The shift from physical to virtual working became fundamental for survival during the pandemic. While some companies excelled in the face of forced digital transformation others were not so fortunate, experiencing closures and serious unemployment rates. If you work in SaaS and start-ups then you know acquisitions, mass growth, redundancies and lots of ebbs and flows are all part of the game. So keeping your CV current is vital.
Everyone at some point in their lives has faced redundancies or business closure and forced to seek new employment. It’s not an easy situation however, for most industries now digital presence is everything. This makes applying for a new role a bit more convenient. But this also means it's essential to have a current personal brand with professional social channels and online portfolio a potential Recruiter can access.
Thankfully, the surge of digital tools available can help you put your best 'digital foot' forward. Many solutions have shifted from B2B to B2C offerings and now support individual customers, keeping user experience and sustainability at the heart of functionality. Tools such as WYSIWYG design, CMS and website building platforms, to name a few, have become more accessible, easy to learn and without major cost. As a marketing professional, the basis of the role is impressive ROIs so obtaining cheap or free tools would be a natural priority. This is the same when creating your own identity and skills showcase to attract hiring companies.
Engaging with potential employers and creating an online presence for yourself is easier and cheaper (like free!) than you think. Are you ready to boost your CV’s exposure and like the idea of free and easy but have no idea where to start?
The solution is simple!
Start simple and plan it all out. Take time to research and think about things like look and feel of your profiles and how you want to present yourself. You basically need to create your brand. Some tasks that need to be completed before the building fun really starts are to set up:
Make sure you read to the end of this post where you will find the simplified list of all the freebies mentioned and their links.
Cloud Storage
Google, iCloud, OneDrive and of course Drobox are the leaders in free storage. There are limits in all these cloud apps such as no more than 5GB stored with the option to purchase more space. With this in mind, take the free option and organise your files appropriately with only the most important files stored in that account. It helps to use your own naming convention but a fairly universal way is document name and date for example Q12022-newsletter-20220322. This way your files will be organized by name and date.
Project Management
The best free project management apps by a mile are Altassian-Trello and Monday. Both offer a free version with one team member, yourself. However, you can invite others via your account to the board using their email address. This would prompt them to create their own account that is also attached to your board. A project management board is handy when creating your own brand sprints and assets.
Personal URL/domain
Getting your own personal domain can be costly. The first year can be cheap but it’s every year after that means major expense. The second year of your domain fee can be in the hundreds. But the promise offer here is free and that is what you will get. You’re probably thinking, “I’m jobless with no extra money so how can I justify spending anything on a digital portfolio or domain to boost my CV?” The answer is simple. It’s more than possible to do it all for free! You just need time. And if you’re not working, you have the time to invest. A good way to think of it is; if you don’t have a job or income, you should be working toward a getting new job. A good rule of thumb is to set your own job seeking schedule similarly to your normal working hours, Monday to Friday.
For your very free no-strings-attached domain name visit www.freenom.com
There, you can search the name of your choice and create an account. You will be directed to a cart with an invoice but all are with zero charge. This is protocol when assigning any domain and directing ownership to the who.is network. Once you have your new domain name, you can move forward with the fun stuff-designing!
Your Identity: logo, icons and images
Creating your own brand identity can be fun and even challenging but some tips to keep in mind are:
Logo
There are several apps available that allow you to create a free logo which is amazing, but not so unique. Freelogodesign.org or Canva are great places to create a logo without cost. Both apps offer free versions but keep in mind, logo generators are algorithms and the logo you create is most likely someone else’s logo as well. If you can use Photoshop of Illustrator, take the logo you make in the app and edit it in Adobe. Don’t worry too much about your brand colours at this moment and keep your logo simple with black, grey and white tones.
Colours and More Colors
Now you can worry about your colour!! Choosing a colour pallet is fun but can be frustrating when making your final choice. You may find yourself completely unable to decide because there are so many to choose from. A good way to help is to go through some images in Freepik.com.
Find an image that has lots of colours you like and load it into Coolers.io app. It doesn’t really matter what the image is, creating your pallet is the ultimate goal.
Portfolio and branding profiles
There are some really cool portfolio and CMS apps out there that offer free versions such as HubSpot, WordPress and Frontify. You can create some blogs and landing pages in HubSpot or WordPress to show off your skillset. Use Frontify for a stylish brand identity and show off your work portfolio. HubSpot is easier for beginners and you have access to their free templates marketplace if you’re struggling with design. You can edit the templates to some degree so they are helpful but many are branded by the developer and watermarks can’t be removed.
You will find that you are spending time on this which can only be a positive distraction while you seek out your dream job. The other great thing about using all these apps is you start to become more skilled and agile in functioning across several apps. By utilising these apps to show off your great work, you’re also demonstrating ability to use that tool which can only boost your CV.
One final tip when applying for your dream job-focus on landing that dream job, not a bunch of jobs.
I was able to target my CV for content and copywriting by adding a short story at the top of my CV. I used humor and relatable situations that highlight my skills but also my personality. It really should be no more than 500 words for this section.
Cloud storage folders [with naming convention ex: Rodgers-tomera-20220215.doc]
Project management board
Personal URL/domain
Your own logo and identity icons and images
Portfolio and branding profiles in various apps
Watch for my next articles focusing on the basics in HubSpot and Frontify. Learn how you can easily design and publish your own site and microsites.