Did you save the file for your entertainment industry resume incorrectly?

Your resume is perfect. You’ve followed all of our tips, had a second pair of eyes review it, and your friend who’s an assistant at WME even looked it over to make sure you included the right Hollywood buzzwords before you sent it off. But you’re still not getting calls! 

​Maybe it’s because you’ve saved the file in Word, and it’s showing up with wonky formatting when your potential employer opens it in Google Docs. Or, it could be because you’ve saved it as “John Smith’s Agency Resume7/15/16,” which implies that you are applying to many types of jobs and have a different resume for each one. This may suggest to the hiring manager that you're not as hungry as the hundreds of other hopefuls vying for the same position. You should absolutely have different resumes for different job applications, but save them in specific folders on your computer that only you can track. Most hiring managers want someone who comes across as all in, even though they probably assume that you’re applying to whole UTA joblist. A simple "John Smith Resume.pdf" is the way to go.

One bonus tip: Use variations of your name and the word "resume" to differentiate files on your computer -- like "John_Smith_Resume.pdf" or "Resume_JohnSmith.pdf." Just be careful you know which is which. Another option is to save all the clearly marked "John Smith Resume_Agency.docx" and "John Smith Resume_Development.docx" files separately on your desktop in Word, and just have one "John Smith Resume.pdf" file that you replace with the resume you're sending out each time.

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--Angela Silak & Cindy Kaplan