Ask the Recruiter

Q. You've probably written about this before, but I need some help. I've been writing for nearly 20 years, but have a small apartment that doesn't have the space for all of those clips. I'm in the middle of a project to get rid of some of the excess, but I'm a little overwhelmed.

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Here are my questions:

• What should I keep?
• What should I toss (other than the obvious crappy stories)?
• Should I convert what I can to PDF and burn the articles to a disc?
• Would an editor in the future accept copies from a PDF instead of copies from the actual paper?
• I also have clips from our weekly tab that makes it nearly impossible to make copies on the copier. What should I do with these?
• Should I convert some of the stories for an electric resume?
• If I do keep some of the papers, what's an organized and maybe even slightly stylish way to keep them all organized?
  

Thanks for your help.

Crystal

A. Like you, I am an amateur archivist.

Now, the fact is that you don't need all those clips. Ten good ones -- and they should be recent -- should be more than ample to get you an interview and a job.

Joe Grimm

So, the vegetable crisper of your refrigerator or a winter boot will be room enough for all the clips you really need to save for job hunting. Keep those dozen or so and continue topping them with good, new stories. You shouldn't use old clips to find a new job.

While editors may not need more than 10 or 12 clips, we archivists are certainly free to keep just as many as we please. You seem to want to keep a lot of them, and that is your right.

You are dealing with three constraints: space, time and money. Save yourself some money, save yourself some time and put almost all your clips -- just as they are -- in a small, tidy self-storage unit or an inexpensive used car. Either should have enough room left over for other artifacts that are cluttering your apartment.

Don't spend any time or money scanning and digitizing a bunch of clips you will never really need. If you just pack them away, you'll still have them, but they won't be in your way.

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Coming Tuesday: With so much journalism being packaged into content management systems, this journalist wonders if she needs to learn html to remain marketable.

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