Onstage > Employment
resume format
MatthewShiner:
I disagree about the date.
I don't think you should include the date for the follow reasons.
1) Is it extra information that will crowd the resume. There is no way I could do another column with the date.
2) Early in your career, it can hurt you . . . they can easily see you only have two to three years experience on your resume by looking at the dates.
3) It can be used to figure out your age (oh, he was in college in 1988, that makes him . . .) and can lead to age issues, which is a tricky legal issue.
If people are interested in when you worked at the company, they will ask.
If you list your stuff in chornological order, they will see you were asked back to a company.
I just think the year is NOT industry standard. What is important is that you did the show, where you did and who the director was.
Scott:
--- Quote from: MatthewShiner on Nov 14, 2006, 02:03 am ---I just think the year is NOT industry standard.
--- End quote ---
I agree re: the year.
nmno:
--- Quote from: MatthewShiner on Nov 14, 2006, 02:03 am ---
3) It can be used to figure out your age (oh, he was in college in 1988, that makes him . . .) and can lead to age issues, which is a tricky legal issue.
...
I just think the year is NOT industry standard. What is important is that you did the show, where you did and who the director was.
--- End quote ---
I agree that it may not be the standard (and I think that from what we've seen, there are a lot of different ways to do a resume) but the last time I re-did my resume, I sent it to a few people in charge of hiring to comment, and most said I should add the years. However, I don't list my shows chronologically; I group them by position (stage manager... asm...). By listing the date, they see the progression of my career, they see that I go back and forth between PSM and ASM, etc.
I'm also curious about your concern about age discrimination. I don't think I've ever seen it be an issue in stage management hiring. The only way I could see is being too YOUNG, but even then, your limited professional credits are probably going to tip that off anyway. Frankly, when I see a resume without graduation year date, it makes me wonder what they're hiding (did they graduate at all?) And more frankly, I've seen a bigger factor in sex, which is usually tipped off by your name.
MatthewShiner:
--- Quote ---I'm also curious about your concern about age discrimination. I don't think I've ever seen it be an issue in stage management hiring. The only way I could see is being too YOUNG, but even then, your limited professional credits are probably going to tip that off anyway.
--- End quote ---
Yes, being too young is a form of age description.
The dates can also show you started stage management late in you life.
The dates can show you are only doing SM part time (which you may have not read well on your resume).
Then on the flip side, there will be a point when theaters may want are looking for someone younger.
Now, since you are grouping shows by position, then I can slightly see the advantage by adding years, but again - after looking at 100 resumes a year, I find very few professional resumes with dates on it.
smejs:
I don't put dates in the resume, but I do often mention them in the cover letter. "Last summer I...", or "I spent 2 seasons as the Production Stage Manager for...", etc. And I have my BFA graduation date on the resume, so they can always do the math as to my age (at least whatever's the youngest I could be, and yes, I did it the standard 4 years right after high school).
Erin
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