Here are the keywords and skills that appear most frequently on recent Graphic Design job postings. In other words, these are the most sought after skills by recruiters and hiring managers. So try to include them on your resume where possible. Go to the Sample Templates ↓ below to see how to include them on your resume.
Remember that every job is different. Instead of including all these keywords on your resume, identify the keywords most relevant to the job you're applying to and include those. Use the free Targeted Resume tool to help with this.
Does your resume contain all the right skills? Paste in your resume in the AI Resume Scan ↓ section below and get an instant score.
Paste your resume below and our AI will identify which keywords are missing from your resume from the list above (and what you need to include). Including the right keywords will help you get past Applicant Tracking Systems (i.e. resume screeners) which may scan your resume for keywords to see if you're a match for the job.
Go through the Graphic Design posting you're applying to, and identify hard skills the company is looking for. For example, skills like Adobe Creative Suite, Adobe InDesign and Adobe Photoshop are possible skills. These are skills you should try to include on your resume.
Here are examples of proven resumes in related jobs and industries, approved by experienced hiring managers. Use them as inspiration when you're writing your own resume. You can even download and edit the resume template in Google Docs.
Landing a role as a junior graphic designer isn’t as hard as you might think. Most employers are looking for graphic design ability — as evidenced by your portfolio and qualifications — over extensive experience, which means emphasizing your hard skills and any relevant educational background. If you’re a recent graduate, don’t forget about university projects and internships, which can go a long way toward making up for minimal work experience.
As a recent graduate — or even if you’re a few years out and still applying for junior roles — your education section is a lot more important than it is for someone with more experience. You can use your education section to your advantage by listing any awards you’ve won, professional memberships, or specific qualifications that stress hard graphic design skills.
If you’re applying for an entry-level graphic design role, don’t worry if you don’t have a lot of experience. You can list any internships in the same way as you would regular work experience, using action verbs to emphasize what you accomplished. If you’ve completed any relevant university projects, make sure you highlight those, too.
As a senior graphic designer or graphic design director, you’ll be taking on high-level responsibilities and overseeing an entire department. Your resume needs to show significant experience as a graphic designer, as well as the capacity to lead a team to success. Make sure you’re emphasizing past leadership roles you’ve held as well as a commitment to ensuring the overall success of a company.
If you want to land a senior role, you’ll need to show a steady pattern of career growth. If you’ve landed a promotion that represents a significant increase in responsibilities, you can list the positions separately under the same company heading. If the job title alone doesn’t make it clear that this was a promotion, your bullet points will.
It’s always a good idea to use the exact title of the job you’re applying for on your resume. If you’ve held a position with the same responsibilities but under a different name, or if the titles are often used interchangeably, you can list both job titles at the start of your resume.
Graphic design managers have to juggle a lot of different roles. As well as the usual design skills, you’ll need an ability to manage a team, develop strategies, work collaboratively with other departments, and evaluate the performance of other employees. To land the role, make sure your resume reflects soft skills like leadership and conflict management on top of your graphic design experience.
When it comes to listing your achievement in bullet points, the more specific you can be, the better. If you’ve led a team, mention how many people were on it. Explain exactly how many projects you’ve created, what type of graphic design work you’ve done, and the concrete impact that had on your company’s success.
To lead a team, you’ll need a lot of soft skills as well as hard skills. The best way to emphasize these is through your accomplishments. Mentioning the size of the teams you’ve worked with shows your leadership and teamwork skills, while creating social media strategies, marketing content, or publications is a great way to highlight communication skills.
Freelance graphic designers work on the same kinds of projects as any other graphic designer, but as self-employed contractors. If you’re looking to pick up more freelance work, or to transition from freelance to regular employment, you’ll need a resume that emphasizes your ability to take initiative, work to a deadline, and understand your clients’ needs.
If you’ve been freelancing for a while, it might make sense to structure your work experience section according to different projects rather than clients. This lets you highlight your most impressive accomplishments in a way that is easy to follow and is clear about your specific role and achievements.
Not all employers fully understand the nature of freelance work, so the more specific you can be about your accomplishments, the better. Listing the number of projects, designs, and proposals you completed makes it clear how you were spending your time and helps emphasize soft skills like time management and work ethic.
The role of a creative designer can be broader than just graphic design. Creative designers need an excellent understanding of branding, marketing, and social media as well as proficiency with graphic design software. To land a role as a creative graphic designer, make sure your resume highlights your understanding of brand awareness and experience guiding products through the entire creative process.
Tailoring your resume to the exact job you’re applying for doesn’t have to take a lot of time or effort. Including job-specific keywords in your resume title and skills section are two of the easiest ways to target your resume. Make sure you’re including keywords like product design, social media marketing, and specific graphic design programs that ATS are likely to scan for.
Including a resume summary is a great way of tailoring your resume and providing additional information about your background and accomplishments. They’re especially useful for career changers or people without a lot of experience in graphic design, but can be used to great effect to highlight your particular strengths and contextualize the achievements in your bullet points.
An electrical design engineer conducts research and creates designs for new electrical systems. They also develop and test these systems, making any necessary changes as they go. You’ll need a strong knowledge of electrical theory and design software for this role, so your resume should highlight your technical skills as well as your educational background.
To become an electrical design engineer, you’ll need to be fluent in computing languages such as MATLAB, and you should also be familiar with design tools like CAD software. Having the right technical skills for the job is essential, so make sure to list your computing and software proficiencies in a skills section on your resume.
While this candidate has an impressive work history within electrical design, it’s worth noting that he or she holds a Bachelor’s degree in Engineering along with a Master’s degree in Electrical Design. Your educational background becomes less important than work experience as you advance in your career, but if you have advanced degrees within a relevant field, don’t skip mentioning them on your resume.
education section on your resume especially if it’s relevant - Electrical Design Engineer Resume"/>
The following word cloud highlights the most popular keywords that appear on Graphic Design job descriptions. The bigger the word, the more frequently it shows up on employer's job postings. If you have experience with these keywords, include them on your resume.
Here are some of the most popular skills we see on Graphic Design resumes:
If you are writing a Marketing Graphic Designer resume, try to emphasize skills like Graphic Design, Logo Design, Adobe Illustrator, Adobe InDesign, Adobe Creative Suite, Graphics, Typography and Adobe Photoshop.
Similarly, if you are writing a Graphic Design Coordinator resume, emphasize skills like Illustration, Branding & Identity and Photography.
While the keywords above are a good indication of what skills you need on your resume, you should try to find additional keywords that are specific to the job. To do this, use the free Targeted Resume tool. It analyzes the job you are applying to and finds the most important keywords you need on your resume.
It is personalized to your resume, and is the best way to ensure your resume will pass the automated resume filters.
Thank you for the checklist! I realized I was making so many mistakes on my resume that I've now fixed. I'm much more confident in my resume now.
