# Some Advice Please !!!



## TechWeek (Mar 24, 2010)

I'm about to graduate from a small liberal art college in Georgia with B.A. in Theatrical Production. I don't want to go to grad school and have been looking all over the place for internships. I have an avid interest in lighting and have spent most of my college career focusing on lighting. I feel that I know lighting well, i have landed a job as a mainstage electrician for The Papermill Theater untill August (ish) but then i'm pretty much without a job. I was wondering if any of you any advice. Is it possible to upload my resume? and have some of take a peek. Thanks a million


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## gafftaper (Mar 25, 2010)

You have the degree now you need the experience to get a real job. I don't know the area you are in well. But you may need to consider moving to a city with a larger theater community. Take any job you can. Summer stock, coil cable, setup rentals, board operator, just take it. Meet people. Impress them. Give them a resume and move on to the next gig. It's going to take time. You need to network a lot.

EDIT: Yes you can post your resume right here in this thread. Just be sure to delete a few of the personal details like address and phone number first.


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## Drmafreek (Mar 26, 2010)

Also, don't forget to use those resources that are on the web. There are a variety of theatrical hiring publications you can look at. These include, but are not limited to:

BackstageJobs.com (Free)

Artsearch (Requires payment)

Playbill (Free)

Southeastern Theatre Conference (Free)

On top of that you can attend conferences that have job interviews such as SETC and USITT. The biggest thing you need to do is to be proactive about what you are doing. Currently I have three graduating seniors, all with both summer and full time jobs. The key component for them is they never stopped searching until they had the gig. Even when they had interviews happening the continued looking. Your self motivation will be key in landing a job out of graduation.


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## TechWeek (Apr 8, 2010)

Here is my resume, let me know what you guys think?


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## Footer (Apr 9, 2010)

TechWeek said:


> Here is my resume, let me know what you guys think?



Do some searching around for resume' advice. Your resume' is set up a bit weird for people in the theatre world. Purpose statements are not needed (we all want to eat... thats our purpose). 

There are plenty more things to say about it. I would kindly suggest to do some reading then repost the resume'.


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## Pie4Weebl (Apr 9, 2010)

Things I see:
-You have no references: You should try to have three or four
-Title, I should see "lighting designer" or "lighting technician" right up at the top to show what you do
-Who: You should say who you were responsible to on a show, ie designer or the directors name 
-Your Objective: To learn? If you want to learn go to grad school, if you want to work change your title.
-1 Channel DMX fixture? I can't think of a single fixture that takes DMX and uses only 1 channel... perhaps you mean "conventional fixtures"
-Macintosh OS 10.5 makes it sound like you are an old man, use simple Mac OSX
-layout: It's pretty generic IMO
-That section in the center "lighting experience" seems kinda vague.

I've attached my resume for you to look over. I'm not saying mine is great or anything, and it's not even the "standard" theatre person layout, but you might get something out of it. It's important that your resume shows some of your personality, but I'm sure the "more seasoned" on this site will have some differing advice. I, myself am only graduating this year too.


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## erosing (Apr 9, 2010)

I find your italics to be annoying, and if I didn't know the name of the shows, I feel I would have a bit of difficulty deciphering them if I was glancing at your resumé.

You're going to need more room, shrink your name and headers as well as your contact information, it doesn't need to be huge, you already got them to look at your resumé. Also a legible but not so ancient font may not be a bad idea to toy with. The stroke for your line looks way too big to me.

I would dump the "Objective Section" but since you said you are looking for an internship you may want it, but I think that would be more in the cover letter, and better covered. 

Is it still common place to list a number as a cell if you only list one? When I see only one number I assume it's the number they want me to call them at, if it's on a resumé I assume it's a cell. If you had multiple numbers label them, but having "Cell" there ruins the flow I think.

Your underlining is different between section headers, it looks a little sloppy. On that note, do you really need to emphasize and underline your section headers?

I would put your skills section below your expierience, but that's a personal thing (same with education).

Have you considered changing Lighting Design Expierience to Lighting Design, Lighting Expierience to Electrician, and dividing Technical Experience into stage management? 
Or dividing it by the employer perhaps? 

The italics under your Employment section feel the same as the titles above. Also, you have all your dates lined up accept in this section and it looks a little odd. 

Overall, I would use a slightly bigger font size, the text looks cramped but then it's all seperated by giant spaces. You might consider bringing it in a little more to make it flow better. 

On the subject of flowing better, are the names of the production's months closer in size than fall and spring? If so, using them would make them smoother.

Some things I don't get:

Operation and Programming of ETC LCD lighting controllers. - Why include LCD? That doesn't make sense to me.

Knowledge of most 1 channel DMX controlled lighting fixtures. - What Victor said.

Knowledge to repair most 1 channel DMX lighting instruments and ability to construct and repair cable. - See above note.

Ability to use power tools and construct scenery based on drafting. - I'd sepererate this into two things (expanding on the former half), and state that you have the ability to correctly interpret scenic and construction drawings and diagrams, or something along those lines. Drafting is a verb, you can't properly use it the way you did. 

Proficient in Microsoft Word, Excel, PowerPoint, and Publisher. 
Proficient in Macintosh OS 10.5 and Adobe Photoshop and InDesign. 
You can combine these two to say something like, Have sufficient knowledge in the operation of computers in the form of Microsoft Windows and Mac OSX, as well as the ability to wield Adobe Photoshop and InDesign, Microsoft Publisher, and <insert another program here>. Everyone expects you to know how to use word processors, spreadsheets, and presentation programs, you are just wasting space by saying it. 

Scenery construction, oversaw lighting crew, serviced lighting equipment - I'd vote for saying you were a technician.

Maintained equipment, hung, focused and repaired fixtures - Just say you were an electrician.

Constructed cable, hung, focused, and repaired lighting fixtures. - Just say you were an electrician.

And like has been mentioned, you need references.

Resumés are a pain in the butt, I've gone through a lot and recieved a lot of good help and ideas from people. Your resume is always going to change so don't be afraid to class it up a little, you are a designer after all. You may as well show that you have an eye for more then just light, but don't go overboard, it still has to be legible.


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## derekleffew (Apr 9, 2010)

Arez said:


> I find your italics to be annoying, and if I didn't know the name of the shows, I feel I would have a bit of difficulty deciphering them if I was glancing at your resumé. ...



As annoying to you as it may be, italicizing the names of shows is the standard. (Prior to word processors, titles of plays, books, songs, periodicals, etc., were underlined or sometimes ALL CAPS.)

I have the opposite impression when I see a resume where the names of plays are _not_ in italics. I agree that I would not use italics in the job descriptions.


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## Footer (Apr 9, 2010)

derekleffew said:


> As annoying to you as it may be, italicizing the names of shows is the standard. (Prior to word processors, titles of plays, books, songs, periodicals, etc., were underlined or sometimes ALL CAPS.)
> 
> I have the opposite impression when I see a resume where the names of plays are _not_ in italics. I agree that I would not use italics in the job descriptions.



Yup. Grammar is the first thing that will get your resume' thrown away, shows must be italicized.


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## erosing (Apr 9, 2010)

Sorry, what i meant by my first italics comment was more based on that it was annoying to me because of the font and font size he chose I had difficulty reading them, not because he used them. I agree show titles have to be italiscised. 

The jobs one however I did mean that you shouldn't do it. 


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk


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## waynehoskins (Apr 9, 2010)

Footer said:


> Yup. Grammar is the first thing that will get your resume' thrown away, shows must be italicized.



Perhaps use a different face that will italicize more legibly?


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