Graphic Designer CV checker
A working portfolio link and the discipline you actually practise. For design, the link is the application and the document is the covering note.
What recruiters search
For this role: the tools, the discipline, such as brand, packaging or digital, industry.
The parsed text
What a parser pulled out of your file, so a broken layout is visible rather than invisible.
Specific rewrites
The weak lines replaced with ones you can use, not a note telling you to be more impactful.
One payment
First check free with no account. After that a single payment, never a subscription.
Designers face a particular trap: the document that shows off craft is often the document the parser cannot read. Keep the resume plain and let the portfolio do the showing. We read the portfolio link if it is on the document.
What a graphic designer CV has to establish first
A working portfolio link and the discipline you actually practise. For design, the link is the application and the document is the covering note.
A reader decides whether to keep going within a few seconds, and that decision is made on the top third of page one. Everything after it is evidence for a judgement that has already started.
The terms recruiters search for
Recruiters find candidates by searching the database, so a term the posting uses and your document does not makes you absent from the results rather than rejected. For this role the searches tend to be:
- the tools
- the discipline, such as brand, packaging or digital
- industry
- portfolio link
- motion or web skills
Cross off anything untrue, then make sure what remains appears in a real sentence about real work rather than in a keyword block. The method, and where its limit is.
Three mistakes graphic designer CVs make
1. A portfolio link that is broken or gated
A dead link, or one behind a password with no credentials, ends the application. This is the most common fatal error in design applications and the easiest to prevent.
2. An over-designed resume that will not parse
The irony of this field. A beautiful two-column layout with the contact details in a text box can arrive as an almost empty record.
3. No business outcome anywhere
Design hiring increasingly asks what the work achieved. A rebrand that lifted something, a packaging change that moved sell-through.
One line, rewritten
| What people write | What a reader can use |
|---|---|
| Designed marketing materials and social media graphics | Rebuilt the packaging system for an 18-SKU range, which the buyer credited with a visible lift in shelf pickup at the two trial stores |
The left column describes a job that existed. The right describes a person who did something. You do not need impressive numbers, only actual ones.
What differs outside North America
Photos on a CV are normal in Germany and France and discouraged in the UK, Ireland and Australia, which catches designers out because a portrait feels like part of a personal brand. Two pages is fine for a UK CV; the American one-page rule does not apply.
The general conventions apply too: two pages is normal for a UK or Australian CV, no photo in the UK, Ireland or Australia, and leave off age, marital status and nationality. The full comparison.
Before you send it
Select all the text in your CV, copy it, and paste it into any plain text editor. That is close to what the screening software receives. If your name and number are missing, or your job titles have merged into your dates, you have found something worth fixing before anything else.
Questions people ask
- What should a graphic designer CV lead with?
- A working portfolio link and the discipline you actually practise. For design, the link is the application and the document is the covering note.
- Which keywords matter for a graphic designer?
- Recruiters tend to search the tools, the discipline, such as brand, packaging or digital, industry. Use the posting's own wording for anything that is true of you, in a sentence about real work rather than a keyword list.
- How is a graphic designer CV different from a resume?
- Photos on a CV are normal in Germany and France and discouraged in the UK, Ireland and Australia, which catches designers out because a portrait feels like part of a personal brand. Two pages is fine for a UK CV; the American one-page rule does not apply.
- How long should it be?
- Two pages is standard in the UK, Ireland and Australia with a few years of experience. One strong page is right early on, and padding to reach two is worse than a full one.
- Is the first check really free?
- Yes, with no account and no card. After that it is one payment for unlimited checks rather than a monthly subscription.
See what your graphic designer CV really says
The parsed text, the score, the recruiter's read and the rewrites. First one free.
Upload mine →First one free · one payment, never a subscription