What to put in your resume when applying for a VFX job

With tips from a junior VFX artist who’s been doing exactly these things a lot lately.

#gettingavfxjob week is brought to you by Escape Studios.

A couple of weeks ago I interviewed visual effects artist Monika Batchelor about her experience as someone who is just starting out in the industry. The interview got a lot of attention, partly, I think, because we don’t always get to hear from new entrants in VFX. Monika has worked at Hulu, Lola VFX, Luma Pictures, MPC and is now at Pixomondo.

So, as part of #gettingavfxjob week, I thought I’d re-visit chatting to Monika on the subject of one of the many things new artists have to do when applying for work: their CV, or resume.

Experienced VFX artists and VFX HR professionals are sometimes asked about what should go into a CV – you should always take their advice, of course! – but who better to ask than Monika about the same thing, given she has been doing exactly that for the past few years since starting out in Australia and then moving to Los Angeles.

Here’s her top ten VFX resume tips. As you’ll see, many of these are universal for any job applications, too.

Monika Batchelor.

Tip #1: Keep it to one page for new grads/juniors.

Tip #2: List the job title of the position you are applying for only. Not everything you want to do.

Tip #3: You’ve got less than 30 seconds to impress a recruiter so make sure you control what they look at. Optimize white space, dot points, bold text, color text, etc

Tip #4: List experience first, education second. If you have no industry experience then list part-time jobs or volunteering, but only list skills relevant to VFX, like teamwork, detail-oriented, fast-paced, etc.

Tip #5: Don’t write an objective, instead use that space for a short overview of resume, listing experience and skills.

Tip #6: If you’ve done anything extra in a job like train people or set up automation, list that. Now that I have industry experience, I get questioned more about that in interviews.

Tip #7: Forget fancy designs, make it neat and easy to read. Export it as a PDF and make sure all links are clickable. I use Google Docs, it’s free and I can edit from anywhere.

Tip #8: Make sure your resume is always up to date, or it only needs less than 24hrs of edits for those last-minute applications.

Tip #9: Spell & grammar check. (Grammarly is free and amazing)

Tip #10: Don’t write references on a resume, they’ll ask for them later if needed, so save that space.

This week at befores & afters is #gettingavfxjob week. Explore various tips and tricks for searching for, applying and landing your next VFX job.