Show Biz Resume

How to Write and Post a Show Biz Resume Online.
or
Details of a Show Biz Recruiter's Living Hell and her Dreams of a Better Future.
By Deborah Paulino
Managing edtor of an entertainment employment resource and resume library.
I've been reading and moderating show biz resumes online for 7 years, for all mediums and genres. Every year I write and broadcast an article about this subject. Not because I have nothing industry else to write about, but because people post the most stupid things in show biz resume libraries and it drives show biz employers and me crazy. And it is not getting any better, dammit!
I'm not joking. Some budding bright sparks just write "I am the best" or "Make me a star" or "I am looking or a job" or "I have experience"; not even enough words for a half decent classified ad. One person sent me a death threat after I asked them to repost a professional resume with more detail.
They wrote "how dare you suggest I am un professional, I have been in the business 12 years... If you insinuate I am unprofessional again I will..." I replied to them that I read show biz resumes for a living and that by the look of their first notice I could only assume. Then there are other sorts of self sabotage...
About 20% of showbiz resume posters, if not prompted, don't include any contact at all, or if they do, the emails or links to web sites or web sites themselves often don't work. (actually this also happens with employers posting jobs, to a lesser degree) Then there are the photos.
Photos can give you a 70% better chance at a response, a professional photo that is. Yet performers keep posting amateur fuzzy happy snaps, and crew post school photos or driver's license photos. For goodness sake people, in show biz presentation IS everything. An employer is going to look at that photo and make their first impression about YOU from it.
For some reason when it comes to promoting one's self and show biz resumes, "some people" seem to think they don't have to make an effort.
Like show biz business is make believe or something and show biz employers come looking for you and are very easily impressed; NOT.
Show biz employers skip over these "some people" posts as not serious or tourists. Plus there is the other end of the extreme, the "over achievers".
The "over achiever" writes a one size fits all boiler plate with their acting, belly dance, film editing, public relations, dj, author, office assistant, waitress, dog walker, mountain bike racer, ambient artist, cartoonist, lighting designer, house painter, interior decorator, baby sitter etc. skills and experiences all in one resume. Sorry but absolutely not! Employers will think you are unfocused, possibly delusional, 5 to 1 flaky, and therefore unemployable.
So what do show biz employers want to see?
Show biz employers are just the same as nine to five employers, they want to see a professional resume custom written for their opportunity job/role/position/exposure/funding they are offering and which you are applying for. They want to see you have thought about their opportunity and industry and that you've take time to write skill set keywords, credits, work experience, summary description relating to that opportunity. It always pays to advertise, never be shy about self promotion but always keep it business like, to the point, and truthful.
Industry, trade, B2B means real business, show biz is real business, and you as a person looking to receive money from any industry makes you, yourself, a business. The first rule of thumb for any kind of business, and especially show business is...
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