Keen to get my foot in the door

http://rheajoconnor.extendr.com/

I've been following Tim Brunelle's Future of Advertising class at MCAD. He's been great at getting his course information up onto his blog, Useful Lunacy. I didn't get a chance to meet Tim when I was at MCAD, but friends of mine have been in his class and have said good things. It's been interesting to follow the class and to learn along with them.

I was going through the class sessions looking for some of the workfolio sites that the students were using as part of the class and ran across the link to a site called extendr.com. I have been thinking that I would need some sort of online workfolio in order to boost my chances at getting a job in London. Unfortunately, all of my MCAD work is very carefully documented and stored on a memory stick packed away in a basement in Minnesota.

The reason being is that I came to London to study abroad and I only planned on being here for two months. I didn't bring that memory stick, but oh how I wish I had! Most people would like to see work examples and I understand why. I've put off sorting it out because to be honest the thought of recreating three and a half years worth of portfolio projects is the last thing that I want to do.

So when I found extendr.com the other day, I thought that it might be the perfect way to have a presence here in London. I liked that it was simple and straightforward so why not give it a try? It was fun to put my profile together. It also helped me to remember that I have done a lot of stuff and that I have worthwhile experience!

One of the challenges I face being here looking for a job is that no one here has heard of MCAD, let alone the Visualization program. People can look at my CV and see that I've had an internship at Popular Front, but it doesn't mean anything to them. Someone scans my CV and they think "wait a minute! Where are her GCSEs and A Levels? Did she get a first at university or a second?" I've received the feedback that because I am coming from a different educational system and have had internships at places no one has heard of, that I am going to have to work extra hard at getting that information across.

Great, but how do I do that? My CV is already going on 4 pages! I've gotten the advice that I should I write up a one page summary and include thumbnail images. I wasn't too keen on that idea, writing up a one page summary explaining all that I did in four years at college? Yikes! Even if I included the links so they can take a look, they still have to take the time to type in the urls. It seemed to me that there should be a better way and along came extendr!

What I am hoping to get out of my extendr.com profile is that an employer or someone whom I am trying to network with can look at it and quickly get an idea of what my background is. They can have a look at where I've worked, what I've been learning and what I am involved in. It's quick and easy. They don't have to read a bunch of copy and bullet points. Just click if you're interested in something and away you go.

I will keep you all updated on my progress with it. It's also just a great way to keep up a list of all the things you've done.