I’ve been working on a post for designers putting together their portfolios, but I don’t want to make you wait (I’ve been pretty slow at getting the posts out lately!) so I’m hoping this bit of advice will help you to get started.

There are a few things you can do to to improve your chances for a call-back or an interview.

1. You have to have a portfolio. You’re wasting your time without one. I’ve been in the position to hire designers before, and I can tell you, without samples of your work, your resume won’t make it past the administrative assistant. Don’t feel bad that most of your work is student work or personal work. For now, that’s what you have, so that’s what you should show. If you are an illustrator, find a nice portfolio WordPress theme and add your work and contact info, or find a service like the Communication Arts website where you can pay a small fee to upload your portfolio pieces. Even a Flickr account can be used to show off your work — but obviously, the more professional your presentation of your work, the better. If you have a friend who knows web design, see if they can help you customize a nice WordPress theme, or if you pay for one, sometimes they are very easy to update yourself. Search for WordPress themes for photographers because those translate well for displaying illustration work. If you are seriously uncomfortable working with the web, create a pdf with samples of your work and attach it when you email your resume. If you’re not an illustrator, and you are a web designer, you’ll need to design an original website — nobody will want to hire a web designer that doesn’t have a website of their own — with a custom design.

2. As you apply for jobs, try to create just one piece that relates to the work that they do at that particular company. Let that be the first piece you show. That way, they’ll see that even though you may not have a ton of experience, you have the ability to do work that fits in with their client projects. You’ll be surprised that by doing these professional-quality projects, one at a time, you’ll build a pretty nice professional-quality portfolio fairly quickly. Even though those pieces will still really be personal projects, they will look more professional than student work if you do them with a real client in mind.

3. Every job application should be customized — your resume and cover letter should reflect the specific job you are applying for. It’s also very important that some of your personality show through in your cover letter, if not your cover letter AND your resume. Don’t send out cookie-cutter letters. Be yourself and be honest. You want to work for a company where you can be yourself — if they don’t like you upfront, you wouldn’t fit in there anyway. Let them know that you’ve spent a lot of years in school, and can understand if they are wary of hiring someone with little real-world experience, but stress your desire to learn, your enthusiasm for the work, and your excitement about the possibilities a position like this could offer. In addition, if you have done ANY freelance work at all, mention that — because that does count as real-world experience.

4. This is going to seem very off-the-cuff, and very risky, but I have to suggest it. If you find that even with a solid portfolio and customized cover letters you are still not getting call-backs, try removing your MA from your resume. I know it sounds crazy, but the MA may be turning people off. They may look at your resume and think, “This person is going to be expensive,” and pass you by. They want to pay an entry-level person entry-level pay, and they may be nervous that a person with so much education will expect a higher entry-level salary.

Best of luck to you, Lisa! I hope you’ll keep in touch and come back to check for the portfolio post — which I plan to finish soon, I promise!!