What makes a good CV/Resume?

I have been very lucky to do Chrys Salt’s class at the Actors Centre in London, which I can highly recommend, if she is still running them, which handles this problem and many others.

I’ve, also, purchased her book, ‘Make Acting Work: the Practical Path to a Successful Career.’ It’s out of print, but you can buy 2nd hand copies and, while dated things aren’t up to date in it, a lot of her suggestions for the business still hold strong today.

So here goes….

• 1 page only
• be honest
• put your best credits to the top and don’t date them, use bold on anything you might want to highlight, like working with a well-known director, etc.
• only put on education if you feel it’s well-known – Rada or a degree in a drama, or that you are doing on going classes at the Actors Centre or equivalent or with a well-known workshop with so and so, otherwise keep education off and at the bottom of the CV/Resume – let your credits talk, unless you are fresh from studies and lack any credits, then you may want to put them 1st
• create uniformity and a logo for yourself – logos are easy to acquire through the Fiverr website – you only pay $5 american and you can have a simple logo made and designed for you
• make sure they are easy to read
• make sure your font and spacing work both as a printed and online version
• have separate CV/Resume for your various skill sets – teaching/acting/singing – don’t put them all on the same CV/Resume or if you do, then have 1 CV/Resume which has the acting skills first and vis versa – you can always reference the various skills in the skills section near the bottom of your CV

So general order on the CV is Name (bold;big at top), address/telephone/website/email, personal details: height/weight/colouring, Equity number, Spotlight number, playing age, agent details (if have one), credits, education (if including), skills, accents

Here is a sample of my CV/Resume  for you to look at.

Extra pointers:

When using your email, make sure to put your websites, phone number and spotlight number in your email signature, using same font as used on CV/Resume.

You can use the same social media accounts for all your work – teaching/singing/acting.

Keep all your website listing up to date: Equity, CCP, Spotlight, etc profiles all need to be kept up to date.

Update your showreel once a year, so it’s got some of the most recent work.  This is when basic editing skills come in handy, as it’s not that hard to edit into and material out of show reels.  Don’t go longer than 3 mins, but prefer 1 to 2 minute length.

What are the things that you have found that work best for you on your CV/Resume?