STA is currently hiring! I’ve been reviewing resumes and portfolios and I thought these tips might be helpful for people looking to work in a design firm. As a result of our many years of hiring and looking at resumes, portfolios, and cover letters, here is a top 8 list of how to get that interview at any firm you may be interested in. Some of our frequent readers of this blog might recognize this post I wrote back in 2014.
1. Writing matters. The cover letter should be well written and should describe why you want to work at the firm. Express what attracted you to the firm in the cover letter and how your skills or interests might be beneficial to the firm. If the cover letter isn’t well written, or if it feels like a form letter where the firm name has been changed it doesn’t get a second look. In fact, we have received cover letters from people stating that they would like to work at a different firm than ours because they forgot to change the name – sadly this has happened more than once. Next.
2. The resume should be clear, concise, and not overdesigned. The resume must be easy to read. Small fonts or illegible stylized or lightly colored words do you a disservice. The resume is a great opportunity for you to present yourself as a designer, but don’t try too hard. Content of course also matters and it is important that your resume clearly demonstrate your qualifications. Try to provide specifics, but don’t be dull, as you never know what fact you provide here will resonate with the reader.
3. Work samples are an important part of your presentation materials and we see everything from one-page sample sheets to 30-page attachments and links to personal websites. Less documentation of work samples made sense when everything was sent via mail, however more than 90% of inquiries come to us via email today. Most firm principals have their own preference in this regard – my preference is to see more rather than less. One-page sample sheets are useless via email, especially given that your competitors are sending us multiple page pdf’s and links to their entire portfolio. Whatever you do, make it easy for the reader to see your work easily by scrolling through a .pdf attachment.
4. For clarification, none of the above is optional. Surprisingly, we still get inquiries without all three of the above. All three are important because together as a package they provide you with an opportunity to present yourself as a designer. This presentation should tell your story and inspire us to invite you in to learn more.
5. Present like you give a damn. Customized packaging and presentation materials get our attention and are welcome. These kinds of materials demonstrate an initiative taken and a real desire to get that interview. They take items 1-3 above to the next level and a quality presentation may just pique our interest – these don’t need to be expensive, just clever.
6. Old school still works, and the telephone and snail mail could help you land that interview. The fact is, we receive far less snail mail and telephone calls than we do email. At STA and other similar sized firms, a nice piece of mail addressed to a person (not the HR department!) can stand out. A follow up telephone call provides you with an opportunity to impress with your verbal skills and it shows more initiative than follow-up emails.
7. A great way to get an interview is to meet a firm principal at a public event. For students, this might be someone that was a design critic. For more experienced architects or interior designers you may have met someone at an industry event. Do your research about the firm and follow up with that person and ask for an informational interview to learn more about the firm. Josh Castellano in our office writes about his first hand experience with this approach here http://www.sta-design.com/how-i-got-my-job/.
8. Research, research, research. This is so fundamental and critical that you do this. It is so easy today to learn about the firms that you may want to work for. Websites are an obvious first start, however many firms such as ours write blogs http://www.sta-design.com/blog/ that shed light on the company culture. In addition to web research, talk to people familiar with the firm. Use this information to make sure this looks like a good fit for you and articulate that in your cover letter.
The bottom line is this; you spend years in design school learning how to present your space or building design to a room full of people that can give you helpful advice. Put the same amount of effort (or more) into designing your own presentation of skills and abilities and you should be okay. Good luck!
David
