The CV Review Roundup - Most Common CV Fixables from Develop Brighton

Over the course of this week at Develop Brighton, it's been an absolute pleasure to speak to artists, animators, marketeers and more about how to streamline their CV's and make their portfolios pop that little bit more brightly. These sessions were both enlightening from a personal level but also allowed me to notice certain patterns and trends that are popping up on resumes that don't seem to land interviews.

After collating the notes from each session, it made sense to highlight a few potential fixable aspects on your CV right now that could give you that 5% advantage moving forward.

Education at the Top of the CV

Education is of course important, but in 2025 studios want to be wowed very quickly by your professional experience. Therefore, the remedy for keeping your potential employers engaged is to focus on your immediate selling points. This can be achieved by a short personal statement and then your working history. We would recommend the following:

1. Name
2. Contact Info
3. Personal Statement
4. Working Experience
5. Education & Other Achievements

Lack of Detail

What studios require in 2025 is specificity. They want to know what you did, how you did it and what the result was. A common theme we found from reviewing CV's at Develop was that people didn't go into too much detail about their processes or results.

When writing bullet points for your specific experiences in each studio, always remember AMA - Action, Method, Achievement. Using this method will keep your CV writing clean and on topic. Tell us what you did, how you did it, and what impact it had on the project. 

Lack of Clear Direction

It's human nature to want to be involved in as many different avenues as possible but given the technical quality bar now needed in games, studios want to see that you are a specialist in a particular field, rather than someone can dabble in multiple areas.

Making sure your CV is clearly formatted and driven towards one specific area can make such a difference. Focussing your previous experience descriptions to lean into the avenue and direction you are now pursuing can give you the edge over less specifically focussed candidates.

Say you are an artist that works across Social Media clips, Motion Graphics, 3D Art, Graphic Design & Illustration, angling yourself as a Creative Marketing Artist can open up a lot of new avenues, and also keep your portfolio relevant and succinct.

Hopefully these quick tips can help improve your CV on your ongoing job hunt, and please do check out the rest of our free CV & Portfolio resources across the website.