Received a few resumes from some youngsters. (When did I get so old? Oh God, am I The Old PA?! Nooooooo!) They were rife with rookie mistakes. I’ve said all these things on the blog before, but for those of you who might be too busy (i.e. lazy) to go back through the annals, here’s a summary of my email to them:
- Delete your objectives. Nobody cares that you hope to someday achieve a meaningful career in entertainment.
- Make it fit on one page.
- Your resume’s file name should be FirstLast Resume (e.g. TAPA Resume.pdf).
- Your resume should be a balance of text and blank space. Too much text, and you look boring. Too much blank space, and you look dumb.
- Single-space between things that are similar and double-space between things that are not. (If you can’t figure out which of the two is appropriate… 1 1/2 space.)
- You don’t need to tell me everything you’ve ever done at each job you’ve ever had. Only the things that pertain to THIS job.
- Include something that’s unique – something that’s going to elicit a question in an interview. (For me, I list that I’m an Eagle Scout. It comes up as a question in nearly every interview I’ve been on.)
- Make it a .doc or .pdf. Anything else and the person who’s hiring you won’t be able to open it.
Good luck.
5 Responses
In your Resume post, you state “Here’s all the information we need: Position, Show Title, Production Company. Anything else is just padding.”
But here, you say to list things that pertain to the job you’re applying to.
Could you please clarify?
This post pertains more to assistants than PAs. If you’re a PA, three columns and you’re done. Assistants have a more traditional resume style.
Do you have any examples of a PA resume? I’ve seen several online that contradict what you’ve listed.
who ru not anonymous too? ah…cool blog. sry i may ramble, but just how did you figure out what you wanted to do? i’m all over the place, which i found out, doesn’t have to be a bad thing, but then i go nowhere. read through the majority of the job list. i wish i could just meet the right people. i hatee resumes and cover letters.
I’m the Old PA. Actually makes me feel good knowing I can pass off some wisdom from my experience to the newbies and help them not make mistakes.