A Page That Is a Download Rather Than Somewhere to Browse
There is a new page type on your actor website whose entire job is to hand over a document. Put Resume in your menu, click it, and the resume opens. There is no landing page in between.
Why this needed to be its own thing
Most sites handled a resume as a normal page containing a link to a file. That is two clicks and a page that exists only to hold a link, which is exactly the kind of page that makes a site feel padded.
Worse, the intermediate page was usually where somebody stopped. They clicked Resume expecting a resume, got a paragraph about their resume, and moved on.
Three ways to configure it
- Open the PDF. The menu item opens your uploaded file directly. See uploading a PDF resume.
- Show the live resume. A page built automatically from your credits, training and skills, always current, with a download control on it.
- Both. The live version on screen, your PDF one click away. This is what most actors end up choosing and it is the option we would recommend.
The argument for the live version
A PDF is a snapshot. It was accurate on the day you exported it and it starts drifting immediately. Because the live resume is generated from the same records that build the rest of your site, adding a credit updates it without you thinking about it.
It is also readable on a phone, which a PDF designed for A4 is not, and readable by search engines, which a PDF effectively is not.
The argument for still having the PDF
Because people ask for one. Casting offices, festivals and grant applications all want a file they can attach to an email or print. That is not going to change, and the answer is to have both rather than to argue about it.
One resume, not four
If you keep separate resumes for theater and screen, put the fuller one on the site and keep the tailored versions for submissions. A website is a general-purpose introduction. Somebody who needs the theater-specific version is somebody you are already in conversation with.
Our older guides on creating a resume page and on the benefits of a downloadable resume both hold up here.
Create a free actor website and add a resume page in the first sitting.
