Creative Strategist Resume Example

After reading this article, you'll feel confident creating a creative strategist resume that effectively showcases your relevant skills and experience. You'll learn how to show employers you've got the relevant qualities, skills and experience for the job, all presented in a format that employers prefer to see. The article also includes tips for formatting your resume according to your experience and strengths. Continue reading to find the best creative strategist resume tips from careers experts at Jobseeker.

Main sections of a creative strategist resume

The key sections to include in a creative strategist resume are similar to those for any role or profession. If you're lacking relevant work experience, you might choose to add sections that showcase your skill set earlier than in a traditional resume layout. These sections might include projects, education, hobbies and interests, skills and other optional sections.

Your resume layout and structure may differ depending on your experience levels, but make sure your resume includes the following:

Header and Personal Information

A creative strategist resume header contains your name and contact information. Add your first and last name, your phone number and your email address. Include your address or location, but avoid adding any other personal information. If you have a LinkedIn profile, you can add the URL to your header so the hiring manager can get a better understanding of your work history and experience. Be aware of the amount of space your resume header takes up. You don't want your contact details to take space away from the main content of your resume, so keep this section as brief as possible.

Use an email address that's professional and appropriate for professional communication. Typically this would be an email address based on your first and last name, or your initials. If necessary, you could include your profession or another unique identifier. Avoid using old email addresses that could be considered unprofessional or inappropriate. Additionally, always check your contact details before sending your resume to ensure they're up-to-date.

Resume Summary

Following your resume header, write a resume summary to introduce yourself and showcase some of your key skills and achievements. Alternative names for this section are 'resume objective' and 'personal profile'. While a resume summary focuses on your career experience, a resume objective covers your ambitions and career plans. However, make sure you keep your resume summary short and snappy, and focused on the skills and experience listed in the job description.

Alternatively, use this summary to introduce your personal career ambitions and explain why creative strategist roles are a good fit for you at this stage of your career.

A strong resume summary focuses on two or three key skills and achievements that showcase your suitability for creative strategist roles in a clear, quantifiable way. It also gives an insight into your personal qualities, to help the reader understand why you're a suitable candidate. You can see some positive examples of a resume summary for creative strategist jobs below.

On the other hand, an unsuccessful resume summary is one that mentions irrelevant skills, qualities and achievements and fails to differentiate you from other candidates. The visual above includes some examples of what not to do with your creative strategist resume summary

Skills

The skills section is one of the main ways to show employers you've got the skills required for creative strategist roles. Whether your skills include SEO/SEM strategies, problem-solving ability or any other useful skills for the role, you'll want to list them here. Once more, review the job description and pick out any key creative strategist skills listed that match yours. Focus on these skills and any other key transferable skills that make you a strong candidate for the job.

How to list hard skills on your creative strategist resume

Hard skills are the key technical skills required for creative strategist positions. They include specific industry knowledge and abilities that you could learn on the job, or through a specialist qualification. Furthermore, it's important to show these skills in a creative strategist resume as they provide a strong indication of your experience in the sector. Include around four or five key hard skills that are listed in the job description. These skills will help to convince the hiring manager that you're a good fit for the position.

You'll make more impact with your resume hard skills list if you focus on technical skills that reflect your unique expertise and specialism, and that match the key requirements in the job description. See the graphic below for some tips on hard skills for a creative strategist resume.

Showcasing your best soft skills

Soft skills are the personal skills and qualities that make you a good fit for the job. They include transferable skills and strengths that help you settle into the role, adapt to new challenges and build effective working relationships. Indeed, as the nature of work changes, soft skills are growing in importance, so make sure you include them in your resume. Aim to include approximately five soft skills that reflect the skills listed in the job description.

A strong soft skills section should play to your strengths, listing skills that reflect your personal qualities while also reflecting the skills listed in the job description. For some examples of good soft skills for a creative strategist resume, see below.

Educational Achievements

In this section list any educational qualifications or degrees that are relevant to creative strategist roles.

A creative strategist role tends to require candidates to have a university or college degree, so make sure you list yours in your resume. A Bachelor of Arts in Marketing and Communications degree or similar is the most suitable for this job, but you could also include any other relevant qualifications that show your graphic design software or social media marketing.

Enter the name and level of the qualification, the institution you studied at, its location and your dates of study or graduation. Include bullet points to show any specialist modules you studied, awards or exceptional grades and achievements that can set you apart from other candidates. These will all contribute to creating a positive impression on employers.

Membership or leadership of any societies, clubs or causes while studying can also make a positive impression on hiring managers. Consider adding these to your education section for more insight into how you used your time as a student.

Certifications and Training

Under this section, list any relevant certifications or licenses that are relevant to creative strategist jobs. These might be licenses that show you're qualified to operate certain equipment, or certifications that give you the edge over candidates with otherwise similar career history. Therefore, make sure you list the dates of your certifications and licenses so employers can see they're up-to-date and valid.

See below for some suggestions of relevant certifications for a creative strategist resume:

Work Experience

Your resume work experience section is the chance to show your relevant previous jobs and career achievements as a creative strategist. For each entry, list the job title, the name of the employer, its location and the dates you worked there. Add each job in reverse-chronological order, starting with your current or most recent role.

Also include some bullet points for each job mentioned, showcasing your achievements so the employer can see the impact you made on the company. Pay attention to the job description and make sure each point is relevant to creative strategist roles.

A good resume work experience section includes your most relevant previous jobs and highlights your key achievements in each role. To make the best possible impression on hiring managers, make sure each entry in your work experience section references skills and experience listed in the job description, and shows how you added value to each role with quantifiable evidence and outcomes. See the examples below for some ideas of what a great resume work experience looks like.

Above, you can see a weaker example of a resume work experience section to best avoid. A poor resume work experience section would typically use vague descriptions of activities in previous jobs, while focusing too much on responsibilities rather than achievements. Failing to focus on the skills and experience that match the job description is likely to harm your chances of success.

Optional Sections

As well as the main sections of a creative strategist resume, optional sections can help you prove your credentials to employers. Add any of the sections below that help you showcase your key skills and experience.

Hobbies and Interests

Hobbies and interests can be a useful way of showing your skills and experience beyond your work and education. Your hobbies and interests are useful for a creative strategist resume if you want to show a different side to your personality, or to stand out among other candidates. They can also be valuable if you're a junior candidate without much relevant work experience. Think about adding hobbies and interests to your resume if they add some insight into your personality that you can't express elsewhere in your application.

Voluntary Work

Listing volunteer work is another useful way to prove your relevant experience for creative strategist roles. List your volunteer job title, the organization you volunteered for, its location and the dates of your involvement, alongside a brief explanation of your responsibilities in the role.

References

Standard creative strategist resumes don't tend to include references, but you might find them requested occasionally. Check the job advert to see if you'll need to add references to your resume. Before adding any referees to your resume, ask them for their assistance and prepare them for contact by the employer.

Best action words for your creative strategist resume

Add strong verbs to your work experience section to show the hiring manager the impact you made in your previous roles. The suggested action verbs below will help the reader to understand your key qualities and the impact you made on the organization.

Jobseeker's resume templates were created by careers experts to help you produce a professional resume in minutes. You can also find cover letter templates to complete an eye-catching job application that gets you noticed.

Sample resume for creative strategist positions

Now that you know everything that needs to go into your creative strategist resume, let's review an example resume that you can use as a guide when creating your own:

Tips on creating an ATS-optimized resume

Applicant tracking systems (ATS) help recruiters and employers to manage their hiring process. They can handle some of the more time-consuming and resource-intensive jobs, such as initial screening of resumes. Employers often receive hundreds of applications per vacancy, and ATS software can quickly and accurately scan and rank resumes based on their likely suitability for any role. When drafting your creative strategist resume, there are a few guidelines to follow to give you the best chance of passing the ATS screening stage and progressing with your application.

Here are a few quick tips for creating an ATS-friendly resume:

• Choose a resume structure that matches the traditional, reverse-chronological layout or alternatively, the functional resume structure. This should make your resume more readable for ATS applications.
• Add keywords throughout your resume that help ATS software match your application to the job description. A higher match means your application is more likely to proceed to be reviewed by human eyes.
• Using clear, simple headings makes it easier for an ATS application to scan your resume, as it can easily identify what's in each section of your document.
• Adopt a resume design that uses clear, professional design principles and leaves white space for your content to breathe. Use the most readable fonts and incorporate subtle design elements to enhance the readability of your document.
• Make sure your resume is as concise as possible, so ATS applications can easily scan and identify the required details.

Key takeaways for your creative strategist resume

If you want to catch the eye of employers and recruiters, you need a professional resume that showcases your best skills and career achievements. Choose the most suitable resume format for your experience levels, and focus on tailoring your resume based on the requirements listed in the job description.

Use Jobseeker's resume templates, other tools and resources to create an application that impresses employers. Sign up today to access a wealth of valuable resume and cover letter resources. Whether you're a junior or senior candidate, a professional cover letter can help to grab the attention of the employer. Jobseeker's cover letter examples were created by careers experts to provide useful tips and ideas for your cover letter.

Sources:

(1) Writing a Resume, California Department of Human Resources: https://www.calhr.ca.gov/employees/Pages/resume-tips.aspx

(2) Resumes, Cover Letters and Job Applications, New York State Department of Labor: https://dol.ny.gov/resumes-cover-letters-and-job-applications