Should I put this on my CV?

[ruby95]

When I was about 11 my class at school wrote a song. We were asked to make a music video for the song and it was shown as part of an exhibition at the National Portrait Gallery for a year. A friend recently reminded me of this and I was wondering whether I should list this music video as a credit on my CV... I mean it doesn't really count as a professional credit does it?

[pg]

I don't think I would bother if I were you, especially as it was a while ago.

If you have room, and it won't make it look cluttered, you could put it with "other information" at the foot of your CV where you include things like hobbies/achievements. I only suggest this because it might be the sort of thing that could provide a topic of conversation in an interview. However, it is very unlikely to carry any kind of weight as a credit on your CV, because it was your class - not you as an individual performer.

It depends where you are in your career really. The further on you get, the more you have to be ruthless with cutting things out. CDs will be mainly interested in paid work with recognised industry professionals/companies. When you are starting out, you won't have this, and that is understood, but there's no need to pad out your CV when you start out, just put down interesting/challenging roles and/or any work that legitimately counts as "professional".

[ticktock]

When I was about 11 my class at school wrote a song. We were asked to make a music video for the song and it was shown as part of an exhibition at the National Portrait Gallery for a year. A friend recently reminded me of this and I was wondering whether I should list this music video as a credit on my CV... I mean it doesn't really count as a professional credit does it?

Yes, add it!
I think it's interesting and relevant
However, if you have loads on your CV and are running out of space, then leave it out

[ruby95]

Thank you both very much.

[paulears]

I'd have to say no. If I read this as a potential employer, I'd discount it. School stuff at age 11 is often viewed by everyone looking back with pink tinted glasses, but the reality can be very different. Your class of 15-20 people wrote a song? My own experience of group activities at school is that a few people wrote a song- often a very small group. If it truly was shared, then the lazy kid who was also absent for many lessons will also be claiming he wrote the song too? As a result, there's no real indication of how good it was - unless it was featured on a CD that you can get from amazon. Remember the kids from what was it? St Winifred's on the Clive Dunn chart song of the 70s - would they include it as valid singing? Probably, but not all of them could sing well - they were just there.

That's why I'd personally discount this as relevant experience - too long ago, and no real depth being a shared credit. You'd have to have a very shallow CV to have this on it, it my view! Sorry.

[ruby95]

I'd have to say no. If I read this as a potential employer, I'd discount it. School stuff at age 11 is often viewed by everyone looking back with pink tinted glasses, but the reality can be very different. Your class of 15-20 people wrote a song? My own experience of group activities at school is that a few people wrote a song- often a very small group. If it truly was shared, then the lazy kid who was also absent for many lessons will also be claiming he wrote the song too? As a result, there's no real indication of how good it was - unless it was featured on a CD that you can get from amazon. Remember the kids from what was it? St Winifred's on the Clive Dunn chart song of the 70s - would they include it as valid singing? Probably, but not all of them could sing well - they were just there.

That's why I'd personally discount this as relevant experience - too long ago, and no real depth being a shared credit. You'd have to have a very shallow CV to have this on it, it my view! Sorry.

Thank you. No i know you are right and I suspected that this was the answer when I made this post, I just wanted to check that I was doing the best thing. Though I definitely can't claim to be the most experienced teen actor ever I do have enough experience to mean that it could be counter-productive to try to pad out my CV with unnecessary credits. And though I think there is a CD of this song somewhere this credit was shared with 30 other kids so you are definitely right. Thanks for being honest.