Shillington College graduate talent flourishes at end of year show 2015

Creative Recruitment and Shillington College join forces once again in the end of course show.

The portfolio review is presented in an open house format and featured design students industry-focused work who formally present their work, highlighting the various disciplines within their respective fields of study.

Here is a snapshot of how the day unfolded. 

The course enables you to develop an understanding of the social context of graphic design and covers topics such as typography, advertising, branding, editorial, packaging, interactive design, and installation.

You are taught by research-active academics who practise in the industry and have active links to professional bodies and networks. There are opportunities to undertake work experience and internships at design agencies.

Research shows that graduates who have work experience are attractive to employers and have a competitive edge in the jobs market.

The calibre of work produced by the students is very high, and is a credit to them and the lecturers.

Impressive as always guys! Good luck to all!

CV of the week

This weeks winner of CV of the week award goes to the person who sent me this :-)

CV of the week

This weeks CV of the week award goes to the person who emailed me this when applying for one of my design roles.

lol.

Local stuff

On the way to get my hair cut at Jack The Clipper, here are some pics of stuff that I saw.

Burner!

Simpsons rocking it!

Nice little thing here.

Puddles....WTF...

Get the point...

Believe!

Lol.

Something to think about when requesting a freelance day rate increase

We’d all like a massive £350,000 a year salary, but you won’t convince your MD to give you a dream salary. Instead, do some research and check out salary averages to see if you are actually being paid less than you should be.  

Something to think about when requesting a freelance day rate increase:

Rather than 'I want more money keep in mind standard protocol for all pay rise requests:

A brief explanation as to why you are requesting it in terms of clear examples to demonstrate how you’ve gone beyond your basic job description. Highlight a few instances where you’ve taken initiative, improved business or helped support the wider team. Remember that this is a business request, and your goal is to convince your boss that you are worth a higher day rate. Simply to ‘help offset some of the costs I am paying for Employers National Insurance’ isn’t a strong enough case I'm afraid.

Work out what you earn before tax, for example: £135per day this is equivalent to an annual amount of: £35,100. The London average for Senior Graphic design roles is 30k. Asking for as much as 150 per day will take this to 39k which may actually be closer to a management role. By doing this you will know if the time is right or appropriate to ask for more money - good luck.

We were very impressed

Known as one of the UK's most creative Graphic Design Courses, and well-known for its successful design programs, Shillington College always promises to deliver an abundance of talent.

Myself and Evette Darroux were privileged to join them this week as a guest speakers and offer portfolio feedback, interview tips and give some advice on the do's and don'ts for job seeking within design and creative sectors. 

The evening was friendly and informal. I really enjoyed sharing an outside perspective, giving support, and hopefully we were able to provide a bit of entertainment (or all three)!

The night was successful and the other guest speakers enjoyed the experience too. All delivered a message that seemed to resonate with the audience. 

Overall, I was very impressed with the attitude and professionalism of the students.

If you would like to know more about the Shillington please visit:www.shillingtoncollege.co.uk

For up to date job alerts within design and creative sectors please follow: @deancousin

To register your details with Creative Recruitment please go to:  www.creativerecruitment.co.uk

Job seekers, did you know...

Job seekers, did you know...

When applying for jobs, your CV landing on the same desk over and over via multiple different avenues can sometimes have a detrimental / ‘spammy’ effect...

Keep track of your digital CV footprint, where it goes and who it goes to.

Cover note made me LOL

Someone sent me their cv with this..... "interesting" cover note.

Made me LOL.

What do you think of it?

Social Media Job Ad of the day

Spotted this tweet via  @yourtalent2  

3 minutes ago

Talentsquare is #hiring! #FrontEnd Badass wanted. :) Is that you? #Brussels #permanent #BeTech http://bit.ly/1x7O0Az 

Now that's what I call a social media job ad lol.

CV of the week award

I am lucky enough to represent some of the UKs leading brands and as a result the roles I work on are some of the most desirable in the market. This can lead to 500+ applicants for any one role.

Unfortunately 90% of the CVs I receive don't make the grade and some win the CV of the week for, humor,  shock value, poor quality, or delusion. 

What do you think of this one?

So you're a copywriter?

Freelance Copywriters needed for general creative projects, social media, TTL  campaigns and stuff - must be able to come up with better words than "stuff".

Had a chat to one of my clients about copywriters today. Funny because this week I screened 450 copywriters for one role only to find 10 are suitable to shortlist. Out of that 10 probably 5 will be suitable to send to the client and only 1 will be booked.

There are 3 different kind of copywriters a deal with:

Product Copywriters

Jr 100 to 150 per day

Mid 150 to 170 per day

Snr 200 per day

Content Copywriters

Jr 100 to 150 per day

Mid 150 to 170 per day

Snr 200 to 230 per day

Creative Copywriters

Jr 150 to 200

Mid 200 to 230 per day

Snr 250 to 350 per day

Product and Content writers usually have an English Language qualification or Journalism / blogger backgrounds.

Creative Copywriters will have an advertising qualification and be from an ad agency.

If you are a freelance copywriter please get in touch!

January 2015 - The eyes chico, they never lie

I hope you all had a good break and have enjoyed the first week back to work.

As always, January brings new hope, but also new CVs as job seeking activity increases by about 37%.

Todays winner of the bizarre CV award goes to this chap who sent me his CV which included this unusual image of (I presume) his eyes.