Hello to everyone here on pushpullbar!

I post humbly seeking your advice and critique. This is with regards to the creation of my C.V

I just finished my second year at Queen's University in Belfast, Northern Ireland and now with my exams and project completed I'm turning my attention to *hopefully* obtaining some form of summer job in an office, for the experience mainly as I want to enter my third year as strong as possible. The first step of course being to produce a C.V that hopefully catches the eye and interest of an employer. I will not lie, I have only really embraced computers within my last semester, I am by no means at a truly professional standard yet, herein lies my problem, I know the actual content of the C.V will be the main selling point, and I hope to win people over that way. But I feel that it would be nice to include some images of my work to give the potential employers some taste of my ability.

So what I'm asking of you good people is to kindly give a skimming review of the following images of previous projects, identifying in your opinion those images which would best be left out, ie, those which don't look as strong, and hopefully point out a select few that would be worth sending away. I was also thinking about including some sketches / model photos in the C.V. unfortunately all my sketches and essentially all my work from this year are non accessible to me at the moment as they are grouped in with my portfolio and are currently being assessed (yes stupid of me not to photocopy some before handing them in, lesson learned!) do you think it is worth my while doing some new sketching to include as well as I know the computer images aren't the greatest ones the employer will see?

Thanks a lot in advance for any critique and advice!

The first batch of images:

The next 3

the last 3.. Apologies I know the images are not in a coherent order at the moment, and more explanations will be added if included in the C.V. again thanks very much in advance for taking the time to have a look, be harsh in what you think will bring me down!

Regards, Scott!

mmm IMHO forget about the "fundaments and concepts" pictures, in general ( and with this i mean 99% of the time) an architectural office needs slaves, not brains, in the period of your slavery, depends on you to give some ideas and stick your spoon in the project process.

If i where an employer, i`ll probably need some CAD/render egipcians -no offence- ... In my opinion, at that year, the best way to learn it`s IN a building, talking to workers and watching the whole process, from the foundations...and come back later to see the "terminations" (i don`t know if that even a word xD, i assume that it`s similar to the spanish one)

firstly - keep the CV simple. Don't try to be something you're not. As a second year student it's ok for your CV/work to reflect this (no employer is looking for 5 -10 years experience from a student)
Keep it honest, and don't undersell skills
eg "proficient in hand sketching" rather than "only just into computers"
As for the images - select the best rather than displaying everything
And as for a job - it will just be a matter of getting your cv around, making calls and being in the right place at the right time
An emloyer (at your level) will be looking for enthusiasm and a willingness to "muck in"

just a simple point and you can disagree, as its a highly subjective point, but font choice in drawings like this, especially in a CV is very important - Font does not have to be big. blueprint / copperplate gothic seem to be very popular in earlier years of arch school, and we are ALL guilty of it. your 2nd post with the implicit performance sheet in arial is far better - . The sheet with tech drawings is great but the font is just too big and distracting - I wouldn't make it more than size 10/12 and i'd prob choose romanS or some sort of line based font (ok complete matter of opinion) . Keep the typeface simple so it does not distract from your drawings - it does not sell your scheme, the drawings do (which are great, and your physiotherapy PLAN, and model are certaintys to include in your CV). Best of luck, have a funny feeling your CV will be excellent, regardless od doing new sketches. Best of luck.

Thanks for the feedback guys, appreciate it!

Castreli - Thanks for the insight. Yeah I know what you mean, I am aware I will at best be in a position of endless AutoCAD drawing. I'm looking forward to this I must say, I think working solidly on the screen for 8 hours will really help my mental discipline and productivity in what I can produce in that time. I also look forward to the opportunity of getting to see the whole building process from the foundations as you put it, what better way to learn than to see it in real time!

tdmc - Thanks for the advice, I hear what you're saying too I will definitely ponder your words before printing the final C.V copy tomorrow! all fingers crossed I get lucky and someone takes me on for a few months! ( I plan on exploring most of Belfast and will hand them out to every practice that catches my gaze :) )

Miggsy - Thanks for your kind words and vote of confidence! I agree with what you're saying, valid points about the font choices - I will take it on board, I'll maybe post the C.V up here before I print it out to send away!

hi,

i gotta admit i'm not quite in the shape to examine the pictures closely now (i'm writing under the influence here...)

however, a few things that come to my mind after having a look over them:

1. some of the pages are a little bit too crammed in my opinion...too much text/too much pictures/too much information... i can't read them since the images are shrinked but just from a layout point of view there is too much content on them.
you should maybe try to narrow them down a bit in order to keep to the really important bits and bring your message across much clearer.

the same applies to images in general, especially with those easy to render computer images of 3d models a lot of people tend to put too many similar pictures on their spreads and thus distract the viewer. one should concentrate on the important pictures in order to bring a certain message across/tell a certain story.

2. fonts...they just don't appear respectable. of course everybody wants to set himself apart from the rest...but why don't do that by seriously considering which font to use and use the right one for the occasion?
the one you've used there would fit a cartoon more than a c.v. in my opinion.

3. the layout on the crammed pages suffers as well, there does not seem to be ernough structure beneath to organize the content in such a fashion that it appears pleasing and organized...

4. the photograph of the model could be a lot better...the black background is really depressing and the lighting isn't very good. i think that a grey uniform cloth as background and proper ambient and pointed lighting could really make the model look a lot better. and if that isn't possible cut away the background in photoshop.

apart from that, i'd say that the graphic work itself looks very nice, you don't have to belittle your computer skills, just present them in a more pleasing manner and choose the bits that are important for your message.
i hope that doesn't come across too critical as your work looks really good. :)

Hi ryosuke, thanks for your thoughts! (and I hope the images looked awesome through beer goggles ^__^)

I will have to agree with you about the layouts of the pages, they do come across as very full. The reason for this (in the case of the implicit performance and development plan pages) is that they were pages that were limited to a single A1 to convey your idea in the brief. Admittedly I could have handled the layouts better even considering this, I guess I was preoccupied with trying to push as much information onto the page as possible, but yeah that is a really good point for the C.V layout I will definitely work on a logical and structured format to present myself.

Your point on the font choices is a fair one too, Not the first time I've heard it about some of these images and I am choosing more professional type for the lettering on the C.V.

I must confess I didn't take a great amount of time over setting up those photographs of the models, I will definitely address the problem, It actually sounds pretty fun! I'll turn my bedroom/workplace into a photography studio for an evening :D

I recommend leaving the models out of a professional portfolio.

They are not of a level suitable for client presentation, and this is the relevant skill for an employer, in my opinion.

Based upon them, employment as a model builder is unlikely.

I believe that their inclusion would detract from the quality of the graphics.

For interviewing, less is often more.

Prune to your best work.

I recommend leaving the models out of a professional portfolio.

They are not of a level suitable for client presentation, and this is the relevant skill for an employer, in my opinion.

Based upon them, employment as a model builder is unlikely.

I believe that their inclusion would detract from the quality of the graphics.

For interviewing, less is often more.

Prune to your best work.

Solid advice, I'll maybe wait until I have more credible models to display before including them as work samples in C.Vs, thanks for your thoughts!

Well here is the C.V. Included here is a cover letter specifically orientated at a single employer in particular, as it is where I especially hope to find work, I will develop a more generalised cover letter for mass sending. I've tried to keep it as short and simple as possible, whilst not selling myself short, I think I pruned to my strongest images in the work samples section. I hope to send these away quite soon so of course all feedback and thoughts are very welcome!

Cover letter-

page 1 - the C.V.

page 3 - work samples

finally, page 4 - further work samples, thanks in advance for any thoughts!

Looks good for where you are at... I think as mentioned before it is more about enthusiasm and showing potential as anyone can learn a CAD program. It is well written and well presented... You show enthusiasm and potential with what you have displayed so as long as the meeting goes well you should be fine... I recently have been job hunting and have landed a job... It comes down to potential enthusiasm and ability as opposed to drawing skill... they are not expected perfect drawings from second year students but i do like the presentations... well done and goodluck with the job

Thanks joek, fingers cross I'll get an interview! Congratulations on your own job success too!