Anna Brandberg

If you’re applying from a different industry, a cover letter goes a long way to explain why you’re applying. Where possible tailor it to the company you’re applying to as its quite obvious when you’re just sending the same thing to everyone. They’re a good addition in general.

Applying for games? If you’ve never worked in games its useful to make it clear why you do want to work in games and why its something you’re passionate about in a few lines in your cover letter.

If you’re adding work experience it’s helpful to add your role and responsibilities there for reviewer to see if you have previous applicable experience. Just a company name and job title isn’t as helpful as some studios have different R+Rs for job titles.

Try to make sure your portfolio is a pdf rather than jpg or png because a lot of recruitment software can’t parse that text and makes presentation weird. You want to avoid making reviewers have to type out your portfolio link. Make links clickable too if possible.

Although you might be looking to impress with your art skills I'd recommend keeping a CV clean and presented simply (still can be stylish!) rather than lots of busy patterns/textures/drawings. Be sure the information is clear and easy to parse, it's more important than jazziness!

Avoid using bar charts to show skill level, it really doesn't mean anything! Just list skills/software you have experience in, or beginner/intermediate/expert is ok, although this in itself can be swayed by the applicants opinion of their own skill. Basically, avoid bar charts.

Heck. Pretty sure I had bar charts in mine back when I was looking for work... I'd had stuff simply listed at first and wanted to convey that *this stuff* I'm ok at, but *this stuff* I'm really really good at! But yep, definitely changing this when I update it next.

Same actually, I used the bars as a sign of how confident i am at using those tools, rather than an approximation of skill But people hate them so its an easy ditch lol