Q. I am nearly two years into my first job out of school (at a 12,000-ish daily in a rural but thriving community), and while I am not quite ready to leave, I have started putting my feelers out. I am requesting informational interviews with mid-sized newspapers in my goal markets, with the hopes of relocating by mid-2009.
I have learned from
a previous column that a one-page resume is probably best, especially considering how young my career is. But I'm not sure how to cut it down. Where do I draw the line? Basically, how do I decide what the most important parts of my college career are? My professional experience is limited, so I figure I should still refer to at least some of my collegiate work to show that I'm not totally green.
Thank you for your consideration,
Awkward AdolescenceA. You're wise to plan in advance and to get ready.
You need to flip your resume around. You have been out of school for two years, but you list your
degree as the first thing on your resume and then, near the bottom, you list 14 awards -- eight of them from your college days.
Descriptions of your professional experiences tend to be short and are separated into two lines needlessly. Tighten the collegiate job descriptions; expand the more recent, professional ones.
As soon as journalists gain some professional experience, that section can move ahead of education, even if the journalist is still in school. Flesh out the job descriptions, taking advantage of room across the page so you don't push yourself down -- and off -- the page too soon.
Save education for the bottom. It needs to be there, but you can start to treat your collegiate awards as a summarizing sentence rather than as a space-gobbling list.
Cut adjectives like
skilled, versatile and
driven for nouns or verbs like
initiated,
multi-tasked and
created, but only if you can back them up.
Demonstrate your command of Associated Press style by following it on your resume, as in state names.
Use a more compact arrangement for contact information, such as stacking the address to the left and the e-mail and phone to the right.
Coming Monday: He is at a weekly now but wants to get to a daily or an online publication. Can he overcome earlier decisions that limited his experience?
