Creative Insights Archives

The easiest way to get a new job or acquire new freelance clients is to market yourself long before you even start a job search. And the best way to stand out is to play to your strengths, marketing your most valuable skills and experiences that make you you. Keep reading to learn how you can market your skills

1. Speak the language.

Precise language and terminology is so important to land jobs in our industry.

For starters, if you’re applying to a job and your resume and cover letter don’t have position-specific keywords, your resume may never even make it into a human being’s hands, thanks to applicant tracking systems.

The more technical the field, the more terminology you weave into your resume or profile (and use correctly). Study the resumes and LinkedIn profiles of people who are working in your ideal or target job. Most importantly, make sure you’re using the same skills, keywords, and lingo as the job description you’re applying for!

Important: Don’t just stuff your resume and application with keywords for the sake of getting a callback. If you’re not being honest about your talents and skill levels, there is a 100% chance you’ll be found out. And if you waste a recruiter or hiring manager’s time with a bogus resume, you won’t be considered for jobs that you might have been a fit for.

2. Consider your contributions.

Now that you have added relevant keywords to your resume, take a step back and answer the question, “How will these skills solve a potential employer or client’s problems?” Weave those keywords into a meaningful narrative or elevator pitch that shows how you used those skills. It’s even better if you can tie them to quantifiable results.

It’s harder for people in creative roles, but consider adding in bullet points that tell stories like these:

My contributions helped our team land the $X million XYZ account
Wrote copy for an email marketing campaign that averaged an open rate of X% and a click-through rate of X%
Helped manage the research, production, and deployment of an integrated campaign that led to a 12% increase in sales

(And this is why it really pays to be able to speak your discipline’s language.)

3. Tell the right story.

Your portfolio will be a living, evolving archive of your accomplishments, but if you’re trying to position yourself in a specific niche, make sure your work immediately conveys this. If you’re lucky, you’ll have five or 10 seconds to pique a hiring manager or creative director’s interest with your portfolio.

Start off strong, (re)organize your work, and make sure it reinforces the impression you’re trying to create. Web platforms like Squarespace, Wix, or WordPress are great for giving you the on-the-fly flexibility you need to tailor your portfolio.

4. Act like the expert you are.

Broadcast your expertise in a field by finding or creating a place to share your voice and opinions. than with your own blog or podcast. It doesn’t have to be fancy or formal, and it doesn’t have to be about the “hard sell,” either.

Hone your personal brand and position yourself, based on your skills and experience, by sharing and making insightful comments on articles and posts. Aim for a few of these interactions every week, if not on a daily basis.

If you have the time, start writing a few words about your own unique experiences or skills. Add a blog to your portfolio or personal website and promote it on LinkedIn; you’ll be surprised at how much extra traffic you can generate.

5. Don’t wait until you’re actively looking for a job.

You should be building the blocks to market yourself and working to keep your professional visibility high.

LinkedIn is a good place to start. Begin with a solid profile, complete with a professional-looking picture, which means no bathroom selfies, illustrations, pictures of your dog, pictures where you cut someone else out, or other images that would make a hiring manager pause.

Request a few meaningful recommendations from people who are familiar with your abilities – ideally, close colleagues who know the skills and value you bring, or more senior types to burnish your reputation. Endorsements are also good, but personal recommendations stand out.

Don’t forget the little things.

In the end, you still may find yourself competing against people with similar experience, qualifications, and skillsets, so you’ll need to make the effort to stand out.

Start out with a no-brainer, like spellchecking all your communications and doing a quality check on your website and portfolio.
Showcasing any volunteer work on your resume can also swing the vote in your favor, since company decision-makers are 82% more likely to choose a candidate with volunteer experience.
Your portfolio and experience should ideally highlight and demonstrate your particular skillset, but having legitimate certification can make you stand out. Be sure to include relevant training and applicable certifications on your LinkedIn profile, portfolio and resume.

Whether you’re actively looking for a job or new business, it’s always a good idea to keep your eyes open for new opportunities to showcase your skills and experience.

Lisa is a Creative Circle candidate and seasoned advertising copywriter who lives in Los Angeles. Her background includes both in-house and agency work on Fortune 500 and global accounts in the consumer and healthcare/pharmaceutical fields. She excels at words, fashion, and cats. If you want to work with Lisa, contact Creative Circle Los Angeles.

You probably don’t think you’re a writer, but you are. You send emails, you craft memos, and you write reports. You may never write a white paper or a script for a TV spot, but why not make whatever communications you do write as persuasive, comprehensible, and compelling as they can be? Especially with these five simple writing tips that put it in black and white for you.

1. Write as you talk.

The most common thing I hear from people who come looking for my help is, “Ugh, I’m not a writer!” But I have never heard anyone say, “Ugh, I’m not a talker!” Most people are capable of verbally expressing themselves using simple and direct language with occasional emphasis and color. And think about a five-year-old. Have you ever heard any five-year-old say anything like, “What I want to be playing with is the ball”? No, kids say, “I want to play with the ball.” And you understand them just fine!

Strive to capture your unique conversational voice—which probably changes depending on who you’re speaking to. After all, you wouldn’t address a VP the same way you’d talk to someone in your same position. You can elevate your communications by making this voice a little more formal:

Omit instances of “I think” or “I believe.” Remember, you’re the expert at what you’re writing about, so you don’t need to temper the expectations of the reader.
Instead of “like,” use “such as,” and see how it elevates what you’ve written. For example:
Before: I supervised projects like radio spots and web banners.
After: I supervised projects such as radio spots and web banners.
Take out clichés and idioms, such as, “at the end of the day,” “let’s circle back around,” and all the other cheesy sayings that don’t add value to your communications. Even though they may be common, using them is a little lazy and can become annoying or redundant.

2. Make your sentences short and sweet.

Look at sentences longer than two lines or anywhere you see a colon (:), semicolon (;) or an em dash (—). Can you break the sentences down into two? Many of us mistake long, complex sentences for sounding smart, but actually, the reverse is true. Shorter sentences are easier for your reader to parse and understand. Long sentences are harder to follow, and they also create eye and brain fatigue.

3. Lay out your copy for short attention spans.

As a writer myself, it pains me to say this, but people don’t like reading – especially when it’s large, dense blocks of copy with no end in sight. You don’t have to be an expert designer or even work in a program other than Word. Think about your audience: no matter who it is, they probably don’t have 10 minutes to labor over an email. If you’re writing to someone important like a creative director or CEO, you’ll be lucky to get even one minute of their time. Instead of paragraphs, you could convert some of what you’ve written to bullet points. Create bite-sized paragraphs, and bring attention to important words by making them bold or italic. By adding these elements, you can hold your reader’s attention and speed them down the page. So even if they’re only skimming, they’ll still understand your important points.

4. Spell check is such a no-brainer.

This is literally the easiest thing you can do to have your words read and taken seriously, especially if you’re job hunting. With a large pool of potential talent, hiring managers often just hit delete if they see a resume or cover letter that has even a single mistake on it. It’s true that spell check will still let you make mistakes like some of these facepalm-inducing gems, but it’s a great, practically painless way to avoid common mistakes. Online spelling and grammar resources like Grammarly and Ginger can make your writing near-bulletproof.

5. Print out your document and read it aloud.

For me, I don’t think anything beats proofreading a hard copy of your document since proofreading on screen makes you far less accurate than reading something on paper. But if you want to be a little more environmentally sensitive, open the document on screen and read it aloud to yourself – not just whispering under your breath, but reading it at the same volume you’d use if you were speaking. Or get a friend or coworker to read it since most people are pretty ruthless when it comes to finding faults in other people’s work!

Now, keep going!

Even with the rise of social media, being able to write in a clear, concise manner is still an essential business skill. Once you’ve got the basics down, try some of these ideas about how to incorporate visuals and design to make your writing stand out and get the results you’re after.

It’s sad but true: These days, computer-bound professionals have minimal attention spans. Picture someone busily working their way through a mound of applicants and resumes. They’ll type in the URL of the candidates who pique their interest. At this point, you have only seconds to maintain that interest. No pressure, but don’t mess it up.
What are the three most important things to keep top of mind when you’re putting your portfolio websites together?

1. Make sure your best work is the easiest to find.

The Three Most Important Rules of Building Portfolio Web Sites
Separate yourself from all the personal associations you have with your work and make an effort to evaluate your samples objectively and then determine which examples stand out as particularly strong. Great portfolio websites give those pieces the prime real estate.

2. Create sections by work type.

The 3 Most Important Rules of Building Portfolio Web Sites

If your portfolio contains work that falls into different categories — ad work versus editorial, for instance — separate it into sections. This way, a prospective client or employer can immediately sort out the experience that most appropriately matches their needs. (And don’t forget to keep rule #1 in mind within each category, too.)

3. Simple navigation rules portfolio websites.

The 3 Most Important Rules of Building Portfolio Web Sites

Providing a direct link that’s relevant to a particular client need is great as long as it’s clean (myportfolio.com/headlines, not myportfolio.com/jahfgqur09324), but anticipate what will happen if someone winds up by accident on another page on your site. Will they be able to easily get back on track and find what they are looking for? If you can’t confidently say yes from any entry point, rethink your navigation functions.

The good news is that an excellent body of work will get recognized one way or the other (it doesn’t all come down to how your portfolio websites look), but time is money. Put the work in upfront to carefully consider the experience of navigating your portfolio; it could save you days, weeks, or even months waiting to be discovered.

Marjorie is a former Creative Circle candidate based in Portland who recently accepted a full-time offer for her dream job. She is a writer/editor and stylist/producer with an emphasis in the design world. If you are interested in working with someone like Marjorie, please contact your nearest Creative Circle office.

We all dream of having complete creative control over our projects, but unless you are well-established, calling your own shots may be far down the road. That’s OK, though. You can have complete control by doing your own creative projects outside of your paid work. It will also help your career.

You may believe you don’t have the time, or perhaps don’t want to use your free time to work more. But you should take that opportunity. Why?

Keep your head in the game

Developing your writing, editing and design skills all requires regular (if not daily) practice. I always have a personal project (or two) going at the same time as my professional work. It helps keep my mind in the game and allows me to push my skills beyond what is normally required. As a freelancer, you are your business, so any work you create beyond normal assignments could be seen as both personal and professional development.

Push the boundaries completing creative projects

There’s no better place to try the things you’ve never tried before try the things you’ve never tried before than on your own project. You don’t always have the time to learn a new skill or the freedom to try something cutting edge on the job, so pushing yourself into new areas will give you the experience you need when you are called upon. When you work on your own projects, you have the freedom to experiment and keep your creative edge from getting dull.

Show your potential
Your own project is a great opportunity to prove that you can take something from concept to completion. No matter the size of your project, you will be making all the important decisions and developing the skills that could help you land more and better work. It’s one thing to excel at a given task, but it’s another to say you have the experience to see a project all the way through to the end.

Strengthen your standards
The same set of standards you set for yourself as a professional should carry over to your own projects. Your original work is just as important as the other work you do, so treat it with the same respect as any paid job. Then, once you are completing the same type of work for a project or assignment, it will be second nature.

Personal creative projects are a commitment well worth the effort. The new skills you learn by working on your own will help you in the day-to-day work at your job. Your skill set will grow, and it can open doors for promotion or more creative flexibility within your job.

Krista is a Creative Circle candidate, creative writer and content creator in Los Angeles. Her background includes news, marketing, copywriting and editing. If you are interested in working with Krista, please contact Creative Circle Los Angeles.

If you have the idea that creating a top-notch resume is difficult today, that’s probably because you’re not aware of some outstanding free tools. The days of traditional paper resumes are over, and now, nearly everyone has the opportunity to craft a creative, artistic document that is striking and distinct. It’s time to make your resume stand out. Take a look at the five ways listed below you can punch up your resume and give yourself that extra edge to land the job you want.

1. Use suitable templates for the company and role.

Especially in the creative field, your resume should reflect your skills. Great resumes provide a preview of how you work and think. If you are skilled in Photoshop or any of the other Adobe Creative Cloud programs, take full advantage of your experience to create a custom resume.

You can choose from many websites and resources online, but you can start with services like Google Docs and Canva (both free). Take some time to browse the internet for a site that fits your style.

2. Create a tailor-made resume for the job you want.

Every job you apply to should receive a personalized resume. Sending out the same resume or cover letter repeatedly isn’t likely to yield good results. Companies and their recruiters can tell the difference between an individualized and cookie-cutter submission.

Many companies use some type of Applicant Tracking System (ATS), which does an initial search for specific information and keywords to see if your skills match the position. You’ll want to make sure your resume matches any keywords and/or phrases the company might be using.

3. Be yourself on paper to make your resume stand out.

It is perfectly acceptable to infuse your personality into your resume. Those who take the opportunity to simply be themselves will stand out from the masses. Yes, you’ll still have to use some traditional aspects of a resume; however, you’re a unique person in a unique field. Use every opportunity in the job application process to show who you really are.

4. Don’t be bashful; explain your accomplishments with metrics.

Your achievements play a huge role in getting the job, but avoid long bullet points describing your prior job duties. The best way to impress any company is by explaining (with numbers) what you’ve done and convincing the recruiter that you’re capable of repeating this for a new employer.

Take a narrative approach with your accomplishments instead of using simple lists. Don’t be afraid to mention awards and any outside recognition you received for your work. If you have a knockout project you are particularly proud of, highlight the role you played.

5. The shorter the better.

That first glance at your resume, on average, takes about six seconds. Most recruiters or hiring managers can see right away if your resume is too long or too wordy, and if it is, they will probably lose interest quickly. Use short, compact sentences and phrases with the most impactful words possible.

Be clear, concise, and write as much as possible in the active voice. The best resumes get to the point in as few words as possible. For more on the active voice and how it works, look here.

The competition for creative work is fierce. You can’t afford to just blend into the crowd or you’ll risk being passed over. Taking the time to make your resume stand out pays off.

In today’s world, more businesses and industries are looking for creative talent than ever before. Major tech companies, media agencies, digital publishers, and ad shops alike are no longer looking for candidates who check off all the literal job requirements, because let’s be honest, the majority of these roles are so new it would be impossible to have the direct experience necessary. In fact, they are looking for culture fits: people who can express their thoughts creatively (even if the role is not necessarily creative), are fun to work with, willing to learn, and adaptable. There has never been a better time for creatively minded people to job hunt and find work that leads in innovation, technology, design, and reach.

Your resume is no longer your way to show an employer “your receipts” from the working world. Now, resumes are your “HELLO MY NAME IS” sticker that just gets an employer to want to know your story in the first place.

Here are a few tips (and tricks) to, as mother always said, “Show, not tell.”

1. Rethink your cover letter.

Hiring managers have to sift through thousands of resumes with “this-is-why-I’d-be-a-great-fit” cover letters. Give them something fun to read! Ever fill out a cover letter and wonder to yourself, “Why am I just repeating my resume in essay form?!” Your cover letter is your opportunity to give an employer a peek into your personality.

Using elements of what makes up your day-to-day life, consider writing a succinct story, a visual equation of what makes you who you are, etc., and maybe include a quote that inspires you. Think of different ways to illustrate that you’re fit for the job by aligning your personality with the role at hand rather than directly explaining your work history. Your cover letter is the handshake that makes an employer want to know more about your experience.

2. Ditch that Word doc template.

Unless you’re applying for a job at a financial investment firm, there is no need for that resume template from 1997 (we all know which one), where you list your address and college GPA. You may as well include your Social Security number! Your resume doesn’t even need to be vertical! Is your mind blown yet? Using Keynote, Photoshop, InDesign, and other design-based software, you can visualize your experience sans bullet points, illustrating your ability to synthesize your work history in an interesting, nuanced way. (For those of you who feel less verbose in the world of design, Canva is a great free resource for you!)

Using current trends, keep your resume relevant and modern with color and anything but Times New Roman. Doing a search of how others have innovated the way they compiled their resume is helpful for inspiration. Depending on your network, it might be worth asking your friends (or other people you look up to) if you can look at their resumes for the sake of variety and to see that there are no rules as far as execution goes. With all these resources at your disposal, there’s no excuse for a plain resume.

3. Know your personal brand.

Regardless of whether it’s conscious, we are all constantly curating a brand of and for ourselves in the world of social media. We use social media to align ourselves with messaging, imagery, cultural capital, and other people, so why not do the same on your resume? In the way your most-used emojis can say a lot about you, so does the content of your resume. People can, at a glance, get a sense of who you are through micro-cues from visual and written communication.

Finding the symbiosis between your experience and your brand is key. For example, if you’re looking for a role in design or art direction, your resume should be visually and aesthetically dominant, highlighting your technical skill. If you’re applying for more of a creative strategy role, your personality (humor, thought process, storytelling abilities) should shine through using imagery and text.

4. Highlight the story you’re telling.

Similar to personal branding, your resume is just another extension of your ability to clearly illustrate your work in a way that flows for the reader. Think of different ways and formats to take the reader on your employment journey in the same way you’d describe it in person. For example, some people treat their resume like a visual map with no words or descriptions at all — just key art, color, and design elements. Others prefer to provide a restaurant-like menu of their work, letting readers get a taste of their experience with little visual hints along the way. There is no set parameter to how much or how little one should include on their resume. It’s what will make you feel most confident in the work you’ve done.

Employers want to see how all your experience has tied together in some way, even if that means highlighting what you learned from each role you’ve had rather than making a laundry list of accomplishments.

5. Always be ready to iterate.

As nebulous as it sounds, iteration is important during the creative process. Don’t get attached to one format. As trends change, as your experience changes, so update your resume visualization the same way you’d update a blog post or Facebook cover photo. It shows future employers, recruiters, and contacts that you’re evolving in your abilities to stay relevant while also expanding in your storytelling capabilities. Making your resume should be a fun and engaging process that allows you to express yourself differently.

Always remember that your resume gets you in the room. Employers are primarily focused on where you’ve worked and for how long. An in-person interview gives you the room to extrapolate on your experience, so don’t pressure yourself to fit it all in on one page.

These are just some quick and easy ways to start thinking about your job hunt differently. What are some of your suggestions for keeping it creative? Let us know in the comments!

Annie is a Creative Circle candidate and freelance creative strategist/copywriter working and living in Los Angeles. She knows digital media as well as she knows her own horoscope (she’s a Virgo), having worked at the likes of BuzzFeed and Mashable. She has created branded content strategies for the top Fortune 500 brands, which means she knows the true meaning of “going native.” If you want to work with Annie, contact Creative Circle Los Angeles.

As reliable as the leaves changing color, the temperatures dropping a few degrees, and Starbucks rolling out the Pumpkin Spice Latte (and everyone’s personal feelings around pumpkin flavors), each fall, Boston’s population suddenly swells with digital marketers. 20,000+ people stream in from all over the world for Inbound, the digital marketing conference hosted by Hubspot. It’s a chance for marketers, entrepreneurs and creatives to network, mingle, learn, and get inspired. Speakers range from the mega-famous (um, hi MICHELLE OBAMA) to small agency owners or speakers sharing a few nuggets of wisdom with anyone willing to listen.

I’ve been lucky enough to attend Inbound for the last two years, and I always leave feeling like I can scale 10-foot walls in a single bound. I’m so buoyed by new ideas and inspiring concepts that I can’t wait to share every tidbit with my team. Rather than unleash all this learning on them like an open fire hydrant, however, I thought I’d channel my enthusiasm into this article for the Our Notebook audience!
I came away from the conference with four great ideas to try.

1. Have Some Empathy.

There was no official theme to the conference this year, but if there was, it would be empathy. I don’t want to bring politics into this post, but I would be remiss not to acknowledge that we live in a troubled and divided world. Brene Brown, Michelle Obama, and hundreds of others spoke to the power of empathy and the impact it can have in our world. And truly, this concept has never been more powerful than it is now.

The practical application echoed repeatedly was: “Help your customers. Don’t sell to them.” As creatives and marketers, this means taking a step back, putting ourselves in our audience’s shoes and truly understanding them. What are their pain points? What are our services doing to improve or enhance their lives? What does your audience need that you haven’t provided for them? An authentic, empathetic voice and message will be the most impactful way to connect with your audience in the years ahead.

2. Ramp Up Your Messaging.

The big tech trend at Inbound last year was messaging services. At their conference last year, Facebook announced that Facebook Messenger has over 1 billion active users (!!!), and has recently opened this tool up to businesses to keep in touch with their customers too. Thought leaders at Inbound predicted that using a messaging service or chat bot software can help eliminate some potential roadblocks in customers’ paths to purchase, while at the same time avoiding the need to pick up a phone and call someone (gross, right?).
This seems like an odd point to follow up empathy with. But the truth is, in this modern and digital age, we are much more apt to look for information on our own rather than asking someone else. How many times have you Googled how to do something rather than reaching out to someone else you know who could help you? Personally, I spent a good hour Googling which cleaning products were safe to use on my gas oven without blowing up my apartment before caving and just asking my mom.

My point is, empathize with your audience by understanding your tendencies for wanting to source and locate a solution to your problem independently. Not everyone has the resources to build or pay for a chat bot for their personal or business website, but maybe you could get a “Contact Me” section built where someone can easily and quickly get in touch with you. Do you have an FAQ section that may address common questions or concerns about your services? Do you have your direct messages set to “public” on Twitter? Try one or all these, and see if it helps bridge the communication gap between you and your audience.

3. Use “Yes, and …”

This is the new favorite statement used by improvisers all over the world. In order for an improvised scene to be successful and funny, scene partners need to agree and build on one another’s ideas rather than shoot them down.
For example:
“Slow down! You’re driving too fast!”
“What are you talking about? We’re not driving; we’re at the grocery store,”
versus,
“Slow down! You’re driving too fast!”
“Well, I’m never going to be a good racecar driver if I don’t practice!”

Which of those exchanges leads to a stronger, funnier result?

As a lifelong theatre student, I wasn’t sure I’d have much to glean from the talk on improv for marketers, but as soon as the “Yes, and …” concept was introduced, I realized how infrequently I use that tactic at work. If an idea or pitch clashes with my sensibilities or what I think is plausible, I’m quick to shoot it down (“We’re not driving”), rather than build off it. My personal challenge walking away from Inbound is to “Yes, and …” my team more! It will lead to better, stronger work, and it will make my team feel supported and safe when they introduce new ideas. And that’s a win for me too, because that’s exactly how I want my co-workers to feel, and the kind of workspace I want for myself. So next time you’re in a meeting, make like Tina Fey: “Yes, and …!”

4. Change the Story by Changing the Storytellers.

In 2016, Teen Vogue went from just another teen magazine to one of the premier sources for forward-thinking political, cultural, and fashion journalism. How did they accomplish such a huge brand U-turn? Editor-in-Chief Elaine Welteroth credits it to diversifying their staff.
By changing who had a seat at the table, they changed what kind of stories they told. For example, they realized that they didn’t need to stay pigeonholed into stories about makeup and prom dresses; teenage girls were expressing an interest in political and current events in addition to which highlighter would give them a better glow. They expanded their staff of writers and the kinds of topics they covered. The result was not only a broader audience that now stretches well beyond their young female demographic (Welteroth mentioned proudly that Dan Rather now counts himself as a reader), but national acclaim for their publication.

If you are looking for this kind of change, look for the voice or experience in your organization that is missing and act on adding that person to the mix. But not all of us are able to make those kind of hiring decisions, or perhaps you’re not in a place where diversity is a huge priority for your company. Reaching back to the empathy theme, it’s important to understand the need for a voice or representation that mirrors your audience’s own experience. If your work isn’t connecting with your audience in the way you anticipated, think about any other voices or experiences that may resonate with them more.
You may not be able to hire someone who has that voice, but maybe you know them personally. Can you take them out for a working lunch and ask them to share their experiences with you? Can you seek out writers and artists whose voices resonate with your audience? Fold their work into your media diet. If you can’t impact the table at work, change your creative and digital roundtable.

It was remarkable to be at a digital marketing conference that gave me so many personal insights in addition to professional ones. Inbound encouraged its attendees to do more than buy a new piece of software or track a particular trend; it challenged us to look inward and see how we can improve upon ourselves and apply those same improvements to our professional lives.

Julie is the Project Manager for Creative Circle’s marketing team, and a life-long passionate storyteller. She manages the day-to-day workflow for the Marketing team, and oversees email marketing, marketing automation, and various other digital marketing initiatives. Julie has her B.A. with honors in Theatre and Creative Writing from Butler University. She is a Kentuckian by birth, Chicagoan by choice, and a fan of Beyonce, Gilmore Girls, and writing in pen. She is always trying to get a reservation at Girl and the Goat.