Key Resume Tips for Audio Visual Freelancers
Jun 07, 2018
Designing a resume for the freelance economy is not the same as creating one for a full-time employer. The businesses that hire freelancers, independent contractors, and consultants are looking for something very different, including the ability to hit the ground running and work with minimal supervision.
Having a resume that highlights those skills can make it easier to secure freelancing positions. Here are some timely resume tips for crafting a winning application for today’s work world.
Use Bullet Points to Highlight Your Skills
One of the great things about freelance work is that it gives you a chance to grow your skills and constantly learn new things. From new software programs to better people skills, your experience has given you a lot.
Using bullet points to highlight those skills is a great way to cover the most essential items up front. Making a list of the software skills you possess, the projects you have completed, and the accomplishments you have accrued will give potential hirers unique insight into your work background.
Link to Your Best Work
When crafting a modern resume, you do not have to stick to the printed page. Posting your resume online is pretty standard, especially if you do a lot of freelancing or consulting work.
Most online formats give you the opportunity to embed links and highlight the work you have done. Take the time to compile a list of your best work into a portfolio and link it to your online resume. Doing so can enhance your identity and help you land more work in the future.
Solicit Testimonials and Post them Online
If you are an experienced freelancer, you probably have a lot of happy customers in your portfolio. Those past business contacts and customers can be your best friends when it comes to landing future work, and the testimonials they provide can be quite powerful.
Reach out to the people and businesses you have worked with in the past and ask them for a short testimonial about your professionalism and talent. You can post those testimonials online and link to them in your resume.
Remove Irrelevant Information
The very nature of freelancing can make designing a resume quite a task. A busy consultant could work at a dozen different companies in just a few short years, while a successful freelancer could write for hundreds of websites or design scores of websites.
While it may be tempting to include all of those experiences on your resume, it is best to focus on the best and most relevant jobs. Cutting out the irrelevant stuff is the best way to keep your resume to a reasonable length, so think about what is most likely to get the attention of the people and businesses you are currently targeting.
