Task 1A
CV's are an extremely important and essential tool for professionals. They are our personal marketing tool and used by almost all employers as a first point of contact. The employer/Casting Director will have a preconceived idea of you simply by viewing your CV.
After browsing through numerous other BAPP blog's I have discovered we are very similar in terms of having a catalogue of different CV's.
Below is a spider diagram of ideas I think about how I create new CV's and adapting current ones for a multitude of job roles.
I often change aspects of my performance CV to make it more specific for different roles; for example, if I were to send my CV for a pantomime casting I would change my head shot to a very smiley picture. If I were to send my CV for a role in a period drama I would change my head shot to something very natural, a picture with my hair back and very minimal make up. I spend endless hours adding and removing jobs from the experience section of my CV and re-aligning them all to make my CV presentable.
Analysis of other BAPP students CV's encouraged me too consider aspects of my own which needed improvement.
- I incorporated tables too align text and also made text central. This will save me a lot of time trying too align dates etc when I need too add and delete credits.
- I noticed that many CV's I viewed had elements of colour. I used grey as a background for my table and also made the grids invisible for people viewing my CV. I added a striking red colour too highlight subtitles.
Below I have added examples of both my previous CV and new CV
OLD CV
NEW CV
As a performer I have had an eclectic mix of part time jobs in different areas of work all of which have been completely irrelevant to my performance career however in some ways essential to fund auditions, castings, dance wear, singing lessons and everything else that comes hand in hand with our exciting and rewarding profession.
A topic I often find myself thinking about when writing Cv's for part-time work is the relevance of my theatre work to the job role i am applying for. I often wonder if employers take candidates with qualifications and work experience in performance less serious than candidates with academic work experience after being told i was an unsuitable candidate for certain jobs . As many of my part-time job role have been customer service I strongly believe many aspects of performing are transferable skills also associated with customer focused roles:
- Confidence
- Presence
- Team work
If anyone has any opinions on this topic I would love to hear.
When creating my professional profile I took information from my CV and transferred all necessary aspects into a short piece of writing.
My first draft: (As you can see it is very professional and to the point)
About Me..
My name is Laura Gregory, I am an Actress/Singer/Dancer based in Liverpool.
I began my training at
the age of 16 at Carmel
College where I
originally studied choreography and creative dance. I then furthered my training at The Hammond School, Chester; Throughout my time at Hammond I was cast as principle roles in numerous productions and since graduating, have continued to do so.
Theatre credits include: Into The Woods, The Crucible, Thoroughly Modern Millie, Cabaret, 42nd street, Snow White, Aladdin, Sinbad and the Golden Voyage.
I am now embarking on a new chapter of my life (BAPP) to further my knowledge and hopefully progress onto a PGCE course to begin a later career of teaching.
After evaluating my first draft I decided I wanted my profile to be more personal. After all my blog is my personal space and I want my viewers to know me as a person as well as knowing my achievements. I figured the best way to do this would to include more detail on my journey 'How I reached my goals'
Similar to Eleanor Claire Unwin, my second draft seemed more like an auto biography. I decided to continue drafting until my profile was short snappy yet still containing personal elements, a profile i would be happy with.
Hi Laura,
ReplyDeleteI enjoyed reading your blog. I liked your idea of using the spider diagram to demonstrate how you go about creating/adapting your CV's!
Thanks Granger, its a really simple idea which helps avoid confusion. I often get confused lol. Im glad you like it thanks for commenting.
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