Some firms have specific instructions about applying with them, check out their sites first. Also, its good to get someones email instead of sending to the info or contact email.

One thing I did was send work to firms that were hiring for any position. Its a sign that they need people and you may have better chances to get an interview. I sent my stuff out to over 30 firms in LA, most unsolicited, got about 10 interviews and 6 offers.

Also, I got responses quicker by sending follow up emails about a week later. Some were just saying they weren't hiring, some were for interviews. I think the follow up email is crucial.

Good luck

archca is right
the follow up email and/ or phone call is crucial

send out as many resumes as you can
portfolios can be more selective, but its probably a good idea to include a cd with selected works

thats a more economical way to allow them to see some of your work, without having to pay for color prints to send to a ton of firms

i would send out to as many as possible, regardless of whether they have a job posting
start a master list of every firm you would like to work for, maybe its like 30-40 firms or more even

One thing I have learned from job searching is to keep a list (word file) of all the firms you have applied to. Under each firm name list the date you applied and any correspondence you have had with that firm. This helps you keep track of when it is appropriate to follow up, who to follow up with, contact info, etc.

When you are applying to 30-40+ firms, it can be hard to keep tabs on them all.

Good luck.

call the office
ask them who you should address your resume to
send resume with a cover letter that shows that you have researched what the firm does. highlight your skills also highlight these skills on resume
on cover letter tell them that you will be contacting them in two weeks to discuss the opportunity of joining their dynamic design firm.
send resume and cover letter.

the most effective method for me was to send an email with an abridged portfolio .pdf attached (under 1MB and not more than 5 pages). i found that they either responded with an 'i like it come in for an interview' or a 'we're not hiring at this time' email response within 24 hours. this was after a sent a small teaser portfolio to various firms and got few responses. bottom line, email is the way to go, and make sure it goes to the person hiring and/or filing applications and not some principal you found on the website. i have found they don't like to be bothered by unsolicited emails and will probably not respond.

^^^^ yes yes yes, our website states specifically who to send your resume and sample materials to......

our principle will actually reply to applications that are sent with a simple "did not follow directions"

if you send it to the principle, at least in our firm no matter how good your shit is you will not get a job or even the time of day

the best way to get a job, is to show up on their doorstep. Bring your stuff and if you don't get a talk, write down the names of HR etc Like Vado said.

becoma a barrista at the starbucks nearest to the firm you want to work for. find out who they are and give them vente's instead of grandes and you're in like flint.

In like Flynn -

Do companies really like the sample work now? 4-5 years ago it was like a specific no to include portfolio work with your resume.

Maybe Im getting old.

i always thought if you were emailing your resume, attach a 3-4 page sampler of your portfolio

if you are mailing your resume, include a cd of the sampler


i guess it helps to show any rendering capabilities these days when you are going for an entry level position especially

i agree - couldnt hurt - but I remember being told by large firms around 2000 they hated that - right in the trash. I thought thats dumb - why wouldnt you want to see their work?

Anyways - times change - soon they'll just start rendering from home

are you referring to a hard copy? i can see a hard copy of even a sample of a portfolio being annoying for large firms that get hundreds of resumes

because there will always be that eager grad or two or 50 who thinks their portfolio is gold and they would send out full portfolios to everywhere they apply to

I have been debating this very issue. If a firm doesnt specifically ask for it, do I send it anyway? I figure if it is through email, then it's no skin off their back and they can delete it. I have cut it down to about 5 work samples in a PDF that come out to be around 600KB. If I were hiring I would want to see work samples.

If it's a big firm that gets tons of portfolios I bet they take one look and toss them. I would be even better if they broke them down and used them as scrap sketch paper.

Though Im bored outta my mind right now, I got this job by sending it out to an unsolicited firm, just luck of the draw I guess...sorry this is really late too

so the moral of the story is:

some firms want an email, others respond only to hardcopy

some firms want work samples right away, others just a resume

some want it sent to HR, others to the principles

some will gladly accept even if they don't have a job listing posted,
others will just ignore it

some firms just want you for your cad, detailing, modeling, and rendering skills, others want you for your intelligence and design potential

so... basically you can't know. you just have to guess and hope they don't get pissed.

you are right NB, you cant know exactly what they want

but you wont piss anyone off if you do things in a professional/respectable manner

its not too complicated to figure out what a firm wants

if you are looking for a job, you cant just send out the same thing to every single firm out there
you have to do a little work on your own to find out what they want


if you have a portfolio that is an odd size, not every firm will jump for joy to get it, and why should they?
a simple call to their office will let you know what they want


its not unreasonable to expect someone looking for work to call each firm he wants to apply to

vindingo
5 work samples at that size attachment is completely reasonable
thats a good thing to have done

an easy way to annoy someone is to clog their email with an 8mb attachment of your work

once you begin working, you will quickly realize how getting a ton of emails like that with enormous attachments is kind of annoying, when you can take the time like vindingo and condense it to a reasonable size

then at the actual interview or with your mailed in resume, you can include either a hard copy or a cd of your beautiful portolio

since so much time is spent on it, it definitely needs to be shown
but in the right way

a blast email to 25 firms with a huge portfolio attached isnt professional

When I was the resume receiver/screener in a large firm I had my email set to skip anything larger than 1.5 MB. If I didn't I'd end up constantly waiting around for things to download. Remember, this isn't just your download. A job advertisement in a large or well-known firm can result in hundreds of applications...

It's fine to send a reasonably-sized .pdf of work samples.
But some advice about that: If you get an interview, don't assume that the people interviewing you are the same people who saw your initial materials (or for that matter that anybody really looked at them more than cursorily yet). Make sure to bring copies of your resume, and of the work you emailed, and don't start any sentences with "As you probably remember from the work I sent you..."

Sending portfolio material in the mail with your resume isn't necessarily a great idea unless it's been requested. Yes, people do it all the time, but that doesn't mean it's appreciated everywhere. Resumes that come in the mail generally get xeroxed and distributed to various people. Those teaser portfolios don't always copy well - so your resume can get sent around to the hiring people attached to ugly black and white 2nd or 3rd generation copies. Or, the portfolio pages may just be detached and filed or trashed.

Another reason that some firms don't like to receive a lot of materials by mail is that - if the candidate is responding to a published advertisement for a job - then the firm is required by law to keep the candidate's resume and other submitted materials on file for at least a year (it has to do with discrimination laws - they're not supposed to just throw your resume away if you don't make the cut this time, they're supposed to continue to consider you..., etc.). Large firms can receive thousands of applications a year, so each of those little portfolio packets takes up space!
If you're applying unsolicited then there's no requirement for them to keep your materials at all, so it's that much more likely that your mini-portfolio is going in the trash.

all my jobs except the first out of school we got through just blindly sending cv/resume to firms i liked. imo hard copy is way better, why risk a crappy them making a crappy print of it when you spent time making it look 'amazing'.

i did though always email them or call them to find out the name of the person it should be sent to.

and please, i have seen many letters with huge mistakes due to not checking your alterations to your 'standard letter'. today i saw one saying that the person is interesting in working in our oslo office...err were based in amsterdam. not a good first impression. guess the previous letter had been sent to snohetta.

ha, we get that shizznit too, p2an, and we're not even a top tier NW office...

Wow, all this stress about what to send just underscores the fact that it's still a buyer's market for talent out there. Good luck to y'all looking, it's a full time gig just sending this stuff out.