Video Editor Resume: Examples, Template, and Resume Tips

Everyone loves movies, films, and TV shows, but few people ever think about the people behind the scenes, the people who make the movie magic happen. They only see the actors. As a video editor, however, you are one of the most important people in filmmaking.

Once the camera operators and videographers have shot the footage for a movie, TV show, short film, music video, or even an ad, they bring the raw camera footage to you. It is your job as a video editor to cut, edit, and organize the footage into a sequence that makes sense.

You are the person that converts the footage into a story. You are the one responsible for bringing rhythm and style to the flow of scenes in a movie or video, as well as adding various video effects to captivate the audience.

Lack of editing or poor editing usually results in low-quality work and ordinary viewers can tell that something is not right about the video, though they may not be quite sure why the video felt off.

A good video editor can take a bunch of raw camera footage, even unrelated, and piece it together in a cohesive, compelling manner.

If you are looking for a job as a video editor, the good thing is that the job outlook for your chosen career looks quite good. According to the Bureau of Labor Statistics, video editor and camera operator jobs are projected to grow by about 11% over the next ten years. This rate is much faster than the national average growth for all jobs.

Note, however, that this figure represents the growth rate for both video editor and camera operator jobs. The BLS tracks the two careers under one umbrella. According to the BLS, the median pay for video editors stands at $58,990 per year, which translates to about $28.36 per hour.

Despite the very positive outlook, everything is not rosy for people looking for video editing jobs. Since the figures from the BLS take into consideration both video editors and camera operators, video editor jobs will definitely much fewer than you might have anticipated.

In addition, the barriers to entry for video editing are quite low – provided you have the skills, you can get a job as a video editor even without a bachelor’s degree. All that matters is your skills and experience. This means that you are going to be up against a lot of other candidates applying for the same jobs as you.

So, how do you gain an edge in such a competitive job market?

While there are several things you can do to improve your chances, the first thing you need to do is to make sure that you have a bullet proof video editor resume. Without a good video editor resume, nothing else matters, because you won’t even get invited to the job interview.

If you are wondering just how to write such a resume, you are in the right place. In this article, I will show you everything you need to know about writing a kickass video editor resume.

You will learn what recruiters and employers look for in a video editor resume, which format to use in your resume, how to nail the different sections of your video editor resume, and so on. I will also show you some examples of exceptional video editor resumes.

If building your video editor resume from the ground up seems like an absolute chore, don’t worry.

Just use our resume builder, which is an automated service that will generate for you a professionally designed video editor resume in less time than it takes you to load Adobe Premiere or After Effects on your computer.

VIDEO EDITOR RESUME EXAMPLES

Let’s start by looking at some examples of brilliant video editor resumes before we move to the details of how to create your video editor resume.

Experienced Video Editor Resume Sample

Entry Level Video Editor Resume Sample

WHAT ARE RECRUITERS LOOKING FOR IN A VIDEO EDITOR RESUME?

Being a video editor is all about your skills, your creativity, and your ability to organize the chaos of raw footage into the order of a coherent narrative.

These are the qualities you need to showcase or highlight in your resume, and this is exactly what a recruiter or potential employer will be looking for in your resume.

A recruiter or potential employer will want to know the following: Can you work with common video-editing software to organize digital footage?

How many editing software programs are you proficient at using? Are you capable of collaborating with the boss (director) to discuss and develop and express their overall vision of the production?

Are you capable of listening and understanding what the director wants done (their vision) and edit the footage in a way that conforms to that vision? Are you creative, meticulous, and do you have a good eye for detail? Do you have any experience working on a production, either your own production or working for someone else?

If your resume can answer these questions, then you will definitely be getting a lot of interview invitations from potential employers, and if you know how to impress during a job interview, it won’t be long before you snag your dream job.

WHICH FORMAT IS MOST APPROPRIATE FOR A VIDEO EDITOR RESUME?

There are a variety of resume formats to pick from when creating your video editor resume. Ultimately, the most suitable format for you will depend on factors like your work history, your level of experience and so on.

Generally, the best resume format to use on your video editor resume is the reverse chronological resume. This is the most popular resume format, particularly with recruiters and employers. This resume format is popular with good reason.

The reverse chronological resume showcases your employment history starting with your most recent positions and lists the rest in reverse. This is very helpful to a potential employer, because it allows them to quickly determine how good you are currently (what matters most is how good you are at video editing today).

This reverse chronology style is consistent throughout the resume, so that order persists even when it comes to listing your educational achievements.

In many instances, video editors will work as freelancers before deciding to seek formal employment.

If this sounds like you, the reverse chronological format might not work very well for you, because working as a freelancer involves working for different clients simultaneously and in unofficial capacity. In this case, it is more advisable to use the functional resume format.

With this format, instead of grouping your experience by employer, you should group your experience by skill. For instance, in one entry on your experience section, you can mention a skill such as Adobe Premiere Pro, and then list the various instances where you used Adobe Premier Pro to work on projects for various clients. With this format, there is no need to include dates in your experience section.

Since the job involved in video editing is highly visual, potential employers will want to see your design skills, and a good way to show that you have a good eye for design is to make sure your resume is well designed.

You should format your resume in such a way that it is visually appealing. If this is too much work, remember that you can always use any of the professionally designed templates on our resume builder.

HOW TO ACE THE PERSONAL INFORMATION SECTION OF YOUR VIDEO EDITOR RESUME

The personal information section is a very important part of your resume because it lets a potential employer know who you are and gives them the means to contact you or learn more about you. There can, however, be such a thing as too much personal information.

Employers and recruiters typically have tens or hundreds of resumes to wade through and just don’t have the time to read everything, so limiting the information to the most necessary or most useful is definitely a wise move on your part.

Here are some things you should include in the personal information section:

• Your official name: Write down your official names as they appear on your driver’s license, passport, or social security card. If you have a middle name, however, you should just write down the initial.
• Professional title: This lets the employer or recruiter know what you do professionally. Remember, there might several open positions at the organization you are applying for a job, and you want to make it clear from the very start what position you are applying for.
• Email address: Always use a professional email address. Video editing is not a suit-and-tie office job and there may be a lot of freedom in the workplace, but at the resume stage, what you present in the resume is all the potential employer knows about you, and you definitely don’t want to give the wrong first impression.
• Phone number: Provide your phone number and double-check to make sure that you haven’t mistyped any digit. You don’t want to miss out on a job simply because you hit 7 instead of 8 on the keyboard.
• LinkedIn profile: While including a LinkedIn profile isn’t necessary, it does help to have a presence on LinkedIn. It gives the employer an opportunity to learn more about your professional life than they can learn from your resume.
• Portfolio: Video editing is a highly skill-oriented job, and therefore, despite your credentials, potential employers will want to see what you can do before they give you the job. Therefore, having an online portfolio to showcase your skills and including a link to this portfolio in your resume is very important. The portfolio can be on your own website, or on a social platform like YouTube or Behance.net.

A professionally-written personal information section should look like this:

USE A WELL-WRITTEN RESUME SUMMARY OR OBJECTIVE TO QUICKLY SELL YOURSELF TO RECRUITERS AND POTENTIAL EMPLOYERS

The aim of a resume summary or objective is to quickly sum up what you are bringing to the table. You can think of it as an elevator pitch that answers the following question: why should we hire you?

If you have had a lot of video editing experience, the resume summary is the ideal vehicle to show off your impressive accomplishments. A good resume summary expresses quickly and vividly your value by highlighting in a few sentences your level of experience, education, strongest skills, most remarkable projects, and so on. A good resume summary should look like this:

On the other hand, if you do not have much video editing experience, a resume objective is your best choice.

Since you haven’t done much to speak of, the best thing is to communicate your goals and objectives as a video editor, as well as your strongest skills.

Let the employer know that you will have something to offer despite your lack of experience. Here is an example of a good resume objective:

One thing to keep in mind when writing the resume summary or objective is to avoid being vague. For instance, instead of writing “Excellent post-production editing”, write something like, “Was post-production video intern at XYZ” or “Skilled in Apple Final Cut and Adobe Creative Suite”. Don’t be vague – get as specific as possible on your skills and experience.

WHICH IS THE BEST WAY TO PRESENT YOUR WORK EXPERIENCE IN YOUR VIDEO EDITOR RESUME?

Your experience section is probably the most important part of your video editor resume. Video editing is a pretty hands-on job, and therefore, employers want to know that you can do what they are hiring you to do.

The best way to prove that you can do it is to show that you have done it before and excelled at it.

To show that you excelled in previous video editing positions, don’t just focus on what you did. You also need to include your achievements. What were the notable outcomes related to your editing work? Did you win any awards? These are what show that you are good at your job. Where possible, provide links to the videos you worked on at different job.

This is the advantage of having a portfolio website. If you worked with any big production agencies/networks or big clients, don’t be afraid to namedrop. It shows that you play in the big leagues.

Here’s what the experience section of your video editor resume should look like:

HOW TO HANDLE THE EDUCATION SECTION OF YOUR VIDEO EDITOR RESUME

The great thing about video editing (and the film industry in general) is that you don’t have to have fancy degrees and honors from big schools to be hired. In this industry, jobs are given on the basis of skills and experience. Recruiters will judge your prowess based on your demo reels and your portfolio.

However, having a good education to flaunt, particularly film-related, is always a plus. Most video editors are graduates from film school or multimedia arts. If you are a video editor who does not have any formal video editing education, you should consider doing some courses online, whether free or paid, just to improve your resume.

In the education section, make sure you clearly present the education institutions you went to, particularly if they pertain to video editing or film knowledge in general. Here is an example of how to do that:

THE KEY SKILLS SECTION OF YOUR VIDEO EDITOR RESUME IS VERY IMPORTANT

Video editing is a skill-heavy profession. Listing your skills allows the employer to quickly know whether you have the skills they are looking for.

When it comes to a video editor resume, avoid the temptation to lie about your skills. Most of the technical skills require time to learn, so you can’t really fake it till you make it.

You either know how to used Apple Final Cut or you don’t. In addition, before getting hired, there is a high chance you will be asked to undertake a practical interview. If you lied in your resume, your lie will be easily discovered.

Note that hundreds of video editing tools exist in the market, but you don’t need to master all of them to get hired for big jobs. You just need to master the ones that help you get the job done.

Remember that technical skills are not the only thing you need. You also need soft skills like storytelling, the ability to work well with others, good communication, and so on. Don’t forget to include these in your resume.

Below are some skills that will look good on your video editor resume:

Technical Skills

• Adobe Creative Suite
• Avid Media Composer
• Final Cut Pro
• Animation
• Graphic Design
• Soundtrack Pro
• DVD Studio Pro
• Blender
• Trimming
• Sculpting
• Storyboarding
• Transcription
• Logging dailies or clips
• Video music editing
• Real time edits
• Voice-over editing
• News Editing
• Organizing footage, backing up footage
• Video production management

Soft Skills

• Attention to detail
• Storytelling
• Collaboration
• Multitasking
• Time management
• Outlining
• Ability to work under pressure
• Punctuality
• Communication skills

DON’T FORGET TO INCLUDE YOUR CERTIFICATIONS IN YOUR VIDEO EDITOR RESUME

While video editing jobs don’t generally require any sort of license or certification, the fact that you are competing against other qualified candidates means that having certification can give you an advantage. Examples of certifications that are relevant to video editing include:

• Apple Final Cut Pro
• Adobe Premiere Pro Video Editing Certificate
• Avid Certified User: Media Pro
• Certified Video Engineer – Society of Broadcast Engineers Inc.

USE ADDITIONAL SECTIONS TO MAKE YOUR VIDEO EDITOR RESUME STAND OUT

Remember, if you want to push yourself ahead of the competition, your video editor resume needs to stand out. Therefore, if you have a few more things to show off, by all means do.

However, ensure that they are related to video editing. Some of the extra sections you might want to include in your video editing resume include:

• Awards in film or video editing
• Articles in film-related journals or publications
• Professional memberships
• Film-related conferences and conventions you have attended
• Volunteer experience, particularly on a big or famous production

WRAPPING UP

If you are a highly skilled video editor, and if you have an easy way to showcase your amazing video editing skills – such as a portfolio website or YouTube channels showcasing the awesome projects you have worked on – it is quite easy to get a job as a video editor.

That said, you still need a kickass resume that showcases all your skill and experience without going overboard.

Fortunately, the tips provided in this guide will help you create an exceptional resume that will make it easy for you to capture the attention of recruiters and potential employers and allow you to get your foot in the door by ensuring that you get invited to job interviews.

From there, all you need to do is impress the employer with your amazing skills and your deep knowledge of video editing and the job will be yours.

At the same time, we realize that working on a resume is from scratch can be a tedious task for some people.

If that sounds like you, you can use our resume builder, which automates the entire process so you don’t have to put in too much time and energy in building your resume.