In the beginning of my career, when I first started seeking graphic design jobs, I had a little paragraph on the top of my resume that talked about how passionate I was about graphic design. Likewise, if you look at the resumes and websites of many fresh graphic design grads today, they do the exact same thing. But as I got on in my career, I started questioning if it made any difference at all to my future employers whether I was passionate about graphic design or not.
Above: A greeting card created from my passion for creative words, images and ideas. Photo Courtesy Stephanie Orma / She's SO Creative
It seemed that when I went on interviews all they cared about was what my portfolio looked like and what software programs I knew. So eventually I removed the paragraph about passion and made the resume strictly about my work experience. I used to think that if an employer knew I was sincerely passionate about what I did, it would give me a slight edge over my competition because it somehow meant I was a better graphic designer.
But how could that be? Does having passion mean you’re better at what you do than an unimpassioned person doing the exact same thing?
All things being equal, I believe the answer is a resounding, yes, it absolutely does.
In fact, I think all businesses should seriously care whether the candidates they are hiring are passionate or not. A passionate employee will always go the extra mile. The graphic designer will pay more attention to the details, spend a little more time perfecting the letter spacing between the words, think longer about creative concepts, massage the layouts, stay up late, pull all-nighters, on their own dime, just because they truly care about the quality of work they produce. Thus, the passionate person creates better work than the unimpassioned person who does none of the above.
Of course, in business it’s not always that easy to put in that extra time because time means money. As the owner of a brand communications firm, I constantly have to keep a watchful eye on how many hours I dedicate to a project. But truth be told, I thoroughly enjoy graphic design and will always go above and beyond to make my work as good as possible.
Even when I worked at a marketing firm in the account management position, I spent my free, unpaid weekend hours brainstorming and coming up with successful taglines and slogans for our firm’s fortune 500 accounts. Although this was not at all part of my job description or responsibilities, I love words and thinking creatively. It didn’t even feel like work to me. Then it was just the biggest kick seeing my work presented to the clients. The client was happy, the marketing firm benefited by hiring a solid account manager that went above and beyond her primary functions to produce excellent work, and all this affects the bottom line.
I’ve also worked with unimpassioned people in my career. The people who have the “I don’t care attitude.” Of course they never show that face to the client, but try as they might to cover it up, it always shows through in the quality of work they produce and present.
But don’t take it from me. Here’s what Steve Jobs, a man equally notorious for his passion as he is for producing great work, had to say about it in his 2005 commencement speech to the graduates of Stanford University, “…Your work is going to fill a large part of your life and the only way to be truly satisfied is to do what you believe is great work and the only way to do great work is to love what you do…”
(originally appeared in SF Examiner 3/24/09)