Student seeking advice: What do you look for on a resume?

[Mike Cohen]

In most cases college grads hired for production are not given projects with high levels of complexity right out of the gate. We like to train people in our company’s particular way of working first. So a reel may show that you HAVE some experience, but not necessarily that you ARE experienced – remember I am talking about new hires out of college, not new hires with 5+ years of experience.

If I see a reel with some fancy effects, I may ask how you did that, or even have you show me.the reels of the three final contenders of our most recent hire varied from great to poor, but we knew we were hiring someone we would be moulding to our needs, so we judged attitude then aptitude.

Mike Cohen

[David Johnson]

[Chris Blair] “Unfortunately, that will NEVER end.”

You made very good points, Chris. That one was part of my point … from what I’ve seen, that’s gotten much worse in recent years. So, especially straight out of school, perhaps emphasis shouldn’t be put on resumes or reels, but on exhibiting things like ethics, reliability, drive and trustworthiness (i.e., in a business where people deal with hundreds of thousands or millions in equipment). Those attributes can’t be gleaned from a resume or reel, but fluffed resumes and/or reels can prove all of those things severely lacking.

[Chris Blair] “got a reel from a college student that was fair at best. But he was a great kid, with a super work-ethic”

Again, I couldn’t agree more and that’s been my experience too. I wasn’t saying I look for whizz-bang reels or resumes … when I said all that matters is the work and proof that it’s their work, I meant in terms of evaluating [1] the attributes mentioned above (i.e., by the integrity of the resume and reel, not necessarily quality) and [2] potential (i.e., the mechanics of shooting or editing can be taught, but it’s hard to teach things like “a good eye”, yet that can often be seen from even an otherwise unimpressive reel).

David Sikes “the variety of posts has given me some confusion of the importance of a reel”

I’m sure my post was one of those so I apologize and will try to clarify further. Especially straight from school, in my opinion, neither the resume nor reel is particularly important since there usually isn’t much to draw from for either and everyone knows that. So, either can cause more harm than good if you focus too much on them and start fluffing, which is very common. In other words, there are people I’ve gotten resumes and/or reels from 10 years ago that I wouldn’t hire to this day because the amount and/or degree of outright lies on either or both told me more than enough about their character. In my opinion, a person’s character doesn’t change as time goes on, but their skills and experience do.

And, of course, all of these issues vary to some degree depending on the position a person is going for … neither a resume or reel is that important for a PA job, but personally, I wouldn’t hire someone with a fluffed resume or reel even as a PA since the idea isn’t for them to be a PA forever. I’d much prefer a PA who is ethical, reliable, driven, trustworthy, etc. so he/she will eventually be a Producer with those same attributes, rather than one with an impressive resume or reel and nothing to back any of it up.

I hope my two cents is helpful.

[David Sikes]

David Johnson – “Especially straight from school, in my opinion, neither the resume nor reel is particularly important since there usually isn’t much to draw from for either and everyone knows that.”

That is a hugely comforting statement. Don’t misunderstand – my fellow students and I work hard to get involved with as many productions as we can fit into our schedule (when not doing math homework, of course;) ) But it really is very comforting to know that it is understood that we don’t have much to put on a reel. Personally, as I work on my grading reel, it can feel pretty lame only having a handful of productions to pull footage from.. so it’s very comforting to know that it’s not expected to have lots and lots of productions to draw from. If anything, I bet that’s where people begin to pad their reels.

It’s even more comforting to know that integrity, work-ethic and honesty are held in high esteem. That’s not to say that people should fake those things for the sake of getting jobs (they really should be reward enough on their own), but it’s encouraging to know that those traits are appreciated at a higher level, as well.

The post above (I think I’m done) left a similar impression.

– David Sikes

[Charles Biddle]

The Truth.

Do not cater to what you think I would like to hear since you likely don’t know my business plan.

Say what you do and realize that while you need a job, you also would like to be hired by the right person. An interview is truly a two way process.

The Truth…. Did I already mention that?

So when is the Scarlett coming out again 2009, 2010, 2011…

[Grinner Hester]

Confidence.
I can teach capability. What I can’t fix is someone who thinks it’s a good idea to kick off a modern resume with “objective”.