TopTipsforBuildinganImpactfulCV
About Sian Whomes
Earlier this year, we hosted a Career Development session with Sian Whomes on crafting a CV for the film and TV industry.
Sian Whomes is a Head of Talent and Executive Coach with over 17 years experience in the Media industry, securing top talent for the BBC, ITV, Endemol Shine, Sony Pictures and Netflix.
Passionate about career development, Sian supports talented people to accomplish incredible things. An award-winning trainer, she has delivered courses and CV sessions for Women in Film and TV, BBC, Iconic Steps and Screen Yorkshire.
Find out the best way to structure your CV, as well as Sian's do's and don'ts, with the guide below.
5 tips for building an impactful CV
Think of your CV as a marketing document that showcases your skills and experience in the best way possible. It's natural to play down your achievements but now is the time to highlight them!
A CV should be no longer than 2 pages, it doesn't have to include every production or project you have ever worked on but rather what you most want to put out into the world
According to research, employers spend on average 6 to 10 seconds looking at your CV, which is why Sian recommends including the most relevant information is in the first three-quarters of the page — think of it as a sizzle, or a trailer
If you do want add some design flair, ensure it’s complementing and not completing with the content and it’s readability, these are the two key elements
Don’t just list responsibilities — it’s important to talk specifically about your role, it’s scope, scale and the impact you made
The 3 Types of CV
Chronological CV
1. Chronological
Structure: personal details (name, job title, contact details), personal profile, key skills (optional), career history in reverse chronological order, education and qualifications (optional)
Advantages: the most common type of CV, familiar to employers and can also clearly demonstrate career progression
Disadvantages: can highlight employment gaps, not useful if you're changing career, less space for those who want to include a long list of credits
Credits List CV
2. Credits List
Structure: personal details (name, job title, contact details), personal profile, key skills (optional), credits in reverse chronological order, education and qualifications (optional)
Advantages: easier to condense lots of similar experience and roles
Disadvantages: less space to go into detail, for example, if you really want to talk about the specifics of directing a shoot
Skills Based CV
3. Skills Based
Structure: personal details, personal profile, skills in descending order (from most important to least), education and qualifications (optional)
Advantages: useful for changing skill or industry
Disadvantages: less opportunity to highlight your previous career experience and progression
Your CV section by section
Formatting Your CV
Sian recommends either a chronological or credits list CV, or a hybrid of the two. Check out the structure they follow, and the best things to include in each section.
Personal details
At the top of your CV should be your name, then your professional job title. This can be a single title such as Director, or if you work across multiple roles you can include these, for example Writer & Director or Series Director | Edit Producer.
Your contact information sits comfortably beside your name and professional title. Include your phone number and email address.
You may also want to include:
● Your agents details instead of your personal details
● Links to showreels or websites to show people what you can do
● Where you are based — it is useful for a production to know if you have multiple bases
You don’t need to include:
● A photo of yourself, your date of birth, or your address
● Avoid unprofessional looking email addresses
Personal statement
Your personal statement is a short and sharp introduction to you and the skills and experience you bring. As a guide, Sian recommends around 150 words.
Think about:
● Your in-demand skills — what problems can you solve for a company or a production? Such as experience with a specific technical set up
● Think about your USP (Unique Selling Points) — something that you alone, or not many other people, can bring to the role
● Highlight what have you accomplished
● Statistics are a great way of demonstrating impact or scale for example, viewing figures, box office revenue or the size of budgets you have worked with
Key skills
A key skills section is a great way of making your hard and soft skills stand out.
● Hard skills are specific and quantifiable knowledge or abilities such as shooting experience or language skills (Example: Experienced Self Shooter on C300, FS7, A7S, 5D)
● Soft skills are unquantifiable attributes that can not be proven but can be demonstrated, such as teamwork or organisation
● If you are using soft skills, back them up with a quick example (Example: Leadership, I have led production teams of up to 30 people on location)
● Use bullet points to make these stand out and easy to read
● List no more than 6 bullet points so readers stay engaged
Experience for a Chronological CV
● List your experience in reverse chronological order or by role or genre if it makes more sense for you to highlight your experience
● For each production list the role, programme, company, channel, and dates
● Give a brief description of the production to set context. A sentence or two is sufficient
● Concisely bullet point your experience
● Don’t assume people will know your responsibilities and impact based off your role — this will vary from one production to another
● Use action verbs, such as ‘accelerated’, ‘generated’, ‘won’, ‘conceptualised’, ‘designed’, ‘revamped’, ‘built’...
Experience for a Credits List CV
● List your credits in reverse chronological order or by role or genre if it makes more sense for you to highlight your experience
● There is no hard and fast rule for the layout of your credits, but make sure to include your role, production company and broadcaster/platform
● Make sure the credits are clear and be consistent with the formatting
Sian's CV Do's and Dont's
Do's and Dont's
Do:
● Double check spelling and grammar. You can use tools such as Grammerly or ask someone else to check it for you if you're not confident
● Always think ‘so what?’ (was the impact) after listing your experience to highlight your impact and value
● Present things in a clear and logical order
● Convert your CV to a PDF so that it can't be edited by someone else
● Save your CV with a clear naming convention, such as your name and the date
Don’t:
● Send a generic CV when sending it for a specific role, make sure it’s tailored depending on the demands of the role
● Avoid clichés, for example ‘team player’ and ‘go getter’ — make it specific to you
● Reduce the margins or use smaller fonts to get more information in, as this will make your CV more difficult to read