Everyone’s Passionate
Telling potential employers that you’re “passionate” is not unique and special way to sell yourself.
The Title is the Job Description
Some advice for your resume.
How to Utilize Continuing Online Education on Your Resume
Jack asked a question while we were editing his resume: Is it worth putting any online education that is related to production. We get to take a number of Lynda.com tutorials here for lighting, editing, etc. Nope. Credentials Don’t Matter You don’t have to have a film degree to get into the film business. Getting […]
How to Balance Different Titles on Your Resume
Jim writes in about how he should handle varying credits on his resume– It’s a pretty random career so far. I’ve held positions in the camera department, art department, prod office, post. if I’m applying for a Day Player Set PA position should I downplay the specific PA credits and just make it a general […]
Free Movies and Other Things You Didn’t Know
According to a recent poll of my readers, there seems to be a sections of the TAPA website you might not be aware of. Also, since most of you are into movies, I thought I’d give you some tips on how to get movies for free (at least if you’re in LA). Where the Jobs […]
Accurate Dates on a Resume
Over the years, we’ve given a lot of advice on how to adjust your resume to be more appealing to your future employer. You should never outright lie, but skirting the truth and fudging a little are to be expected. Changing dates is the most common technique. For example, you might say you left Company A […]
Don’t Be Redundant
I’ve been noticing an issue lately when editing resumes: redundancy. You’ve got to fit everything on one page. Anything more than that looks ridiculous, especially for a production assistant. And when you reduce it all to a single sheet of paper, it can’t look cramped. Remember, these are people who are used to reading scripts; […]
Three Common Resume Mistakes
After cleaning up a couple of hundred resumes, I’ve found some common resume mistakes pop up over and over. These are really easy to fix, and you don’t even need to hire me to correct them yourself. Where are you? Most resume templates have a line for your physical address. I have no idea why […]
How Fast Do You Type?
As an office PA, you’re going to do a lot of typing. Like, a lot. Emails, lunch reports, wrap reports, production reports, call sheets. (Those last two aren’t technically your responsibility, but trust me, you’re going to have to modify them, anyway.) Typing fast gives you an advantage, as long as it’s accurate. Double check […]
Get Your Resume Fixed Now!
For a while now, we here at TAPA have been offering a resume editing service to production assistants and others in Hollywood. You see, production resumes look very different from traditional resumes, and it’s just not common knowledge. Plus, we’ve learned a lot of tips and tricks over the years to make your resume more […]
How Long Should a Cover Letter Be
Last week, I was helping a reader with her cover letter, and she asked if multiple paragraphs would deter the recipient from reading the whole thing. Not at all! You absolutely should break your email up into small, digestible paragraphs. A big block of text looks like a novel; short, punchy paragraphs look like a […]
Resume Categories
Gina writes in: I’ve been looking up production resumes and I was wondering whether it’s best to organize my jobs by type (film, tv, commercial, etc) or position (pa, designer, director, etc)? Love your website, thanks for being so diligent in updating. To start, no resume should list both “production assistant” and “director.” If you […]