When I was first met with the brief, I was under the impression we had the bare minimum to do for this unit (creative cv, business cards and powerpoint). But it was not until the last minute I had been made aware that we had to have a whole file documenting our findings to submit. I feel like I have been very sheepish about many aspects of this file, often looking around to see what other people were doing before taking my own initiative and being my own person.
Due to a lack of time and pressure to get the job done, I went ahead and printed pdf's of web pages as part of my research in to local and national companies, I feel like this shows very obviously my press for time and an 'easy way out' of getting it finished and out the way.
My individual learning plan was absolutely naff, extremely limited and last minute, showing next to no effort put in. With zero introduction or conclusion it was hard to even tell that it was a learning plan other than the title of the page which I can say I am humiliated to have handed in.
My business cards are alright and are fit for purpose but are designed with minimal effort and bad design choices, for example, the box around 'illustrator' was a rushed and last minute bad decision that I regretted as soon as they were printed.
My cover letter is jam-packed with a whole load of unnecessary waffle that would probably bore the eyes off of any future employers. Its incredibly long-winded and I feel as though there is a lot I could have done to summarise myself.
And I save the best til last, my CV. For the majority of this unit, planning and constructing my creative CV was the fun side of this. Because I've had experience in the past with creative CV's I made note of how the pros and cons of my last one and made it quite clear on this one exactly how I wanted it. When comparing my old one to my new one I would hardly believe that is what I was able to get away with in the past. When making my CV I aimed to make it as visual as possible whilst still retaining important information. I think the main changes I would have liked to make was possibly adding a little more eye-catching colours instead of the boring black and white but I stuck with my goth themes.
In conclusion to the file in whole, I definitely feel like there’s room for improvements, especially in regards to my research, skills analysis and individual learning plan. I will be looking to find solutions to misunderstandings like this in the future with a lot more urgency and detail. I hope to prove myself a lot smarter about issues like this in future and have to confidence to discuss them with my tutor.
SWOT
Strengths:
- Very informative and professional CV
- Research detailing several companies listed
- Research in to competitions and live briefs
- Very informative and colourful business cards
- In-depth cover letter
Weaknesses:
- Lack of understanding the tasks of the brief
- Very poor time management to get tasks done
- Very effortless write-ups
- Very poor and last minute decision making
- Lack of urgency to get the job done
Opportunities:
- Catch ups with tutor to elaborate on misunderstandings
- Realistic timeplan
- Spending an hour doing coursework a day
- Look for second opinions before making big decisions
- Look up motivational speakers for inspiration to do coursework
Threats:
- Not making an effort to overcome issues
- Making an unrealistic and hard to follow timeplan
- Letting distractions get in the way of work
- Refusing to understand and looking for the easy way out
- Generally running from fears instead of facing them