Sloppiness on a resume will cost you the job
By Anthony Pennington
Diversity Institute Fellow
08.06.04
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Although journalists write for a living, they often make mistakes on their
resumes that cost them an interview, editors say.
How well their resumes are crafted can make or break journalists in the job
market. Sloppiness and grammatical mistakes can undo an applicant’s job prospects.
“There are not a lot of excuses for that,” Rod Richardson, managing editor
of The Times in Shreveport, La., said.
Richardson and other editors, who are offering feedback to job seekers during
UNITY, said they often see resumes with typographical errors, vague references
and dates that make no sense.
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Editors’ tips on writing an effective resume:
- Keep it short. One page is enough.
- Don’t waste time on fancy paper or fonts.
- Don’t list computer programs unless the job is in layout or design.
- Use references that establish work history and job performance.
- Be specific on dates; don’t leave gaps.
- Make the resume easy to understand.
- Use spell check, and keep the resume free of grammatical errors.
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“Sometimes things don’t always jive,” Sharon Rosenhause, managing editor of
the South Florida Sun Sentinel in Fort Lauderdale, said. Gaps often appear
in dates, and there is no explanation of the lapse, she said. These mistake-filled
resumes are often bypassed.
Richardson and Rosenhause agree that the content of a resume should be confined
to one page, and it should avoid decorative type.
“I really don’t like those odd-sized large portfolio things that people put
together. That’s just a pet peeve,” Richardson said, “Eight-and-half by 11 seems
to work pretty well.”
Rosenhause said, “The only thing that matters to me is the content.” Fancy
type and paper don’t help to identify the experience and the potential of the
person, she said.
Providing clips of stories can allow job seekers to illustrate experience and
skills, but some applicants fail to include a wide enough range of stories,
she said. The range is important to identify the flexibility writers have and
their ability to report while the stories are an immediate way to gauge writing
skills, she said.
There probably isn’t such thing as a perfect resume, but a successful resume
is one that entices editors to want to talk to an applicant, Rosenhause said.
“Get me interested.”
Related
UNITY 2004 coverage by Diversity Institute reporters
Summer fellows file dispatches from Washington, D.C., where more than 7,000 journalists of color are attending convention workshops, speeches, receptions.
08.05.04
