Web Designer Resume: Examples, Template, and Resume Tips
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Websites are so common that any company without one is just seen as not being serious about business. Not only do websites provide a means by which customers can contact you, they also provide a marketing platform.
Add to that a company blog and its social media pages and you have a complete package.
And whereas it’s easy to judge companies by the look of their websites and blogs, rarely do we take time to think of the people behind the design.
Many websites are beautiful to look at and also highly interactive. Others are average while others are simply dull and boring. These need an urgent makeover.
Unlike a normal web visitor, as a web designer, you won’t just notice that a website isn’t attractive.
A quick glance will tell you what exactly is wrong and what the designer should have done. You can even see yourself making the changes and delivering a “new look” website.
Although getting the opportunity to bring such a change isn’t difficult, neither is it automatic.
To get the opportunity, you must engage the website owner. If it was designed by a company, you can look them up and approach them.
Either way, for you to get their attention, you must prove that you’re able to bring the kind of change that guarantees customer satisfaction.
One of the ways of doing that is by writing a resume which leaves no doubt as to what your abilities are. Such a resume is the kind which the hiring manager would enjoy reading. And after reading, she wouldn’t hesitate to give you the opportunity to show what you can do.
Since writing a resume is not a fun task for many web designers, we decided to chip in.
Whereas web designing is all about creativity and the use of coding skills, resume writing is different. You need to know the recruitment industry norms and trends as well as some Dos and Don’ts.
We’ve got you covered anyway.
In this article, we’re going to share some important insights about web design then give you the tips you need for the best resume.
After that, we’ll give you two web designer resume samples to help you see the results of applying the advice provided.
If you’re in a hurry and just want to quickly write your resume, then pick one of our resume templates and fill in the spaces. Otherwise, read on to learn first then write afterwards.
Here are two important insights regarding web design.
WEB DESIGNER SALARIES
Regardless of how much you love designing websites and even the apps which run in them, money is also important. You must make money out of your skills.
Data from ZipRecruiter indicates that the average annual web designer salary in the US stands at $60,031.
On the lower side, at the 25th percentile, you could get an annual salary of $41,000. This would likely be the case if you just graduated and have little work experience.
With the right amount of skills however, you could easily better negotiate your salary.
Check out the below breakdown indicating figures per hour, week and per month.
Web designer job growth
Salaries aside, there’s something else equally important when considering a career choice.
And although you might have done your homework when choosing web design, it might still be helpful to know that web development jobs are expected to increase.
This means that you’re likely to always have some work to do. But things may not be as easy as that may sound. You still need to compete for the best positions out there.
The US Bureau of Labor Statistics projected that from 2018 to 2028, web development jobs will have grown 13%. This is more than double the growth expected of other occupations in the US economy.
The US Bureau of Labor Statistics does not look at web designers separately. Web designers are a part of a larger group of web developers.
If you want to be part of that growth, you must be working. To work somewhere, you must pass the interview(s). And to get the interview, you must wow the hiring manager with your resume.
How do you do that?
HOW TO WRITE A WEB DESIGNER RESUME
The resume you send over to that company is what will determine whether you get the job or not.
Your resume must stand out. It must attract and sustain the attention and interest of the hiring manager. Remember that hiring managers only have 6 seconds to go through a resume.
The sooner they spot mistakes or anything wrong with a resume, the happier they become. They quickly drop it and rejoice at having saved some time.
You don’t want this to be the fate of your resume.
For your resume to sail through, follow the below advice on how to write yours. Also check out the web designer resume samples at the end of this article and see how different they are from the common ones out there.
Let’s go through the different sections you must write about in your resume.
Personal information
This section is an easy one to handle. It’s just an introduction and contact information.
That said, you could make some small mistakes here and end up never getting contacted for an interview.
You know that anxious wait for an email or phone call that never comes? You can avoid it.
When writing your personal information, there are two key things to keep in mind. The first one is that you should not use nicknames for your name and your email address should be professional.
Use your official name and get a professional email address.
Here are two examples to guide you.
Remember that the creativity expected of you as a web designer doesn’t give you a license to be unprofessional.
Summary vs Objective
Right after the introduction comes either your professional summary or career objective. These are a set of statements which show you as the best candidate.
They work by grabbing the attention of the hiring manager and quickly convincing her of your suitability. Since she’s short on time, you must use the words which will make her see your abilities without further reading your resume.
But your intention is not to have her read only the top part of your resume. You want her to read the whole resume. And so, the better or sweeter the summary or objective, the more likely she’ll read the rest.
If your resume can sustain the hiring manager’s interest all the way to the end, then you’ve scored highly. It’s very likely that you’re getting interviewed.
One question though: which one do you write, the summary or objective?
The professional summary is best used by web designers who have a ton of work experience. From their many achievements, they pick a few and highlight them at the beginning of their resume.
These interest the resume reader and make her read to the end so as to see what else the person has achieved.
The career objective is best used by web designers who have little or no web design experience. Note that having little or no web design experience doesn’t mean having absolutely no work experience.
Some web designers make this mistake. It’s important to understand that even if you’ve done other work not related to web design, it’s still work. You can list that in this section but try to make it show skills which could be used in web design.
Here are examples of how best to write an objective and a summary.
Work experience
One of the most valued requirements in many web design jobs is work experience. Employers want to hire candidates who have previous work history.
If you’ve worked in the past, then this makes things slightly easier for you. It means that some people could be excluded from the race to pave way for those with work history.
If you’re looking for your first web design job, then such job ads could make you a bit anxious. But there’s an easy solution to this.
Just design your own website. You can easily do this using tools like Wix and WordPress. This is something you can complete within a few days if you dedicate the time.
This website should showcase your work and so you can have a gallery page full of images you have designed. If you can’t or don’t design graphics, then set the goal of creating two or three websites.
Show these to a few friends and ask them what they think. Ask them to give honest feedback and propose changes. Make those changes and get their feedback.
Comparing their initial feedback and the current one, do some calculation and measure your success. This is your achievement. Use numbers to show the change and prove your worth.
If you have some work experience, that’s good; but it’s no guarantee for a job. You also have to battle it out with the other candidates.
If you can’t show any tangible results from your many years of working, then you don’t stand a chance.
Note that you don’t need to work many years in order to have great achievements. Whatever achievements you have, communicating them well will impress your potential employer.
Consider the below examples.
In the first example of work experience, the candidate lists the duties he had while working at the said company. Hiring managers aren’t interested in that. There is nothing there which tells them what they want to know.
In other words, when you write your duties and responsibilities, you’re not making any impact on the hiring manager. She’s not going to be impressed by your resume and she will not be calling you for an interview.
From the second example, it’s clear that the candidate is capable of bringing positive change in the web design company. He has shown from previous work experience, that he’s able to meet clients’ expectations, complete projects fast and even be in charge of a team.
Any web design company would want to hire such a candidate. Such an employee will help the company quickly and efficiently take on the competition and move towards the top spot.
It’s important to understand that as much as web design is mostly about aesthetics, at the end of the day, its business. If you can’t convince a hiring manager that you can help make the company profitable, you’ll probably not be considered.
Education
Now to education matters.
If you have no work experience, this is what you use to show that you can still benefit the company.
Since education for web designers is quite standard, you may think that there isn’t much to show here.
To some extent, that might be true. But when you have nothing extra to show other than the internship you did, then you can play around with this section to increase your score.
What you do is highlight some of the coursework which is relevant to the job you’re applying for.
How do you know what’s relevant?
By keenly going through the job description to find keywords.
Keywords are words which are specific to certain jobs or industries. For example, some common keywords in web design jobs are User Interface (UI), User Experience (UX), design, web apps, graphics, wireframing, mockup, client satisfaction etc.
Others include Adobe InDesign, Creative Suite, HTML, CSS, Javascript, Mobile Design, visual design etc.
Note that these keywords can also feature on your list of skills.
Basically, anything that is descriptive of the kind of work or the results expected could be a keyword.
Be careful though how you use these. Don’t just stuff them together in an attempt to make your resume sound good. If your resume doesn’t make sense to the reader, it won’t help.
So, what do you do after picking the keywords from the job description?
Start by writing the obvious: program name, university name and year of study. After that, list the specific course units taken which show you can deliver on the needs of the job position.
Also mention your involvement in any project which could show your abilities in leadership, project management or any other thing. Work towards ensuring that your resume shows you can excel in the job.
If you do it well, it can even cover for your lack of formal employment experience.
Here is an example of how to do it for a job focusing on user interface and experience.
Skills
The last section of your web design resume is the skills part. As much as you may have work experience and the supporting education, there are skills which are an added advantage if you have them.
These are the skills you need to list at the end of your resume.
Much of them can be seen in your work experience if you’ve written it well. However, this is also a good time to outshine other candidates.
Instead of writing the usual, i.e. leadership, teamwork, communication etc, opt for some unique skills. These can come below the ones more specific to web design.
Take a look at the below list of skills and include in your resume those you believe you have.
- Search Engine Optimization (SEO) – if you’re new in the web development industry but have heard of Search Engine Optimization, you might think that only writers need the skills. The truth is, search engine results are not only determined by web content but also by a website’s design. Search engines have programs called crawlers which move through websites. If the site hasn’t been designed for web crawlers, then the content will be of little help in regards to topping the list of search results. When you show that you understand this, you stand a better chance of getting an interview.
- Mobile Design – today, smartphone use is at 45.12% globally and when you include feature phones, you have 61.62% of the world’s population on mobile. If these people access the internet, much of it will be through mobile. Don’t take it that the person reading your resume will assume you know how to design for mobile. Explicitly tell her that you have the skill.
- Project management – many of the clients served by companies or even freelancers usually have projects and not a small web design task. For that reason, it’s best to show that you can handle such needs. Being skilled in project management means that you can be involved in big projects and stay focused from the beginning to the end. Moreover, what you’ve written in your work experience or education can help show that you have leadership skills.
- Branding – branding is not just the work of a marketer. As a web designer, you should understand that what you do contributes to the branding efforts of your clients. From the colors you use to the fonts you pick, it’s all aimed at sending a specific message. Mentioning that you can do branding could make a marketer who is part of the hiring team cling to your resume and push for your interview.
- Collaboration – this is a good word to use instead of talking about teamwork. The two words mean the same thing but collaboration is more powerful. It is action-oriented and thus a better word to use.
- Listening – while others are talking about communication skills, you can opt to list listening skills as one of your skills. Of course listening is part of communication and talking is also necessary for optimum communication.
All the same, listening is something that is highly-valuable. If you are a good listener, it’s very likely that you’ll understand the needs of your client and deliver on them using your hard skills in coding and design.
WEB DESIGNER RESUME EXAMPLES
With that aside, let’s look at the resume samples we told you about.
In order to cover everyone, the first resume is for a web designer with no work experience. The second one is for one with considerable experience. For that reason, the first one makes use of a career objective while the second one uses a professional summary.
Something else you’ll notice in the first resume, education comes before work experience. This is a viable option for you if you don’t have work experience. You are simply focusing on what you have i.e. relevant coursework.
At the work experience section under that, you’ll write your experience in freelance work and the internships you’ve done.
So, here you go.
Remember to use our resume templates for a creative display of your qualifications.
Fresh graduate web designer resume example
Experienced web designer resume example
CONCLUSION
Seen the difference tweaking your resume to match the job description and using numbers make? Your resume changes from being dull and boring to being impressive and lively.
Go ahead and write your own web designer resume now. Follow our advice and see your job hunting come to an end.
Above all, remember that the job description keywords are the most important part of your resume. Ensure your resume includes them.
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