The Spring of 2022 met me harshly.
The full-scale war had started. Ruzzia attacked Ukraine, where I live.
As a consequence, I lost my job and had all my bank accounts frozen (till they were verified by the government, a whooping year and a half later). Also, our family was displaced.
That was our intention to relocate to a safer place. However, that wouldn’t happen if there was no war.
- I have a separate blog on our life through war. It’s not updated frequently these days, but I’m working on transferring my old private notes to there.
- Also, here’s this tag, war.
Old Job#
At my previous work, I had been invloved into making an inner web-based system for a company. It’s a logistic app, plus some satellite services, to make organisation of things more robust. We were trying to make a non-digital company much more digitalised, so to say.
The benefit of this job was that nobody followed me and told me what I had to do. I was setting the pace and scope of work. At some point we formed a small team to develop the system.
Many of these things were unusual to me, who spent a lifetime in advertising. Where things are expected to be delivered on yesterday, and the overall quality was an afterthought. With some exceptions of the visuals. Work in advertising wasn’t fullfilling, work at TOI was. I had plans vision for the next year of work, and so I planned things accordingly. We worked in long sprints — a couple of months long, or even longer — and it was quite unusual, yet resultive.
All that suddenly stopped. The war meant nobody was sure of what would happen, and whether the company would even survive. Not to say whether we all, our physical bodies, would survive.
Resumes#
I happened in this position of not having a job no more (for a couple of months), and I wasn’t even prepared. That was my first time realising I need to seek job opportunities.
I’m not skilled in this. All of my clients of the past, all of them found me through my other clients, and I never wasted a minute on advertising myself. Theoretically, I could message to any of my previous contacts, and I guess most of them would happily offer me something, some work. However, I didn’t plan to come back to advertising. I have no prejudices towards it, for me it’s more of a path taken. I’m interesting in going somewhere further.
I have only one résumé I did previously, 5 years ago. It tells nothing of my previous positions, and well, it’s not actually a résumé. Not a real one.
It was rather a fuck-you résumé for someone in the past, so I could throw it at them, with ‘nah, I’m not really interested’ excuse.
However, you may enjoy reading about it, if you have not already.
Instruments#
I started with the instruments. It’s much easier for me to work in materials. Since my previous work was in Adobe Illustrator, this one was designed with it too.
My friend Nick kept telling me I should try Figma for that, but I declined it flatly. Figma was a much inferior tool, and I didn’t know it that good as I knew Illustrator. I had a side-gig with Illustrator, for years. I’ve been designing various flyers, brochures and other stuff for print, for many years. They’re not presented in my portfolio, this work is under NDA and I won’t be able to show it for any foreseable future. But as a bonus, I can create a solid work for printing within hours.
Process#
My design process is pretty formed by this point. It’s the same for every type of job I’m doing: I start with putting everything on the canvas, and then I simplify. Simplify, simplify, simplify. Sometimes I simplify too much. Then I’m stepping back. There’s a lot of reflections involved.
It’s similar to how I write. I write and then I rewrite what I wrote, and then again. I simplify, enhancing my writings.
For me, that’s how design is done: you place everything you think is relevant, and then you remove the irrelevant elements.
Work Experience#
What is relevant in a résumé? The most obvious thing is the work experience. I wasn’t well versed in résuméing, so I copied others. My strong side? I could take any résumé and make it look stunning.
That’s what I did here. The most complicated thing was to remember all the companies I worked for. I kept some track, but to make my total recall, I’d to scroll through my email and remember.
However, I missed a couple of companies. The most regrettable one is AdGuard. At that point in time, it was a small startup, mostly not known to the general public. And I simply forgot about our collaboration. It wasn’t something very special, just a regular job I did to a more prominent brands. I believe I worked with the most brands you can name, so I thought that should sell me somehow. Right?
Also, I didn’t think that having 15+ years of experience, nobody would care to explore past the last couple of years and companies. Nobody is actually interested in my career path. Neither did I, otherwise I’d have it all written down.
- I started this project, writing down all my previous work interactions, as a series of stories. I named it… hah, career path.
So, that was my first attempt at recalling the brands and companies I worked with. I thought that would impress others, as much as me knowing how to place letters on a fucking piece of paper.
Fucking, as it seems like an obscure knowledge for most of the population, for some reason. It’s not that difficult.
CV#
It looks like this:
You can get the pdf, if you want to explore further or even print it.
I am not sure you’d be able to edit it, because at that point I was protective towards my works, and could password-protect it for editing.
I invented a lot of things in here. First, the header. I tried to make it stand out. That’s my name, and the position is on the background. If not for printing, I’d make the position even grayer (meaning lighter). But when printed, it’s much less intense, and if made lighter, it’s almost not visible. I tried to print it with a set of various printers, a laser one, an inkjet too.
Printed#
I’ve got a DevOps position interview at some random local outsource software corporation, and they printed this résumé on a somewhat expensive combination of printer and paper, and I was surprised how stunning it actually looked!
I was willing to try myself as a DevOps, even despite the fact I could attend that work without any payment, I was super interested in learning things. They told me I’m overqualified for what they’re looking — not as a DevOps, huh! — and I should apply to a design position, or a managerial, if I don’t want to do design any more.
I’m still angry at them.
First, they shoved me off as a professional, and made this decision for me. I won’t be interested in what they were offering, they said.
They surely were looking for someone who would apparently work for them for decades, when I made myself clear that I don’t see myself a DevOps for longer than a couple of years, after I learn what I want to.
I can understand them as a business, however, I’m still angry. Most businesses — especially the boring mediocre companies like them — don’t even have this luxury of people who work for them for longer than a couple of years. So, it was a win-win for both parties, I believed. Yet they shoved me off. And as a cherry on top, they started ghosting me, when I actually applied to the position they told me to.
The company’s name is SoftServe in case you were intrested.
I didn’t believe I would find any challenging design work in Ukraine, working for the local market. So that got me thinking, if I was willing to try to apply for these mediocre companies I never respected, I might at least try to learn something new. Like DevOps magic, which would help me to automate my actual work here and there. (And it did, but I learned all the things on my own.)
Typical CV Structure#
Back to the résumé’s structure.
The next obvious thing is to add contacts to my name. I issued too many: email, LinkedIn, Facebook, Telegram, my phone number (for which I had most of the popular messengers registered). So to easen the work of an HR, I thought.
Then, it was obvious, I need to add a brief description of who I am, my education and skill set. Skill set is something I actually hate. It’s a red flag to me as both an employer and employee. Why mention any hard skill, if you can learn it very quickly along the way? Most software basics can be learned within a weekend, and mastered within months.
Can a company allow its new employee to allow learn the tool they used? Or will they prefer the candidate who is less capable, but actually already knows the tool. Or — it’s actually not like that, it’s — they, the candidate, claims they know the tool. Right? Will you check them as in school, sit dear candidate, question number one, what is the hotkey for gaussian blur in Adobe Photoshop? Ah, you don’t remember, well, I afraid that’s a— oh, fuck that already.
I can understand the companies for requiring that, but it does not make me respecting them. They aim at mediocrity with that. Great companies hire people, not machines who operate software. If I actually need something to do my work, I’ll study it quicker than you can imagine. If I don’t need something, there’s no point in requiring it.
Most of the job descriptions I saw — and by most I mean the 99% of them — they have this useless silly job description that tells nothing, but has blinding red flashing lights and deafening klaxon alarms. Yet, I was targeting at those companies, right? So I tried to play by the rules. Why won’t I? I’m capable of that, sure thing.
At the end of my résumé, I’d have this thing, a description of what I’m seeking.
I’ll cite it here:
I would like to join a team of like-minded people, with whom I would contribute to a better future for everyone. I am hugely motivated with visual aesthetics, motion and functionality, especially when the result of my work meets the real world.
That’s too vague, but that’s the best I could produce back then. I was only starting this job hunt, so I placed the obvious things too. I like visual aesthetics, I like motion graphics (when is actually needed) and I like fuctionality. For me, form always follows function. When the result of my work touches (impacts) the real world, it’s just perfect.
Then, this line:
Right now Iʼm located in Ukraine. It’s war here, but I’m not planning to escape the country, it’s safe in my location, as of now. However, I’m open to relocation, if needed.
That’s an obvious thing, my attempt at calm down the potential employer. I’m not suicidal, and I understand that you might care about your project much more than you care about me. So I did the precations to minimize my chance of dying, and if you’re still concerned, I’m open to relocation. I’m open to relocation even if you trust me to stay safe here, but want me to see more often in person too. I’m an ex-digital nomad, and I was on the go for almost a decade, so I’m, you know, easy-going in that regard. I have kids now, however, they will not object (too much).
As a final line, there was this ‘me, position, contacts’ thing. There are different résumés with different positions, including Art Director, Product Designer, Product Owner, even DevOps, and probably something else too. You know, I’m bad at understanding all these labels they slap on people. I can wear many hats, and that does not make me the master of none. Actually the opposite.
Conclusion#
Visually, I like this résumé, even three years later. It’s a long time in my book, so if I still like it, it means I’m not shy to show it to others. I’m actually proud of this design, it has these minuscule details I did invent, not taking them from someone else.
E.g. I thought that would be nice to actually mention why I switched companies. Why I left one company, why I joined another. As an employer, that would be one of the first things I’d be interested in. Not fucking Photoshop of Figma knowledge of my potential workmate for the foreseable future.
But this résumé has obvious downsides. One of which was me not understanding who I am, what exactly I’m looking for, and how to communicate that to others the most powerful and — most importantly — short way.
My ideal résumé is just first and second name and nothing more. I aim there, however, it’s a long way. I bet Jony Ive has some boring CV he actually used, at least at a pre-Apple times.
I cannot Jony-Iving others, at least not at this point in life. And, maybe it’s just too arrogant? This attitude. Why would everyone know who I am? Having a résumé doesn’t hurt, even if you’re seeking no employment ever. It’s an attempt to actually summarise your professional journey, at least for yourself. I’d highly recommend to start thinking of this early in your career. I guess that can help find better opportunities and realise your full potential.
That was my first attempt after the non-résumé résumé I did before that.
The one I call my self-presentation now.
It was unsuccessful, and I’m not going to use it. However, it was an important first step towards the ‘proper’ one, the one that would work even for these boring companies I never wanted to work with for.