eye catching and unique, and others say it is likely to be binned if it strays far from the common conventions of a typical CV. Ultimately there is no right answer as it depends on what the individual who has to sift through the applications thinks. As an aside I remember years back talking to a guy whos job was to shortlist CV's and job applications for his company. The application form said to use black ink and capital letters, so any in blue ink or non caps were binned, instantly reducing his pile by +30% before he read a single one! This may not be as relevant to the creative fields but I think not keeping things simple and relevant could instantly disqualify you for some jobs.

So then, onto some examples I have found.

http://ninetofivedesign.com/macnider_resume.pdf This CV is simple and elegant, very restrained and only one page long, which is a good thing in my book.

http://www.howdesign.com/article/ResumeStyleFile/ Nice article on writing a creative CV from a specialist employment agency, they should know there stuff hopefully.

http://www.graphicdesignblog.co.uk/how-creative-should-a-designers-cv-be/ article and discussion 'how creative should a creative CV be?' (answer: it depends)

http://www.graphic-design-employment.com/graphic-design-resumes.html More in-depth advice

http://www.smashingmagazine.com/2009/04/01/10-handy-tips-for-web-design-cvs-and-resumes/ This is interesting, for this they challenged designers to make a quick CV for a fictional web designer. Great to see different approaches. Nice tips as well

http://blogof.francescomugnai.com/2008/09/the-20-most-creative-resumes-ive-seen-in-a-long-time-pure-inspiration/ These are examples of a very different approach: ultra creative CV's you could say. Keeping things simple has gone out of the window with these.