5 Adobe Products You Should Know to Strengthen Your Portfolio

By Nicholas James

Writing your resume is hard, and many college students struggle to find ways to stand out when applying for jobs and internships. While competitive, there is no risk to those who are willing to add a little something extra to their resume. These five Adobe applications can be very useful, not only because they are valuable skill sets to have, but also to help your resume and portfolio get notices so you can land that important internship or dream job.

Here are five applications that can help improve your application when it comes time to find that perfect job or internship.

1. Photoshop

One of the best known programs out there in the Adobe collection is Photoshop. Photoshop allows users to create visuals in any way imaginable. From photo editing and compositing, to digital painting, animation and graphic design, Photoshop is the perfect application to download and get experience with. User-friendly with a multitude of different settings to adjust to your creative style, Photoshop can help bolster the creative aspect of your public relations resume come interview time. Bring ideas to life across desktop and iPad, and magically transform images with the power of AI. This is a great application for those who are interested in design.

2. InDesign

Much like Photoshops, knowing the ins and outs of InDesign can garner attention for your application. From stationery, flyers and posters, to brochures, annual reports, magazines, and books, InDesign helps with any type of layout project, including resumes. With professional layout and typesetting tools, you can create multicolumn pages that feature stylish typography and rich graphics, images and tables. If you are interested in working within the design aspect of public relations, adding InDesign to your repertoire is a smart move.

3. Lightroom

Different from Photoshop, Lightroom is specifically built to efficiently handle a professional photographer’s workflow, from photo management to finishing touches. Instead of cropping yourself out of one photo and placing yourself in Paris, manage large files of photos with an easy to use managing system that makes it efficient to find projects and sort them so you never get lost trying to find folders within folders (it’s not fun). Lightroom also uses non-destructive editing, which means you can make changes to a photo without permanently altering the original file. If you work with raw files, you’ll benefit from the flexibility raw images give you when editing, without losing the original data. This application is very flexible and is useful for those who are looking for work in public relations that often deals with marketing and social media teams.

4. Audition

Audition is a comprehensive toolset that includes multitrack, waveform, and spectral display for creating, mixing, editing, and restoring audio content. This program is great for those who are interested in pursuing careers within podcasting or radio. Audition’s powerful audio workstation is designed to accelerate video production workflows and audio finishing, delivering a polished mix with crystal clear sound. Finding work is also simple with using Audition. You can build a following and follow other inspiring artists — and even find your next professional opportunity — on Behance, the world’s largest creative community.

5. Premiere

With Premiere Pro video editing software, you can edit footage in any format, from 8K to virtual reality. Native file support, lightweight proxy workflows, and faster ProRes HDR let you work the way you want with your media, even on mobile workstations. The application is great if your interest lies in producing video within the public relations field. With creative tools, integration with other apps and services, and the power of Adobe Sensei, you can craft footage into polished films and videos and produce the next big-time advertisement.
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Up-level your job search by learning these five Adobe products. And did you know that CSULB college students can access the Adobe Creative Suite for only $20 per year? Now you have no excuse. Get to creating!