WRITING A RÉSUMÉ

THE RÉSUMÉ

Your résumé essentially lists what jobs you've done and where you've done them. The first thing stations want to know from your resumé is what work experience you have. Make sure that's the first thing they see after your name and address.

Make your résumé fit on one page. You're not telling the entire story of your life's work here. You're giving headlines.

I managed to dredge up an old résumé of mine from the year I graduated college, 1988. Since I had little professional experience at the time, I included a lot of details -- maybe too many -- detailing my responsibilities and skills.

Compare that to my résumé now. First, I list each job by job title instead of the dates I had it. Second, details are scarce. This is for two reasons. One is that I now have worked at enough stations that not all the information will fit. Another reason is that most stations understand what a "Weekend Sports Anchor/Weekday Sports Reporter" does without my explaining it.

I save space to list awards I've won and my college degree. I don't state the "objective" of my job search on my résumé for lack of space and because I say it in my cover letter.

REFERENCES

Do not write "References Available Upon Request" on anything you send to any station. Ever. It is a worthless statement. If you have references, write up a separate page that says "References" at the top, list them there and send that page with your cover letter and resumé.

If you use someone as a reference, make sure that (A) you've asked them first, (B) it is a person who knows you well enough to know what kind of work you do, and (C) it is someone who will say good things about you.

Don't put people down as references just because they're famous. Even if Bryant Gumbel will answer your calls, he might not answer those of news directors calling to ask him about you. And if a news director happens to know Mr. Gumbel but Mr. Gumbel can't remember you from when you interned at the Today show while he was still at NBC, you haven't helped yourself.

COVER LETTERS

Writing an attention getting cover letter, which is the first thing a news director sees out of the whole package of things you've sent him or her, is so important that I have a separate page for it.