Jump to content

Résumés and Web Sites


Jan McL

Recommended Posts

Notice a lot of you have excellent web sites and have been exploring them with interest.

Exploration (as usual) generated inspiration, and I've revisited my own site and résumé with more questions than answers.

  • Removed my address from the résumé - don't want to publish online w/address.
  • Based upon what a few of you have done, crafted a paragraph-long "professional statement" and debate whether to place @ top or bottom if at all.
  • Debate whether to include the second "reviews" page with the original response to résumé requests. Folks have said some nice things and I've an impulse to share them... Overkill? Hubris? There's room on this page to include a brief equipment summary, too. ???
  • Will put up a short html version of the résumé on a page @ the web site, along with links to .pdf and IMDB. Will do the same for equipment page.
  • Totally revamping my approach to the web site blog. In progress.
  • Going to get some professional photographs of the cart for the site in exchange for sound consultation.
  • Made a favicon.ico of my logo for the site.
  • The WordPress theme I'm using now feels cluttered since it's been purposed as my sound mixer "portal". In search of a cleaner feel with Ajax interface.

It's so rare anyone asks for a résumé it almost feels like an exercise, until it's needed.

Anyway...

-- Jan

jan_mclaughlin_sound_resume_082010.pdf

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Really excellent work, Jan.  I'm still using an old fashioned standard style resume, which of course isn't really important for this particular industry.  Since I'm a rather junior mixer, my credit list is not really my strong suite and is listed as part of my cover page and not part of my resume page proper.  I think that you have struck a good balance, getting right into the meat, listing your credits first.  Eliminating a formal cover page is probably ok here, as were not applying for permanent hire jobs, and the new standard is probably to replace a formal cover with the body of the email sending the resume as an attachment.  I would not have thought to use a page of quotes, but is a nice balance.  I never really like talking about myself, so it is better to have others do the talking for you.

It looks like the second page was an add on from another document?  The type styles fonts / sizes / line spacings are slightly different than the first page and you should use the same line divider convention... subconsciously some reader notice such discrepancies.  Correcting this will make the document feel more cohesive from a layout perspective.

I also like how you have generalized your equipment list rather than itemizing it.  I suppose this is also indicative in the gap between our experiences.  I feel the need to specifically list each major piece of kit, for producers to review, while you can simply let the weight of your experience talk for itself and present a more qualitative summary of your gear.

To this day, Kids is one of my favorite movies. 

edit: which of course "isn't" important for this industry... big different a little n't makes.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Notice a lot of you have excellent web sites and have been exploring them with interest.

The WordPress theme I'm using now feels cluttered since it's been purposed as my sound mixer "portal". In search of a cleaner feel with Ajax interface.

-- Jan

I have given up on Wordpress --- too many obstacles to try and make a website look and function the way I want. I stuck with Wordpress for blogs but the blogs want to evolve into full websites (which I know many people have done successfully with Wordpress) so I have investigated all sorts of other avenues.

I do have one personal website done with iWeb and hosted on my Lunarpages account and this works well but can only be updated from my computer using the iWeb application. I have done many other sites/blogs using hosted site builders and have found 2 that are really good. One site builder is from Weebly.com < http://www.weebly.com/ > which hosts (either for free or paid) your site and provides excellent and very flexible site builder. The other is primarily for blogs, the main feature being that updating is very easy, even directly by email to your own blog and supports multimedia, images and traditional blog text. This is from Posterous

< http://posterous.com/ > Both of these services have been rock solid and dependable.

One website we have started for my daughter's company, Historic Preservation Partners (this done with Weebly)

< http://historicpreservationpartners.weebly.com/index.html >

As for resumes (I know, that is the topic) lots of companies just rely on IMDB but I still prefer to send out a real resume and list of credits, formatted the way I like it and including awards, special projects and such, things which maybe aren't presented on IMDB properly. I did lose one job, a feature film, because I submitted my usual list of Feature Film credits and after looking it over the producer said she was looking for someone with more documentary experience since they were planning to shoot the feature film in that manner. I have worked on over 50 documentary shoots but of course that was not on the list of credits they had for me.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

I expect this thread to be a good one.  I have not touched my website since grabbing the domain a few years ago.  I have always meant to update it, but I am not creative in that way.  My niece took a web design class, and started to design a sight for me just prior to dropping out of school.

At least I have just updated the "photo" of my resume, but I need to update the picture to more accurately represent my current package.

I do send a resume in, although my imdb page has credits prior to mixing which have far more luster than my mixing credits, so I like clients to see both.

When I send in my resume, page 2 includes references so that potential employers do not need to ask for references.

www.nolooping.com

Robert

Link to comment
Share on other sites

I seldom use a formal resume, in my part of our business (I'm a UK based documentary recordist), I think a credit list is sufficient, and since I've had my website live, which I sorted earlier this year, I just direct people there, and it seems to work.

I've had work through people Googling for someone in my area, and prospective new clients seem to like to see the site. I've started putting an intermittent update on what I've been doing, rather than something which needs updating regularly, nothing worse than an out of date website, I just put what I've been doing in the previous few months.

Although there's a link in my signature, I'll put a link here also :)

www.jongilbertsound.co.uk

Link to comment
Share on other sites

On my website I've tried to make it easy for visitors to go to a page with only the info they might want (like only doco prod. sound or only location music recording)) while still having the rest of my oeuvre on the same site, to deal with situations like Jeff described--more and more common nowadays.  A major thing I have to "sell" is breadth of experience, so the multiple credit list thing seems necessary.  A few pix are good, but I don't feel like I need pictures of gear or a blog....

phil p

Link to comment
Share on other sites

My website which is word press blog powered with a skin over it. Which makes it easy for me to update all text myself.  a web designer friend of mine put the html skin/ boarder around the pages. I can update everything on the site myself except for the header and "recent credits" area. Which he updates for me a few times a year. It has worked well for me.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

I got an IT friend of mine to put together a web page. I bought software for creation of PDF files which I can upload so I can keep my lists of credits more or less up to date. I have it so one can download a PDF list for doc credits, series credits, or drama credits.The site is set so I can keep it current myself and will only need help if I want to overhaul the look of the site. When I first started my site several years ago I found it useful when people who didn't know me were calling about my availability for a job. I could refer them to my site and they could easily view my credits. Over the last few years I have been involved in lengthier projects with people who know me so the site is not professionally relevant as it once was. I still keep it up out of habit. Besides, it's very inexpensive.

Web pages are one thing, but does anyone maintain an FTP site for uploading files? I am starting to hear rumblings of things like that from some broadcasters and one of my acquaintance's actually had a gig where he had upload his files daily to a post house site. It was a real pain with a slow laptop and dodgy connection.

Margus Jukkum

http://www.margussound.com

Link to comment
Share on other sites

I designed and maintain my own website..

http://good4sound.com

It's been really nice for anyone doing causal research on me, for it to come up 1st in a Google search.  Many more producers are allot more web savvy then in recent years.  It's the one place that I can just point to, and tell people to go pick up my resume, imdb credits, equipment list, or any other documents.  Access to backend FTP helps me place files for clients also..

I feel like a blog is not needed due to facebook now.

If anyone is interested, I'd be willing to trade website design for set time (me learning), just contact me..  (Nothing too complex, but I can do Flash, HTML, CSS.. and a small amount of PHP and Java-script).

-Richard

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Web pages are one thing, but does anyone maintain an FTP site for uploading files? I am starting to hear rumblings of things like that from some broadcasters and one of my acquaintance's actually had a gig where he had upload his files daily to a post house site. It was a real pain with a slow laptop and dodgy connection.

Margus Jukkum

http://www.margussound.com

Try www.yousendit.com for FTP uploads. You upload to the site your client downloads from it. It's free for most ul's.

Eric

Link to comment
Share on other sites

I got an IT friend of mine to put together a web page. I bought software for creation of PDF files which I can upload so I can keep my lists of credits more or less up to date. I have it so one can download a PDF list for doc credits, series credits, or drama credits.The site is set so I can keep it current myself and will only need help if I want to overhaul the look of the site. When I first started my site several years ago I found it useful when people who didn't know me were calling about my availability for a job. I could refer them to my site and they could easily view my credits. Over the last few years I have been involved in lengthier projects with people who know me so the site is not professionally relevant as it once was. I still keep it up out of habit. Besides, it's very inexpensive.

Web pages are one thing, but does anyone maintain an FTP site for uploading files? I am starting to hear rumblings of things like that from some broadcasters and one of my acquaintance's actually had a gig where he had upload his files daily to a post house site. It was a real pain with a slow laptop and dodgy connection.

Margus Jukkum

http://www.margussound.com

Hi, Margus,

Your site is very nice and extremely well planned. I like the PDF download links and the overall graphic style.

I've yet to implement an FTP site here, but it would be a snap. We have pretty fast fiber optic phone and internet service. I've been using a combination of my .me web space and a program called FileChute to deliver transcription files and lost or corrupted production sound files. The .me servers are slow but there's an ease of use with FileChute. It might would be hellishly slow for delivery of all the work on a job.

Best regards,

Jim

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Try www.yousendit.com for FTP uploads. You upload to the site your client downloads from it. It's free for most ul's.

Eric

I use You send it often and it works great. I don't know if they still do this but I had the Pro Service ( $9.99 per month) when I went to cancel it after my show had wrapped they offered me Pro service for $20.00 per year so I just kept it. 

Link to comment
Share on other sites

RVD,

I pay $9.99 for each of my domain names prolocationsound.com and whitneyince.com. My website is hosted by a friend of mine who has a web business for free but hosting is very affordable. You can easily get quality hosting and a domain name for under $100.00 per year

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Thanks for some of the compliments on my site. More importantly thanks for the info on these FTP sites. I will certainly look into some of those. As for RVD's question, I don't use a free site but pay for a domain name and a server to host the site. Even so it is not very dear, only about $80 or $90 a year. The domain cost $28 to register.

Margus Jukkum

http://www.margussound.com

Link to comment
Share on other sites

I got an IT friend of mine to put together a web page. I bought software for creation of PDF files which I can upload so I can keep my lists of credits more or less up to date. I have it so one can download a PDF list for doc credits, series credits, or drama credits.The site is set so I can keep it current myself and will only need help if I want to overhaul the look of the site. When I first started my site several years ago I found it useful when people who didn't know me were calling about my availability for a job. I could refer them to my site and they could easily view my credits. Over the last few years I have been involved in lengthier projects with people who know me so the site is not professionally relevant as it once was. I still keep it up out of habit. Besides, it's very inexpensive.

Web pages are one thing, but does anyone maintain an FTP site for uploading files? I am starting to hear rumblings of things like that from some broadcasters and one of my acquaintance's actually had a gig where he had upload his files daily to a post house site. It was a real pain with a slow laptop and dodgy connection.

Margus Jukkum

http://www.margussound.com

Hi Margus

I found your website very tastefully done and your blog is super, nice reading, will read agin in detail

one question I have, since I have been pondering over a website for quite long, Does it help in business in anyway?

meaning grabbing attention and getting more business

here in India, production  mixers/designers hardly have any though I have seen some very tastefully done sites like yours and others

pl give me your opinion on it

best

Harikumar

Link to comment
Share on other sites

So much good thinking and information I hardly know where to begin.

@Tom: Yes, all around. Have made the document consistent, as you correctly suggested.

The only times I've actually needed a résumé in the last two decades are for jobs I totally don't want (translate: inquiries from people who are so green they squeak more than me), and for UPM's with whom I'm familiar, to hand off to producers / directors with whom I'm not. Pro forma stuff. Because it's such a PITA, I keep it fairly current, but since I'm tweaking every-other-darned-thing this quiet year...and enjoy the discourse here...

@Jeff: For sure WordPress is blog-oriented software. For good or ill, blogging is my area of familiarity these last 6 years or so. I like being able to post photos, video, audio, etc., mostly because the capacity to do so reminds me to keep my eyes and ears open, with brain engaged. Frankly, I am not that fond of WordPress. They are constantly updating the software and even tho I have an "automatic upgrade" plugin, it's a PITA. A lot of friends I respect are very happy with http://posterous.com/ and all of the themes I've seen are CLEAN, clean, clean. Nice. What people like about WordPress is that the API is open source and lots of people work on it.

@Margus - your site is excellent in every way. Please congratulate your IT friend.

Glad you brought up the subject of transmitting sound files across the internet. Have yet to need to do this on a regular basis, but for short-term deals, having tried a bunch, I most like Dropbox https://www.dropbox.com. Drag and drop any kind of file into the folder you've shared with someone, and it's immediately accessible via iPhone app, web browser, and the shared Dropbox folder on your collaborator's computer. I use it to privately store my current equipment list, directions (for teamsters), union card, résumé, passport, etc., so in a pinch I have everything for start work or responding to a job inquiry. The free account is limited to 2GB of storage. Buy up to $99 or $199/annum pro accounts. YouSendIt is good for one-offs, but without pro, you have to upload & send each file individually. For $20/annum I'd buy into YouSendIt. Definitely.

@RVD Google's blogspot sites may be configured to be searched (or not searched). Don't know about any other free sites. I keep my personal videoblog @ Google because I want it to survive my death, and it's likely to survive over there IMHO. Private sites are generally defaulted to be visible, but you can create and upload a robot.txt file that will reject all or specific search spiders (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Robots_exclusion_standard).

@Richard Ragon - you did that? Wow. The UI is great. Very clear. The boom moving in on load gives one a little giggle right off the bat. :) All the information organized by importance for ease of retrieval. Sweet.

Here's a question: putting up references that include email/phone #'s publicly, whether on a web page or on a page of a web-hosted résumé kinda makes me nervous. While I've asked all the folks on my reference list whether it's OK to do so, I suspect they would not want their contact information on the web. Curious how you folks feel about that.

Thanks to this thread, have started to be able to link to you guys.

Here's my as-yet-unfinished site:  http://janmclaughlin.tv

:)

-- Jan

Link to comment
Share on other sites

@Jan - Thanks for the link.  I'll add yours to mine too. 

References.. yeah, I thought about that.  I've asked these people, and they don't mind.. If anyone starts having any problems, I guess I'll remove them.. so far so good.

If your worried about putting up your phone number.. I would go get a FREE Google phone number, and just forward it too the number you want.. Same goes with mail and a Post Office Box.

-Richard

Link to comment
Share on other sites

If your worried about putting up your phone number.. I would go get a FREE Google phone number, and just forward it too the number you want.. Same goes with mail and a Post Office Box.

Google Voice is the best! And free (in many areas). Text, voice-to-text, free text... amazing service.

http://www.google.com/voice

--Marc W.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Concur re: Google Voice (see my signature here -- I'm totally unafraid of posting that # anywhere) and not posting references' contact information publicly.

I've never been asked for references. If the people who contemplate hiring me don't know someone connected to the projects I've done, I see Red Flags. Can't help it. Maybe it's just the type of projects and market I'm in (NY is a small town).

-- Jan

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Hi Margus

I found your website very tastefully done and your blog is super, nice reading, will read agin in detail

one question I have, since I have been pondering over a website for quite long, Does it help in business in anyway?

meaning grabbing attention and getting more business

here in India, production  mixers/designers hardly have any though I have seen some very tastefully done sites like yours and others

pl give me your opinion on it

best

Harikumar

To be honest I am not sure a web page necessarily generates more business, although it can't hurt having one. When I originally put the site up in another earlier version i put it up because I was tired of responding to production managers who would phone and ask for a list of credits. These people sit behind computers all day so it was easy to direct them to my web page. In the dark days before computers were prevalent I used to have to fax such lists. I am currently established enough in my locale that no one ever asks for such things any more. I do however, get chided for having a blog. Some production types have in the past caustically commented after some difficult shoot that may not have gone well that "I suppose we're going to read all about it on your blog." To date I have refrained from overt criticism of individuals and use the blog to talk about technical matters and my experiences with with such. Then there are others, predominantly cameramen, who ask how come their picture and a paragraph or two are not on my blog. There's no pleasing everyone.

I think if you are able to, you should do a web page. To me it's as much a part of the business as having a business card and making sure your named gets on approved personnel lists at various production houses.

Margus Jukkum

http://www.margussound.com

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Try www.yousendit.com for FTP uploads. You upload to the site your client downloads from it. It's free for most ul's.

Eric

Filezilla has been my favorite for FTP transferring.  It's free, it's client based, and has been flawless.

@jan thank you very much for the link from your site.  I've actually been wanting to include references as well, but have been a bit lazy.... at least I have something to do now :P

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Join the conversation

You can post now and register later. If you have an account, sign in now to post with your account.
Note: Your post will require moderator approval before it will be visible.

Guest
Reply to this topic...

×   Pasted as rich text.   Paste as plain text instead

  Only 75 emoji are allowed.

×   Your link has been automatically embedded.   Display as a link instead

×   Your previous content has been restored.   Clear editor

×   You cannot paste images directly. Upload or insert images from URL.

×
×
  • Create New...