INDUSTRY STATS
According to the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics, Creative Director positions are at a 11% growth rate, which is faster than average. With that said, there are currently 98,500 jobs in the market right now. The total number of jobs is expected to increase by 10,800 to 109,300 in the period of 2020-30.
What’s more, the median annual wage for the Creative Director jobs was $97,270 in May 2020. The lowest 10% earned less than $54,530, and the highest 10% more than $199,250.
Our conclusion? The Creative Director job market is wide open for candidates.
Top Creative Director sections that make the best resume
- Header
- Professional summary
- Experience (with numbers and results)
- Relevant skills
- Education
- Certifications
How to write a Creative Director resume experience section
Creative Director Resume’s Job Experience Checklist:
- Use 4-6 bullet points per job title;
- Don’t go further than a decade behind when describing your job history, unless you’re applying for an executive position;
- Combine job responsibilities as well as achievements with numbers in results when you describe your past work;
- Start each sentence with a power verb and avoid overused buzzwords;
- Use either C-A-R or S-T-A-R methodology, when describing your experience.
The work experience samples below come from real Creative Director resumes that got people hired at top companies. You can use them as an inspiration to build your own resume:
- Co-ran group responsible for the acquisition and retention creative across all channels for all American Express Cards and OPEN, Time Warner Cable, DHL, Jaguar, and Pfizer (Zoloft e-CRM and Relpax offline CRM)
- Won Best of Show and Best Campaign at CEBA awards for FM Global insurance
- Won Ogilvy 360º Award for DHL relaunch
- Named to O&M/OgilvyOne Joint Operating Board
- Leading the company from a start-up to becoming an online digital advertising leader.
- Securing dozens of leading local and global accounts, including: E-bay, PayPal, Lancôme, Panasonic, Hoodies, CTS, 7 Stars Mall, etc.
- Define corporate and project work and business plans.
- Defining personal and departmental objectives and goals, mentoring and supervising.
- Driving teams to reach ambitious and challenging goals, meet customer’s requirements and drive to satisfaction, loyalty and excellent performance.
- End-to-end project and account management.
- Optimizing budget and content – allocation of media purchase, media deployment – Facebook, Google, Mobile, Landing Pages, YouTube, relevant websites and affiliates.
- Managing international projects – working with global accounts and brands, adapting media strategy to global HQ guidelines.
- Conducting daily meetings, presentations and negotiations with senior level management of leading companies.
- Managing the company’s customer service array, customer satisfaction and retention.
- Producing amazing output and quality on restricted budget.
- Present campaigns and results to Board and C-suite Executives.
- Lead and inspire creativity for team and organization.
- Created the Creative Director role, Creative Service team and lead the organization for branding, campaigns, digital, print, radio and TV.
- Manage creative department, team of 8 (design, development and content strategy teams)
- Lead prospective pitches with clients direct (account expansion and new business). Quote and scope projects in-line with agency revenue targets and profitability
- Responsible for creative direction and approval for all levels of production relating to creative, content marketing and digital marketing campaigns
- Responsible for Builtvisible re-brand - New identity system, branding, website, sales/marketing collaterals and agency messaging
- Commercial forecasting for client and company profitability
- Thought leader to help manage client expectations and best practices
- Clients include: Very, Fairmont, Staysure, WeBuyAnyCar, Compare the Market, Feel Unique, Icelandair, Rightmove
- Responsible for being the overall strategic lead for Sitecore’s corporate and commercial and content including global localisation of campaigns
- Guardianship of Sitecore’s visual articulation, global branding, online and offline communications
- Align with 3rd party partners & clients for updates on progress and input
- Creative lead for digital product execution, app creation and web offerings
- Manage all stages of the project delivery process. Build relationships and collaborate with sales, product, social, PR and marketing teams
- Managed team of 6 Designers, developers, client /project managers
- Responsible for the creative output of the EU, International and EMEA digital advertising markets
- Design and build of custom developed cross-platform solutions, real-time marketing and Social & API generated user content-based units
- Collaborating with Sales, publisher solutions and product teams to define solutions based on advertiser KPI’s, Pricing models, objectives, Sales metrics and forecasts
- Clients include: Microsoft, Intel, IBM, BMW, Mercedes, Unilever, P&G, Sainsbury’s, Ford, Skoda, Vodafone, Sony, SKY
- Identify, build & create fresh new TV properties & long term brands for &TV weekend programming as per Channel vision in both Non Fiction (Shows & Events) & Fiction Genres
- Supervise the On Air Content right from Creative conceptualization to Execution as per Channel vision of the various projects
- Responsible for complete Project management & budgetary allocations (of individual projects) and commercial negotiations (in tandem with commercial team)
- Planning 360 degree strategies for all Weekend shows against Competition – in collaboration with marketing, sales, digital, on air promotions, consumer research and communication
- Synergize with the strategy team to cover all details of each project – time slot strategy, break strategy, etc. to increase the channel stickiness and counter slot competition
- Effectively managing the weekend team and allocation of individual responsibilities for seamless execution of projects
- Overall Supervision of Project IDS from Acts / Creative / Production / Reality & Post Production perspective to ensure the best On Air Content is delivered as per Star Plus requirement
- Content Conceptualization and Creative Direction of the Project DMD from Auditions to Gala episodes and finally the Grand Finale
- Supervising / Planning of Format / Ideation of Acts, Episodic RO’s, Reality Content and complete Post Production
- Conducted extensive market research to establish a well rounded marketing plan which produced astrategic advertising campaign tied together in IMC.
- Produced and directed a production team to create corporate videos, commercials, Internetbuzz-feed, and sales training videos.
- Art directed photography, storyboards,
- Joined the company as a creative director and speechwriter, bringing strong relationships with GM senior leadership
- Embedded with client for 2 years working with executive Sales, Service and Marketing communications team
- Developed and executed internal, dealer and press events for Buick, Pontiac, GMC, Hummer, Cadillac and Chevrolet
- Rebranded and re-designed site
- Increased conversion by 3%
- Managed a team of 12-17
- Launched in Hong Kong at the Christmas Gift Festival
- Product selection included among others limited edition items and interior design leather products
- Produced mainly for the export market
- Deliver 360º digital marketing campaign for global brand in APAC
- Instrumental in delivering value through ideas to fortune 500
- Manage digital marketing campaign cycle from creative to delivery
- Win client pitch for National Geographic Channel, FedEx, Sony, HP, Nikon and more
- Managed a team of developers and designers
- Creative lead for 100+ person, Nissan North America Account, providing strategic and creative direction to internal team as well as multiple Omnicom partner agencies throughout the Americas.
- Produced sales growth year after year despite an ongoing U.S. economic slowdown, reduced media spend, and diminishing marketing budgets.
- Won Nissan's social media account and grew it into a multi-million business.
- Developed buzz-generating campaigns like Amazon Giant Box, which successfully conquered internet’s black sheep platform reddit.
- Produced successful reality TV show “GT Academy” which takes video gamers and helps turn them into race car drivers for Nissan.
- Creative lead for 60+ person, $150MM Mitsubishi account, providing strategic and creative direction to internal team as well as multiple Omnicom partner agencies.
- Drove dealer leads (+89%), web traffic (+29%), higher income buyer (+$15M) and increased overall new car sales (+17%) in a declining market during the first six months of campaign.
- Re-launched Outlander brand exceeding sales objective by 42% and increasing sales by 7%.
- Produced an EMMY-winning campaign for DirecTV generating nearly $3.5MM in incremental production revenue.
- Implement and manage organization's rebrand for three campuses.
- Increased revenue for theatrical productions through marketing efforts by 20%.
- Web & Social Media • Lead all efforts related to the creation and development of Dream City Church websites. • Proactively work to make sure Dream City Church maintains an effective presence on the web including style/presence, search engines, new technology. • Manage ongoing social media messaging and communication strategies. • Creatively build followings on various social media outlets including but not limited to, Facebook, Twitter, and Instagram.
- Theatrical Productions Promotions • Develop system to organize, prioritize and communicate promotional items related to productions. • Create communication strategies to market, inform, and promote big events and other campaigns as assigned. • Oversee all written materials related to promotions. • Increase revenue through marketing efforts by 20%.
- Design & Brand Management • Lead efforts to design all art and promotional materials related to church-wide activities with a high standard of creativity, excellence, and effectiveness. • Network with paid and volunteer artists to develop graphic designs. • Monitor the look, vibe, and feel of all promotional materials representing Dream City Church. • Police the use of logos and images that represent Dream City Church. • Develop overall design and look annual campaigns, conferences and large events.
- Creative Arts • Work in tandem with Creative Arts team to create consistency in messaging from the front door to the back door. • Develop creative ways to communicate desired messages with the audience. • Join brainstorming and creative sessions in developing series and programs.
- Media Relations • Create positive relationships with local and national media. • Oversee efforts related to securing or responding to media attention. • Develop policy and procedures related to media relations.
- Built the agency from nothing to 14 people of the space of 4 years then sold the business to Whybin\TBWA
- Won 13 new competitive pitches on both retained and project clients and delivered 300K ebit in year 4
- Agency scope included small to medium clients in the advertising, PR and digital disciplines in both the B2C and B2B space
- Key Clients Include: Simplot, Vic Urban, Designed Blinds, MYOB, Stride Sports Marketing, AFL Hall of Fame
- Creative director. Management of all materials for printing.
- Development of 360º campaigns for two years for Teatro Español and Centro Cultural de la Villa.
- Creation and management of corporate intranet. CMS: OpenCMS/Java.
- Supervision and implementation of various TV commercial programs.
- Negotiate with various TV channels and production houses for product selling and service buyouts.
- Active involvement in the production and resource management.
- Direction and content editing and support script writing, program implementation.
PRO TIP
In writing your Creative Director resume, you will no doubt want to list your previous duties - as you should. But steer clear of just listing your duties, instead of your achievements. Make your resume stand out by communicating what you have done, and not merely what the job needed you to do.
Action Verbs for your Creative Director Resume
Recommended reads:
Creative Director Resume Skills’ Tips & Tricks to Impress Recruiters
Resume Skills Section Checklist:
- Ensure your hard skills section (including technologies) are exactly matching the job description.
- Don’t simply list your soft skills. Apply the “show, don’t tell” principle - let your job achievements speak for themselves.
- Find a way to showcase your skills beyond the skills section.
- Your resume’s skill section is important to ATS systems - so don’t skip it.
Top Skills for your Creative Director resume
- Adobe Suite
- Microsoft Office Suite
- Final Cut Pro
- Adobe Creative Suite
- Apple Final Cut Studio
- Pro Tools
- Communication
- Active listening
- Conflict resulotion
- Stakeholder management
- Empathy
- Openmindedness
PRO TIP
When describing your experience, don’t go too far from its terminology. Recruiters use ATS systems to filter resumes based on them having certain keywords, so make sure you use at least a few keywords mentioned in the job description.
Recommended reads:
Creative Director Resume Header: Tips, Red Flags, and Best Practices
CHECKLIST For Your Creative Director Resume Header
- Your name and surname in a legible and larger resume font
- The job title you’re applying for or your current job title as a subheading to your name
- Link to your portfolio or online profile, such as LinkedIn
- Address (City and State for the US; just your city for rest of the world)
- Email address
- Headshot (required or welcomed in the EU; not required and sometimes frowned upon in the US)
Stick to popular email providers such as Gmail or Outlook. And use these professional formats to create your username:
- first.last@gmail.com
- last.first@gmail.com
- firstlast@gmail.com
- f.last@gmail.com
- first.l@gmail.com
Recommended reads:
PRO TIP
Some companies, states, and countries have policies about identifying information like photos on your Creative Director resume. Be sure to check all the relevant rules before submitting yours. If you’re in doubt, you can always try contacting the company’s HR department to ask for their policy.
Creative Director Resume Summary Best Practices
Checklist: What to include in your Creative Director resume summary:
- Years of experience;
- Highlight top 3 skills and proficiencies;
- One big professional accomplishment you’re most proud of, that you can tie with the aforementioned skills;
- Use short, direct sentences - but no more than three - to keep the HRs interested.
Resume Summary Formula:
PRO TIP
Include a link to your portfolio in your resume header. Most companies will require that you include one in your resume, and even if they don’t, it’s an excellent opportunity to directly show them your proudest projects.
Recommended reads:
Listing Your Education, Certifications and Courses
Resume Education Section Checklist:
- Ensure your hard skills section (including technologies) are exactly matching the job description.
- Don’t simply list your soft skills. Apply the “show, don’t tell” principle - let your job achievements speak for themselves.
- Find a way to showcase your skills beyond the skills section.
- Your resume’s skill section is important to ATS systems - so don’t skip it.
Top Certifications for your Creative Director resume
Recommended reads:
PRO TIP
There are dozens of certifications that you can claim as a Creative Director. But, some are more effective than others. That’s why you mustn’t include every certificate other applicants might have. Try instead to earn and list a few of the difficult ones.
Creative Director Resume: Additional Writing & Formatting Tips
There are three basic resume formats you can choose from:
- Reverse-chronological resume format;
- Functional resume format;
- Hybrid (or Combination) resume format;
The most optimal format for your particular case will depend on your years of experience, as well as whether you’re switching industries or not.
Reverse chronological resumes are best suited for experienced individuals who are sticking to their industry. The experience section takes a central place, and its bullets contain your responsibilities and achievements, coupled with numbers and results.
Functional resumes are used by less experienced jobseekers or career changers. Note that it’s not a format that recruiters prefer, as most are used to the classic chronological alignment. Instead of a list of job titles, functional resumes focus on your skills, and through what experiences you gained them.
Hybrid resumes are great for both experienced and entry-level candidates, as well as career changers. They combine the best of both worlds - most often in a double column format, where one side of the content is focused on your experience, whereas the other - on your skills, strengths, and proudest moments.
Creative Director Resume Summary best practices
Here are more resume tips regarding your layout and style:
- Clear and legible 12p resume font size;
- Use 10’’ resume margins - that’s default for a great resume design;
- Use a one-page template resume length if you’ve got less than 10 years of experience; otherwise, opt for a two-page resume;
- Save your resume as PDF before sending it to the recruiter.
To take it a step further, check out how your resume can stand out without leaning too much on the creative side.
Recommended reads:
PRO TIP
Sometimes you’ll want to go after a job which requires more experience than you have. Instead of using a typical Creative Director resume layout, you can use a creative layout. Getting noticed is the most important challenge and a creative resume layout might help you get invited for an interview as most of other accountants have boring resume designs.
Other sections to include in your resume
Depending on the type of company (corporation or start-up; innovative or traditional), job seniority level and your location, you may want to include more sections to your Creative Director resume:
Creative Director Resume: How to Make Yours More Creative & Stand Out
When you send your resume to a potential employer, chances are it's the fiftieth one they've seen that day. That's why you need to make your Creative Director resume stand out for the right reasons. That means showing your personality, not just your professional experience. Employers are far more likely to remember a candidate who seems like a genuine person and not a robot. Do this by including your passions (which is also a great place to demonstrate skills on a resume), share your favorite books, or even what your usual day looks like.
What Makes a Great Creative Director Resume: Key Takeaways
- Choose a resume layout that sends the right message across and fits your current career situation;
- Create a resume header that shows your desired job title, and easy to find contact numbers;
- Be specific about your experience, accomplishments and future goals in your summary;
- Feature detailed metrics and specific examples that show the impact you made in your previous roles when describing your experience;
- List soft skills backed by examples;
- Add all of your technical skills and certifications that you have and match the job description;
- Show off a dash of personality in your resume that will demonstrate your culture fit and the right mix of hard and soft skills.
