Crafting a Resume: A Guide for VFX, Animation and Games Emerging Talent

Ever applied to a job only to hear crickets?

You’re not alone.

Whilst your artwork will be the most likely part of your application to get your foot in the door, a well-written resume will help give your artwork, skils and experience context.

Landing your first role in the VFX, Animation or Games industry can feel like a daunting process. Having a winning resume correctly will give you confidence and a massive head start.

Your resume is your primary ticket into the industry, and the goal is simple: make the recruiter’s life as easy as possible!

Here is everything you need to know to build a clean, impactful resume that catches the eye of your dream studio and hiring managers!

What is a Resume, and is that the same as a CV?

The UK and most European countries refer to this job application document as a “CV”. Typically, the term resume is used in the US, Australia, Canada and parts of Asia.

A resume is a summary of your data, educational background, training, business or professional experience, qualifications, and achievements. However, the vast majority of recruiters, studios, and job descriptions use the phrase resume. To avoid confusion, we will use the phrase resume going forward.

As a quick note, resume is a French word. Résumé is the French way to write it, NOT resumé. If in doubt about how to write it, copy the way it’s written on the company website.

Your essential checklist!

Before diving into formatting, make sure your baseline components are ready:

Social media accounts: LinkedIn is standard, featuring clear contact details: email address, geo location, specialisation and a link to your portfolio and/or demo reel site.

Resume: Complete with clear contact details.

Demo or portfolio website: With working links and clear contact details.

Cover letter: Complete with, you guessed it, clear contact details!

Approach every application deliberately. Check the job posting carefully, then plan how to approach it, and ensure that your profile is a good fit for the studio.

How to build a Resume

On a base level, a resume is made up of the following parts:

1. Contact details

2. Introduction / Professional Summary

3. Educational background

4. Work history

5. Relevant skills, such as technical and soft skills

6. Other sections, such as relevant hobbies, interests, volunteer work or certifications

1. Contact Details

The contact details section of your resume should include the following:

Your first and last name: Use your preferred name if you have one, but be consistent across all of your materials, LinkedIn and demo reel.

Email address: Use a professional address that is easy to read and type out.

LinkedIn: If it’s a clickable link, ensure it works in printed format.

Demo/Portfolio site: Ensure that it’s clickable, and it works in printed format.

Location: Major city and province/state. ONLY! Do not put your full address or your postal code.

Headshot: This is optional, and I wouldn’t prioritise a headshot. Simplicity is always best.

2. Professional Summary

Think of your Introduction as an Elevator Pitch. What do you want a recruiter to know in 20 seconds or less? As a top tip, you should reflect the language of the Job Description in your About Me section.

You can construct a powerful opening in three structured lines:

• Opening line: What do you do? For example: 3D Hard surface modeller with a passion for creating photo-real models for Film.

• Second line: The qualities and qualifications you bring. For example, with a diploma from Think Tank Training Centre.

• Third Line: How you can help the Studio. For example, I love to create new worlds and upskill my modelling abilities by leveraging Unreal Engine.

When put together, a completed summary reads beautifully:

“Aspiring 3D Modeller with a diploma from Think Tank Training Centre and hands-on experience delivering four successful academic projects. Brings a strong artistic eye, technical proficiency and a passion for creating high-quality assets for Film and TV. Committed to continuous learning and staying current with industry trends to contribute fresh, innovative solutions to creative teams.”

Note, some career specialists advocate against professional summaries. They can be useful if you switch careers to give a brief introduction, or if you're just starting. However, if you're an established artist who's worked in the same field consistently, then feel free to omit the professional summary.

3. Education Background

Your education section should be written in reverse chronological order. Do not include high school; only include programs you took AFTER high school.

Each entry should include:

• Name of school

• The degree or diploma you have accomplished or are working towards

• Dates you attended

• 3 to 5 bullet points about what you learned and/or accomplished during the program

4. Work History

Your work history section should also be in reverse chronological order, beginning with your most recent role and working backwards.

Each entry should include your job title, the name of the company, the dates you worked there, and the location (or Remote). Include 3 to 2 bullet points about your role, use action verbs that give your skills context.

Top Tip! Use the job description to help shape how you write your work history.

Feel free to talk up experiences which are more relevant than others. If you don’t have a lot of industry experience yet, you can highlight personal projects and education alongside your general employment. However, do not mix Education with Professional experience. Do not leave unexplained gaps! If you spent time away, simply list them. For example, from June 2023 to January 2024, I travelled around Australia.

5. Relevant Skills

When organising your skills, clarity is key:

Technical Skills: It’s best practice to list technical skills in bullet point form. Focus on technical skills that are required by the job description, such as Maya, Blender or Nuke.

Soft Skills: These are skills which are not job-specific, such as time management, communication and organisation. It is best to give these skill sets context by explaining how your experience and/or education are relevant,  rather than as a list.

What to Avoid: Do not use skill bars, images or graphs to illustrate your proficiency levels. It’s not clear what the visual range actually means, and it doesn’t add anything to your resume, as no one would put a skill they weren’t at least a 4 out of 5 on anyway.

Other Sections

What other sections could you add to a resume?

• Volunteer Work

• Certifications

• Awards

• Hobbies and Interests

An Important Rule on References: DO NOT include references or the phrase “references available upon request” on your resume or cover letter. Don’t forget to contact your references in advance, let them know you may be sharing their details with a studio, and clarify what you’d like them to say about you.

What is an Applicant Tracking System?

An Applicant Tracking System (or ATS, for short) is software used during the recruiting process to store, scan and rank job applications for a company. They create a database based on “best fit” terminology.

ATS are often most effective at eliminating the least qualified candidates from the running, rather than cherry-picking the best candidates for the job. However, if a job seeker’s resume isn’t written with the ATS in mind, even a highly qualified candidate can find their application knocked out of the running.

Behind The Scenes

The average time a recruiter spends reading a resume is between 5 and 10 seconds. In a larger studio, that is usually once it has gotten past the ATS and a Junior HR Coordinator. The Coordinator will compile a list of applicants who best match the job description, and then forward those candidates to the Recruiter or Hiring Manager to invite them to an interview. It is a lot of hoops to jump through, but if you take the right steps, your life will be much easier.

How to Beat The ATS

To ensure your resume successfully passes through the database and reaches human eyes, follow these essential guidelines:

Keywords are key

Use keywords throughout your resume. Take note of how the company defines the position you are applying to. For example, a CG Generalist requisition will be looking for keywords such as: Modelling, Texturing, Lookdev, Understanding of the Pipeline, Technical CG knowledge, Mari, Maya, etc. Check your document: are the keywords from the job description explicitly on YOUR resume?

While you shouldn’t completely overhaul your resume for every job submission, it is important to make small tweaks to the language to match the job listing. You can use the same base resume for the same role across different studios, while customising your cover letter per company.

Note: There is a common myth that copying and pasting a job description into the body of your Resume or Cover Letter in white text will “beat” the ATS. In fact, systems catch this, and it might reject you and flag you as spam.

Format for Raw Text

The ATS will strip out any formatting you’ve added, leaving the raw text. Because any complex formatting will be stripped, it’s not a good idea to have pictures and graphics littering your file. Keep it simple.

Don’t get too fancy: Don’t use graphics, tables or columns in your resume.

Watch your placement: Don’t put information, such as your contact details, into the header or footer of your resume. Many applicant tracking systems cannot read information in headers, so vital contact details will get left out of your application.

The Plain Text Test: Save your resume as a plain text file (.txt) to test it. If it’s missing important information or has wonky characters saved incorrectly, it’s time to reformat!

Beware of PDFs

Unless an application portal specifically says it accepts PDFs, you are much better off submitting a Word document (.docx). Many tracking systems cannot properly convert PDF files or extract the text.

PDFs are, however, much safer when you are emailing a contact directly or connecting with a recruiter over LinkedIn. Always have both a Word version and a PDF version saved to the cloud so you can submit the right format on the go.

Craft a Resume that Will Catch Their Attention

To sum it all up, here is a quick guide of your absolute Dos and Don’ts:

DO

Tailor your file: Spend time building your resume to reflect the specific role you are applying for.

Match the language: Select keywords from the job description and reflect them in your Professional Summary and experience points.

Include metrics: Use numbers or percentages that show a measurable impact. Instead of saying you helped manage artist time, a statement like by analysing artist time logs, we reduced project overtime by 20% is significantly more effective.

Keep it readable: Use a clean font that is well-spaced out. Resumes which are bunched up in small fonts are incredibly hard to read.

Watch the length: An ideal length for an emerging artist is one side of A4, with a maximum of two pages.

Protect your privacy: Your city location and region are adequate. Date of birth, gender, nationality, race, sexual orientation, marital status, current salary and religious beliefs DO NOT belong on a resume.

DO NOT

Target multiple audiences: Avoid having a resume that tries to tackle more than one discipline at once. If you are applying for both Modelling and Animation roles, create two separate, targeted resumes.

Overcomplicate the layout: Avoid a flourish of fancy formatting, icons or columns that might break the ATS or distract human eyes. Less is more!

Forget that it’s a summary: This is not your life story; it is a concise summary of your professional qualifications and experience.

The Importance of Proofreading

Now that you have your components ready, you’re ready to send out your resume, right? WAIT!

It is incredibly important to proofread your resume thoroughly. Little mistakes can cause your document to go to the back of the pile faster than you can say, “Dang, I should have proofread…”

Watch for typos: Did you mean Definitely or Defiantly? Did you mean Summary or Summery?

Beware of homophones: These are words that sound the same but are spelt differently, such as to, two and too. Spelling and grammar checkers don’t always catch these, which is why manual checks are essential.

How to Proofread Effectively

Get fresh eyes: Ask a friend or relative to proofread. Only ask someone you know who will give you honest, constructive feedback, as fresh eyes are much better at catching sneaky mistakes.

Read aloud slowly: This forces you to process every single word.

Change the font: Temporarily changing the font tricks your brain into seeing the document as new, making mistakes jump out. Just don’t forget to switch it back before saving!

Take a break: When you are tired or rushing, your brain automatically predicts the next word rather than reading what is actually on the page. Walk away, take a break and return to it later.

Building a great resume is all about preparation, clear communication and attention to detail. By taking the time to format your document correctly, aligning your keywords and proofreading meticulously, you will make the recruiter’s job easy and position yourself perfectly to land that all-important interview. Good luck!

Got questions? Head over to my Resume Review page for bespoke help and guidance!