Career

Cover Letter Writing Resources: View our new page of best cover-letter writing tips
Portfolio Preparation Keynote
View Matt Pendergraff’s presentation with advice on portfolio preparation and presentation.

Occupational Outlook Information

Occupational Outlook Handbook, U.S. Department of Labor: “For hundreds of different types of jobs, the Occupational Outlook Handbook tells you the training and education needed, earnings expected, job prospects, what workers do on the job, working conditions”

Outlook for Specific Occupations, from the Occupational Outlook Handbook

General Job Search Resources

Craig’sList.org: Contains local classifieds and forums for more than 550 cities in over 50 countries worldwide – community moderated, and largely free. Craig’s List receives more than two million new job listings a month.
Krop.com: Shows what jobs are available in a variety of different areas around the country
Monster.com: “the leading global online careers property that has changed the way people look for jobs; the way employers look for people; and the way companies connect with their target audience.”

Advertising/Marketing Job Search Resources

AdvertisingCrossing.com: Provides an advertising job search data base for all over the U.S., and provides updates on how the advertising world is changing daily with new tips, new job cuts, new promotional campaigns, etc.
Bnet.com: Updates you on the latest goings-on related to your job and the best tips for advancing your career
MarketingJobs.com: Specifically for marketing, this site allows you to post your resume and view both the salary and job requirements for specific jobs
TeamWorkOnline.com: Offers a wide variety of jobs in the sports world and is always updating the site with new job opportunities

Audio Engineer Job Search Resources

AES.org: This is a place to connect with other engineers
RecordingConnection.com: This site offers comparisons of the leading schools in audio production, video lessons on recording techniques, and lists of different career choices

Archivist, Curator, and Museum Tech Job Search Resources

Archvists.org: A good website for job positions, and learning about upcoming seminars

Graphic Design Job Search Resources

AllGraphicDesign.com: A graphic design community website with freelance and contract graphic design postings, freelance billing tools, Photoshop and Flash tutorials, and many other resources for a career in graphic design
AuthenticJobs.com: Lists full time and freelance job opportunities for designers and developers.
Coroflot.com: Create an online portfolio, review their design job board, and take advantage of their promotional and networking tools
GraphicDesignCommunity.com: This site is like a bulletin board for designers, and you can post an article or a job listing on the front page
WebDesignPlaza.com: This is a place where someone looking to FIND a designer would go and look. So, you could essentially post your resume and a business could find you.

Journalism, Media, and Public Relations Job Search Resources

ASNE Newspaper Job Resources: The American Society of Newspaper Editors’ page of online resources for finding newspaper journalism jobs
Journalism.org: Links to some of the best online career resources for journalists
JournalismCrossing.com: The only journalism job-opening research institution in the world whose mission is to track down every journalism job opening through research
JournalismJobs.com: “founded in 1998 by a former copy editor and writer with The Washington Post, JournalismJobs.com is the largest and most-visited resource for journalism jobs”
MediaBistro.com: “career and community for media professionals”
MediaJobs.net: This site is for anyone wanting to work in media, and it specifically targets people who want to work in marketing, advertising, and public relations
MediaJobMarket.com: Provides job searches, a place to post resumes, and job tips for interviews, business dress, and more
Poynter.org: Has a variety of articles on journalism, and also lists advertising and journalism jobs
PRSA.org: A job search site for public relations jobs
WorkInSports.com: Posts numerous jobs and separates them into categories and by region
WritersDigest.com: Offers writing advice, tips on how to get published, breaking industry news, and other useful information for writers

Librarian Job Search Resources

ALA.org: A website for library programs and learning about schools that are ALA certified—this is usually required by employers
Young Adult Library Services Association: A good site for learning about youth services and for taking classes based on youth services

Photography Job Search Resources

PPA.com: Allows you to learn about other competitors in your area, what you need to run a good studio, watch tutorials and webinars, etc.
Profotos.com: Allows you to find other great photographers, find photography schools and other forms of education, and allows you to build an online gallery of your pictures

Graphic Design Skills Resources

Abduzeedo.com: A blog written by a number of authors in design professions that provides posts ranging from tutorials to inspiration to interviews with designers
ArtBistro.com: A vibrant community of artists and designers that want to share their work and help each other get ahead
Before and After Magazine: Before & After is dedicated to making graphic design understandable, useful and even fun for everyone
BrushKing.eu: Has a large collection of free photoshop brushes
CreativePublic.com: Gives graphic designers resources for starting their own businesses or expanding into freelance roles
Digg.com: Provides resources for designers
Digital-Web.com: A non-profit publication created by a world-wide network of volunteers dedicated to producing quality educational and informative material free-of-charge, to foster the development of the web for the benefit of all
DirectoryDesigner.am: Created by designers for designers, this site is like a phone book for designers
Entheos Web: Provides tutorials for many of the web related applications such as fireworks, dreamweaver, and flash
Flashden.net: This site provides add-ons for Adobe Flash applications, and offers purchasable and free Flash content that can be added to a current project. The site also offers helpful information and communication for utilizing the items.
ForWebDesigners.com: A clean, well-organized website that shows lists for all kinds of resources
Litmusapp.com: Shows you exactly how your designs look on every platform, across every popular web browser
OSWD.org: A place for users to upload and share their web design templates and ideas
Panic.com: Coda is available for download on this site. Coda adds all the operations for web development into one program: a beautiful Mac application that combines a powerful text editor, Subversion, CSS, file transfer and terminal all in a single window. The file transfer is done by the Coda makers’ excellent FTP-application Transmit.
Photoshop.Alltop.com: Provides a plethora of incredible links for designers
PhotoshopLady.com: Provides a large selection of Photoshop tutorials
PSDtuts.com: Excellent photoshop tutorials
SmashingMagazine.com: A blog written with all types of designers in mind, it provides posts on a wide variety of subjects, from graphic design to web design, and also offers a list of tutorials
VectorTuts.com: Provides tutorials for Illustrator users
Webdesign.Alltop.com: Provides excellent links to various resources from all corners of the internet
WebDesignerDepot.com: An exciting new platform designed to explore different web and graphic design techniques, great examples and best practices
WebDesignFromScratch.com: A complete guide to designing web sites that work

Cover Letter and Resume Tips

Accent-Resume-Writing.com: This article discusses when a cover letter should be used, how simple to make it, and what exactly needs to be said.
CareerPlanning.About.com: This offers basic categories of types of resumes, and then answers basic questions like, “how long is too long?” As with most about.com sections, this one is pretty extensive, with many links.
CivilEngineeringJobs.com: Here is a page on how to write a resume. The tips found here will blow away all other tips!
eHow.com: eHow.com gives tips on things to include and not include on your resume. It answers some lingering questions that you might have when creating your resume.
eResumes.com: Free Sample Resumes & Resume Writing Tips: This page lists small rules of thumb that one should keep in mind when making a resume (paper color, length of resume, etc.).
e Resumes.com: Resume Writing Services & Resume Samples: A step by step guide to getting the most useful information in your resume.
EzineArticles.com: This article address all aspects of a cover letter: the heading, greeting, and the paragraphs that an applicant will use to persuade a potential employer to give him or her an interview. The article is somewhat short, but the links and related articles at the bottom to also have lots of useful information.
HRGuide.Applezoom.com: This site describes how to make an attractive resume
JobSearch.About.Com: Not only does this website provide a few samples to give you a jump start on a good cover, but it gives you advice along the way to help you assemble your own.
Journalism.UMD.edu: This page was built by a journalism college to help grads find jobs. It includes advice on exactly what to include to land a journalism job. Don’t miss the links to the two sample resumes at the bottom of the page.
Learn4Good.com: This site goes over step by step of what you should do and what is looked for in a resume.
LETU.edu: Career Service at LeTourneau University is dedicated to the advancement of students and graduates even beyond college and education. The organizations goal is to guide students and alumni into rewarding careers, providing them with the tools to enter and succeed in the work force. At the same time, we enjoy sharing our honest, hard-working and creative graduates with companies.
OfficeArrow.com: This website gives you detailed do’s and don’ts of writing a cover letter, and then goes into detail about the heading, paragraphs, and closing, and tells you what to do if you want to e-mail your cover letter.
PrivateSchool.About.com: This site provides five simple rules or steps on how to write an effective cover letter. One of the things it mentions is making it flawless: any error will imply that you don’t care.
ResumeBear.com: Resume Bear is a site that helps people create and send out resumes and it has a blog in which there are several articles like this one. This one which gives about a paragraph’s worth of explanation for each point which appear common sense but can easily be forgotten or ignored in efforts to impress possible employers. On the right sidebar of the blog are a list of related articles with all very good tips to resume writing and job hunting.
Resume-Resource.com: This site offers writing advice and templates for cover letters and resumes. It also has links to lots of other articles on the web to help you write the best cover letter or resume you can.
RockportInstitute.com: This website discusses what a resume can do to make a potential employee stand out among other applicants.
WCU.edu: This gives an example cover letter and a few important points on what makes an excellent cover letter.
Writing-Resumes.Suite.101.com>: This article gives the basic purpose of a cover letter, what to put, and how to put it together. It’s not very long, but it’s a good place to start.
Xemion.com: This a great article by an experienced designer who has to sift through resumès when he hires. Therefore, he is giving advice from personal experience of dealing with hundreds of them.

Portfolio Tips

ADigitalDreamer.com: A Digital Dreamer, which offers resources and connections for hundreds of graphic design and related careers, presents this article for reasons why you need a portfolio, and instruction in portfolios, even print portfolios.
AllArtSchools.com: This discusses the need to keep things simple, and the need to get an expert opinion on your work so that it’s not so biased.
AssociatedContent.com: This is short, but it offers good advice on the nuts and bolts of journalism portfolios.
Communications.COS.UCF.edu: This gives advice on what to include in a journalism portfolio and what it should look like.
CreativePublic.com: CreativePublic.com gives steps for you to follow when creating your first online portfolio.
DavidAirey.com: In this short post, Airey features common portfolio mistakes, and mentions some excellent design resources.
DPhotoJournal.com: John S. from Share Online Photography School gives the reader 3 simple steps on how to build a great photography portfolio.
FreelanceSwitch.com: Boosting Your Designer Profile: This is a long list of websites where creative people can put up a portfolio.
FreelanceSwitch.com: Building a Killer Online Portfolio: Freelance Switch is an easy to follow site with all kinds of resources for freelance web/graphic/writing professionals. They order processes with easy steps, such as the article on online portfolios.
FreelanceWriting.Suite.101.com: This article explains how to build a portfolio, and why you should do it.
OutlawDesignBlog.com: This site contains tips for creating a great portfolio.
Rabaino.com: This is a blog that goes over an online portfolio. She discusses how important CSS is, and provides links to sites that will help with CSS and other parts of your portfolio.
SelfEmployment.com: This article is related to building an online portfolio. It explains why you should build a portfolio, as well as how.
SmashingMagazine.com: Creating a Successful Online Portfolio: This article reviews the 5 pitfalls that commonly plague portfolio design. It also covers Portfolio Tips that if carefully considered and well executed will deliver quality results for your portfolio.
StepInsideDesign.com: This website helps you to create a broad portfolio for all of your graphic design work, and it also helps you to create custom portfolios to attract very specific clients, or specific groups of clients.
Veen.com: Jeffrey Veen gives five key points to creating an outstanding online portolio, and explains his reasons.
YouTheDesigner.com: This site gives simple, easy, and to the point steps on how to create a portfolio, and tips that should be considered and followed when creating one.

Online Portfolio Examples

AlexanderGelfand.com: This is a great example of an online portfolio: simple and clean.
AlphaOmegaDigital.com: Michael Egger’s online portfolio is nice and clean cut with great examples of his work, including: advertising campaigns, brand marketing campaigns, and web development campaigns. All of these samples include graphics and the step by step process he went through to get the outcome of his campaign.
BrettNyquist.com: Brett Nyquist is a freelance web designer. His on-line portfolio of recent work and projects provides exceptional views of his professional work.
CanSportsWriting.com: Here is an example of a good sports writing portfolio. His home page is effective, and you get the idea pretty quickly that he is a competent and accomplished soccer writer. His portfolio has several of his best examples of articles in pdf format that shows them in their original context.
CoryWilkins.ca: This is a great example of a journalism porfolio for students. It is laid out like a newspaper, and it includes blogs and archived versions of Cory’s articles.
Digital-Web.com: David Loop has an ultra simple portfolio that no-one could go wrong with. The work is presented in large thumbnails and requires nothing more than scrolling down the page to view it all.
FuriousPhotographers.com: Furious Photography is a photography company in LA, that shoots weddings and engagement photos. Their style is very modern. However, if you don’t want that look, they can accommodate whichever style you want with their five photographers on staff. Their website has a brief description of each photographer and their styles, so their customers can pick their photographers based on which style they want.
JasonReedWebDesign.com: This site is very compact, and you can view some of Jason Reed’s work. It’s easy to find your way around the site.
TheJoelStein.com: A page by Joel Stein, a writer for TIME and other publications.
KoryPence.com: This guy actually does a lot of the design work for the Wesleyan church. He is a very talented designer. His portfolio is simple and clean, but eye catching. Logos seem to be the strong suit in this portfolio, but he does a good job of displaying all types of graphic design work.
LaurenHunter.net: In her portfolio, she goes over what you should or shouldn’t do, and shows off some of her work.
LonzoDesigns.com: This portfolio provides a multitude of designs for the viewer to browse through. However, the work is not displayed in precise detail, but in condensed graphics.
MariusRoosendaal.com: Marius Roosendaal has many works from graphic logo design to website design. His portfolio is not only attractive it is fun to navigate through.
Mark-Till-Online: This guy does freelance web design, as well as graphic/Photoshop work.
MatthewVRobinson.com: This guy has some serous flash under his belt, and that alone communicates expertise. The site is easily navigated, but it is hard to tell if you are clicking on a picture, web design, or audio clip. It is a bit hard to decide if he is more of a graphic designer, web designer, or even musician, but obviously he is well rounded.
MethodCity.com: An example of a marketing portfolio.
RenaCugelman.com: This lady does graphic and web design. She has images of her work, and a news section down at the bottom showing her latest work.
RobertDannPhotography.co.uk: Robert Dann conveys a unique personality in his portfolio. From the way you scroll through photos to the type that he uses, its clear that this photographer is unique and ultra creative.
TanyaMerone.com: She does practically everything. She mentions where her portfolio has been featured and has some other fun things she calls “goodies.”
TurnstyleStudio.com: An online portfolio example.
SmashingMagazine.com: 50 Portfolio Designs: In this showcase, you’ll find a variety of beautiful, unique and highly creative portfolio designs. The aim here is to stimulate your creativity and inspire you to create your own portfolio or re-think your existing one.