Written by Delmarice Price, Class of 2021
You may think that the quality of your playing is the only thing that will propel you to success, however there are other things that you need to have on top of that. One of those things is a quality resume. For an employer, a resume may be the very first impression they have on you, and if you have a poor quality resume (or don’t have one at all) you may never get a call back to show them your beautiful playing. This post is just the surface when it comes to making a resume, but hopefully you find this useful.
There should be two things that you have on file with you at all times, a resume and a curriculum vitae, or CV. A CV is a document that outlines every significant academic and professional experience that you’ve had. This document is always expanding, and you should make sure to update it every so often. A resume is a concise overview of the relevant experiences that pull from your CV and be catered to the job that you are applying to. For a musician, experiences can be anything from playing in an ensemble, teaching private lessons, directing an ensemble, or even being a music librarian. Because you cater your resume to the job that you’re applying for, you may have multiple different resumes for multiple different types of jobs. A resume for a professional orchestral job may look different than a resume for a high school band director. Building that CV with different experiences makes it easier to build specific resumes for different types of musical jobs.
Below are general tips for building your resume and CV’s
List your name, contact information, education, and experiences. Optionally, you can add a few sentences that outline the objective or reason for the resume, relevant courses for the job, honors and awards, or skills such as computer program proficiencies or extra languages.
Be consistent in the formatting of your resume. An unprofessional resume may convey an unprofessional employee. Make sure you use an easy to read font and the same font sizes. In order to make yourself standout, you may want to add individuality to your resume which is fine. However, you don’t want your resume to be too distracting and take away from the content of the resume.
Think about how you want to format your experiences. Are you going to have them listed chronologically or by how relevant it is to the job? If you do it chronologically, make sure to have the latest experiences first.
If you make your CV in the same formatting as your resume, it’ll be easy to copy and paste information to create a new resume.
Try to limit your resume to one page. You want to be able to show yourself off, but too much information can cause the employer to toss your resume.
Try to use keywords from the job description into your resume. Employers scan for key terms in your resume when trying to look for future employees. If you add some key terms to your resume, this will show employers that your experiences and skills match exactly what they’re looking for.
Below are musician specific tips for building your resume and CV’s
Your resume will depend on the type of music industry job you’re applying for. Performance based resumes should highlight your performance experience and your people you’ve studied under. Education based resumes should highlight teaching experiences and certifications. Other resumes in other fields should cater to the specific skill set that they need.
List all of the teachers that you’ve studied under, ensembles they play in or the area they’re from, what you studied under them, and the timeline that you studied under them in your CV. You can refer to it at a later date if need be. This includes private lesson teachers and chamber coaches.
In your CV, list the notable ensembles that you’ve played in, where they’re located, the director/conductor, and a rough timeline of when you played in them.
Have a mix of soft, performance, teaching, and technical skills on your resume- these will serve as musical keywords for employers to look at. Soft skills are generic skills that you’d acquire from any job such as communication, a strong work ethic, or leadership. Performance skills are specific to performing. Teaching skills are skills that you’d acquire from teaching such as lesson planning or instruction. Technical skills are skills you acquire from programs such as being proficient in Ableton, Finale, or audio engineering.
Adding music specific scholarships, festivals, competitions, and other awards shows even more proof of your skills, further solidifying your chances of getting hired.
If you would like for a professional to review your resume, the Office of Career Exploration and Success is a free resource for all Rutgers students. They host one on one resume building advising sessions where you can sit down and have an individual consultation with a career professional on how to build your resume, helpful tips, or a place to start when making one. They also host regular job fairs, networking opportunities, interview advising sessions, and a career counselor dedicated to Arts, Communication, and Entertainment.
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