building a resume

[Andy_Leviss]

Within the world of theatre, it is a well known and generally accepted term that those who work in lighting are electricians, or, for those who prefer to distinguish that from a licensed electrician who wires the building, a theatrical electrician.

This is what they've been called for decades and decades, it's what the union title for the job is, and it's what everybody in the industry knows the job title as. There's no need to change it, and with people working and hiring within the entertainment industry, there should be no confusion.

 

[ship]

It's not such a bad idea to hop on over to the IT area of the campus while in school to get some training in this or even to spend a summer as an apprentice to a licenced electrician. Nothing like learning code and power the official way, much less there is exceptions to these hard fast rules in what you can and cannot do both in the grey area of even doing a hot tie in and in in some instances it is permissible under code for the TD or ME to do wiring within the building they supervise. There is some things you don't do and dependant upon situation or position things you can and are expected to know should you work in some places at a certain level.

This said, it's not licence to go screwing around with your building's wiring or without specific permission and instruction see tails - plug them in - this much less pick up a cable at times instead of point to cable and instruct it goes in X terminal. Very much depends upon where you are and what level of experience and trust you have.

This said there is also a even in the entertainment industry a slight difference between someone that ME's a show by way of hanging the plot and balancing the load and that of someone that can figure KVA ratings in their head for a generator or is authorized to be replacing the ballasts on the work lights.

Neither are licenced electricians persay - nor can qualify to be one in most instances. Job description is where what you can and have done comes in useful where describing the ME role so as to prevent confusion.

This as with any other role one plays in the theatre. Large difference between that of the TD that builds the set for a show and that of the person tracking crew schedules, budget and certifying steel structure bridge across stage is safe by way of his or her name stamped on that design approval. This in addition to supervising not just carpentry/construction but all other aspects of the tech side.

Description of your role or tasks and specilized training is very helpful in defining what your qualifications are on a resume given more than one definition of a title or status.

 

[bdesmond]

Zac-

This is a good start.

Pick a few key entries from your work experience section. Write a couple sentences highlighting your accomplishments. I as a potential employer want to know what you did. "Video Crew" is a total blackhole, same as stage crew, sound designer, etc. Same deal with the other work experience. What do you do in these positions? What is RCDS? What is WPPAC?

In your other skills section, you need to spin this in a *much* more positive direction. I don't care that you "can" program a desk, I want to know how well you can do it. Are you proficient, are you an expert, etc. I can sew. I happen to suck at sewing anything sightly. I can sew velcro wrap onto cable pretty well, but, I use black thread, a big needle, and I wear thick leather gloves when I do it. I "can" sew. God help anyone that hired me to sew for them.

The two sizes of black times type is pretty bland. Try a different type, a sans serif one perhaps.

FWIW, I see people put dots in their phone number all the time.

 

[Foxinabox10]

The dots in the phone number is actually the European way to do it and it is becoming much more common in the US.

 

[zac850]

OK, here is round 2:

http://www.zacphotos.com/resume2.pdf


I would write more of a description on what I did in a cover letter to the employer. I have heard often that it is important to keep a resume down to one page, so this would be the list of my past performances. On another page I would choose a few productions that show I can do whatever I would be applying for.

I think I applied most of what was mentioned by people as to change. Anything else still looking ugly?

 

[Foxinabox10]

Here's a few things:

Change all the font to something smoother like that of your name.

Put whether that is your Home or Cell number and possibly provide the other number also.

Put a little more spacing in between the columns.

For Other Skills, it should be in the present such as Programming instead of Program, etc.

I would make your headings a little bit smaller and compensate by making them bold and remove the underline.

Your margins are pretty big, so you do have some room if you do all the above to put some job descriptions in.

 

[zac850]

www.zacphotos.com/resume3.pdf
I looked around for smoother fonts for my name, this was what looked smooth but still professional.

What should I say when I put in job description. I tried to do the basic over-view of what I did for each show by putting L/D, or Sound Op, or Lighting Programmer, or whatever I did for that show. What more should I put?

I also shrunk the headings one point and took the underline off, but decided I liked it better with the underline, so it is now one point smaller, with bold and the underline.

 

[ship]

One page is a good thing as is no more than three paragraphs or 2/3 the page on a cover letter if you at all can help it.


Lost in Yonkers employed you? How much did they pay? Hope it’s better than Sweeney as you still have your head. A slight technical detail with “Work Experience” noted and realizing you don’t have a lot to put here but the plays you have done were not your employer. Perhaps a different term such as “Production Experience.”

If you need * and ** and ***, that’s way too much time making sense of your notes to what you are saying. In other words, such a “oh by the way” things with only one * is “Also acted as Sound Board Operator” but ones with three stars are where you did both lights and sound at the same time. Now we as the reader get to back track in personal interest we don’t have so as to see which shows you take credit for that matches up with these foot notes. Sorry, but this section upon need for more than a moment’s study into it gets the circular file if there is 20 other people applying for the job and I only have ten minutes to read all their resumes.



Day School seems kind of I don’t know, Kinder Guarden. Can you shorten this to just say RCHS or Rockland County High School? After this, you were paid as the head of the technical theater department? This might confuse as either a write off in a student run organization that is nothing or a teacher that has come back to the school to run the program. Can you re-phrase this so as not to confuse that you were in charged but a student?
“Numerous load-in...” is a write off experience. Not specific and hard to do sufficiently to the standards of those hiring you that are not even numerous yet no doubt. Again a terms or what you mean type of thing in this format.

 

[bdesmond]

The problem with putting the writeup in your CV is that they only last as long as your CV, which isn't long in the lifecycle of a resume. HR will file your resume away somewhere if they happen to like it, or if you submit it online, it will be indexed in a database. The CV doesn't go with. The CV is only for a job you're applying for, not a resume thats on file.

As ship said, the asterisks are confusing to say the least. I continue to encourage you to highlight a few things you've done on yoru resume and find a more compact format to list the remainder, or even cut some of it. Really, loading shows in and out, "numerous" or not just means you can follow basic directions and move heavy gear, to me at least.

 

[jonhirsh]

Hey I hate to truge up old posts... well no i dont who am i kidding.

I havent had time to update my resume till now i know its been months and i have a nice clean version that i would love feed back on

JH

http://www.geocities.com/magichirsh/jonathanhirsh.pdf

 

[bdesmond]

Hey I hate to truge up old posts... well no i dont who am i kidding.

I havent had time to update my resume till now i know its been months and i have a nice clean version that i would love feed back on

JH

http://www.geocities.com/magichirsh/jonathanhirsh.pdf

Sure.

I would change the summary section. Put it in sentence form. The way its presented is hard to read, and frankly I think the last four bullet points all say the same thing. I know what you're trying to say here "Able to communicate and interact effectively with individuals of
all levels.", but it's worded in a weird sort of condescending way. The way I write this and often see it written is to the tune of ..."ability to communicate on the executive level" or similiar. I would change the top to not be bullets though.

Under Education, change "2005 - " to "2005 - Present".

You may wish to use bullets under Additional Training and the sections below it. Things are somewhat blended together there.

Other than that it looks OK. The subtitles on teh experience section are al positions that I can more or less guess what you did. It's a different format than I'm used to, but, I've never tried to hire a portfolio position.

 

[jonhirsh]

I appriciate the comments.

JH

 

[Mayhem]

Hi Jon,

Just a few very quick things that struck me when looking at your resume:

1 - Keep your date format consistent throughout the document. In some instances you abbreviate the month and in other you do not.

2 – Whilst it will make the document longer, I would place the theatre on a separate line to the actual show as this is running into the location on some lines and making it look cramped and difficult to read.

3 – Given the above, you may wish to segregate your experience into role specific lists. i.e., ME, LD, SM etc. Is load in crew going to land you a job?

4 – Based upon previous discussion in this thread, is it safe to assume that you would trim this resume to suit the position that you are applying for?

5 – Format. Similar to my first point, keep the flow of the document uniform. I would place the additional training, licences etc into the same format as the rest of the document.

Just some initial thoughts that I hope are of some help. I am use to reviewing resumes related to the health industry, so I would not be the best judge of what the US theatre industry is looking for. However, a more concise document with “additional information available” might be one way to shorten the length.

My current pyro log runs over several pages and dates back to 1998 but I certainly wouldn’t send all of that to a prospective employer. Instead, I would pull out what was most relevant to their needs/operation.

 

[jonhirsh]

2 – Whilst it will make the document longer, I would place the theatre on a separate line to the actual show as this is running into the location on some lines and making it look cramped and difficult to read.


I will try that

3 – Given the above, you may wish to segregate your experience into role specific lists. i.e., ME, LD, SM etc. Is load in crew going to land you a job?


Ha ha load in crew is a shitty job but i have yet to get the spelling of the name but the LD is quite well known and the Ovation awards are like the Tonys of LA so its a high profile event.


4 – Based upon previous discussion in this thread, is it safe to assume that you would trim this resume to suit the position that you are applying for?

yes you are right




Just some initial thoughts that I hope are of some help. I am use to reviewing resumes related to the health industry, so I would not be the best judge of what the US theatre industry is looking for. However, a more concise document with “additional information available” might be one way to shorten the length.

i think it is important to show a range of skills and these are just a selection of shows that ii have worked on there are more. and more to come i am working on 5 shows curently and just lost one to a cast members death but there are so many its impossible to keep an complet list.

JH

 

[bdesmond]

I just read this whole thread over agian after I posted. It seems like I and others had a series of comments on ways to make this resume more effective, but, I still have them. You might want to read the thread again.

I like Mayhem's idea of rotating all this information and categorizing it. You might look at Andy Leviss' resume link which is posted early in this thread. It's an interesting layout.

“additional information available” - never seen that on a resume here, I read IT resumes. I'm used to getting a bundle of information often quite lengthy. I just read what I want (first page or two), skip to the end for the certifications to see that their MCSE is actually from 1999 and they're not really an MCSE anymore.

Another general thought on this thread in general - if I get your resume in Word format, I tend to notice typos and grammatical issues with the green and red squiggles under them amazingly fast. I also tend to can these submissions amazingly quickly. Operating spell check and grammar check is an implied skill in my opinion.

 

[ship]

Very nice and easy to read. Too long. If more than one page it’s too long. If two pages, marginally okay but only with additional but less important to get a feel for you information on that second page. Do we really need to have specified your drivers licence certification, or should we just expect that you can drive a car?

Well laid out but it’s time to further consolidate or if at very least make smaller print and spacing for the lists. I both agree and disagree with Mayhem this especially with the grouping of similar tasks done. I more like in looking at what you have done to see what you have done in chronological order as presented. This especially since you don’t have a huge enough amount of credits to have one list per type of position worth keeping them separate. Different formats by I think the chronological order for your current resume might be better stated. Get it smaller in size by way of one line of text each thus a smaller space or go with smaller text in making it all fit in the various sections.

Agreed on making it fit the position you apply for but also given not so much experience, as much as you got is what you have to go with. Agree with point #2 also about the theater and #3 on position.

Overall, it does flow and that’s im part the point so you are well on your way. Now to cut and refine further.

In doing this study of how to do such a project from Hell (and one thought doing shows was hard,) I hope that you have kept the refereced samples in tact so others in writing their own resumes can look to the initial things we discuss, see changes and read on for further comments for their own edification. Showing the work you have done would be a good case study.

Much refined by the way. Keep going and I'm sure we all agree it will be somethign incredible.

 

[soundman]

Should I add the few ins and outs I have done with IASTE and other companys I hvae done ins and outs with or should I stick to the long term jobs?

 

[jonhirsh]

Thanks ship it its allot better then the 7 page version lol

what did you mean by

"In doing this study of how to do such a project from Hell (and one thought doing shows was hard,) I hope that you have kept the refereced samples in tact so others in writing their own resumes can look to the initial things we discuss, see changes and read on for further comments for their own edification. Showing the work you have done would be a good case study"

also i need to put on there my driviers licenes because most jobs now that i have applied to want to know that you have it. its werid i know but they want to know so i will tell them.

thanks
JH

 

[jwl868]

Jon

In the second Experience entry, should that be "Los Angeles".?


Date convention (at least in the US) is usually "Month Year", for example May 2001. But a full date has a comma "Month day, Year", for example May 26, 2002. For single digit days, omit the zero: for example June 6, 2005.


Line up the text following "References" with the rest of the text above it.


Place the text after "Awards" on the same line as "Awards".


I'm not sure if listing your drivers license is that relevant.



Since I'm not in the theatre business, I can't really provide any other useful comments. But I would agree with ship that 3 pages is too long. Consider making a few versions to have handy - one chronological; one by type; one streamlined to a single page.



Joe

 

[ship]

Thanks ship it its allot better then the 7 page version lol

what did you mean by

"In doing this study of how to do such a project from Hell "

thanks
JH

Building refining and editing a good resume is hard work. Showing from start to finish here in what changes you have made over time to it would be a good case study for others in editing and refining a resume.

Given the comments and advice so far on this topic, if what we are referring to is not available to see what it's all in reference to by way of your resume, it limits the usefulness of the comments.


Also one very important note for all posters of their resumes

Before you post a link to it here, remove all phone numbers, addresses and especially any personal information normally on a resume such as social security number and drivers licence number often provided with a resume. Don't know if you posted such info, but it sould be taken off if posted.

I think providing the Social Security number and and drivers licence number probably should not be provided on any resume. Too much chance such info might fall into the wrong hands.

Again, don't know if it applies here but just a thought in general.