How To Write A Modeling Resume

If you were thinking about hiring models for specific purpose, you probably wouldn’t care too much what was on their modeling resumes. Does a model need a lot of experience? It helps, but not really that much. After all, a model’s job is to look a certain way. They either do or they don’t, right? Here’s some information that will make you second-guess that assumption.

Well, yes and no. No amount of skill can make a model who does not have the look you’re going for suddenly begin to look that way. However, a certain amount of acting skill is required for a model who does have that look to pull it off for you on film. That is probably why resumes for models are important. As a model, you want to be able show potential jobs that you have had the skill to complete a number of other jobs first. This generally means that you do possess the skill they’re looking for, since otherwise you would have been asked to leave the previous gigs and they never would have made it to your modelling resume. Provided that you were honest. Which, if I were just starting out, I probably would not be.

Do not go off and say I told you to lie on your resume. If you include a high-profile modeling job on your resume that you never completed, the risk that you’ll be found out is just too high. But I do wonder what the chances are that smaller, less significant listings on models’ resumes will really be subject to scrutiny.

In any event, remember what you’re trying to convey on your modeling resume: the fact that you are smart enough to display yourself in the way the photographer asks. By the time they’re talking to you they have probably either seen you in person or seen your head and body shots, so they already like the way you look. You’ve passed the first test. Now, are you dumber than a bag of rocks? Are you awkward and uncomfortable? If the photographer asks for sexy, will you give him a slobbering dog? This is all your model resume basically says. “Here is a list of people who asked me to do something and I did it well enough that they used it.”

Of course, the better known and respected the people you previously pleasured, the greater is your credibility as a model. So, like any other type of resume, you want to highlight not your most recent modelling experience necessarily, but your most impressive. Plain and simple. That doesn’t mean listing something you did when you were twelve first on your resume if you’re a 25 year old model, but it does mean giving priority to relatively recent experience that might be more important than immediately recent experience. You will also want to list any experiences at modeling schools, of course.

Also, as you might expect for anything, modeling resumes should be clean, simple, and easy to read. Don’t cram everything together, don’t use a fancy font, don’t use more than a single page. Especially for a modeling resume, you don’t want to use more than one page. Let there be white space on your resume. When you get a new gig to add on, just go ahead and remove something else. Nobody cares that much about the volume of your experience, they just wan to know about the quality of your modeling experience. As I said, most of what is going to be speaking for you is your photographs.

I strongly suggest that you go out and look at some sample resumes for models so you have a good idea of what an example modeling resume should look like. If you’re a model/actor, stick around to read the rest of our acting career tips.