New reporters - fancy language not necessary

[Lá Fhéile Pádraig Sona Daoibh]

When you write a resume or a cover letter and you decide to include an "objective", try to avoid writing things like :

"To establish a full-time reporting position that will challenge my skills in a newsroom environment."

The key to good writing is to write conversationally, and that extends to your letter and resume as well. Just say "I'd like to be a reporter." Makes more sense, gets to the point, and is clear.

Flowering-up the language of a formal letter will more often than not make the hiring manager snicker and pass your letter around the newsroom for other people to laugh at. Or in some cases post it on a bulletin board in the newsroom as an example of what not to do.

Keep it simple. You'll be fine.

Anyone have some other tips that might be helpful?

[Randy Steinman]

Originally posted by Sultan:

Anyone have some other tips that might be helpful?Always make 100% sure that your cover letter is free of typos. Go over it with a magnifying glass if you have to.

And quadruple-check that you have correctly spelled the name of the person you are applying to. If you have any doubt, call the receptionist and ask.

I once received a T&R addressed to Randy Simon.

[Ryder13]

The problem is more in the "how to write a resume" books than anything else.
All the ones I've ever seen tell the reader to use language like that.

So, to any of you reading who are in internships -- ask the news director or whoever your supervisor is, if they have a few minutes to look at your cover letter and resume. You might also consider asking any of the other newsroom staffers if they wouldn't mind taking a look.

If you aren't in an internship (or haven't done one, and if so, why not?) -- try what they used to call an "informational interview". That's an interview where you assure the ND or whoever that you are not looking for a job from him, you'd just like to take a few minutes of his time.

Take the resume and the cover letter with you, but don't show them unless you're asked. Instead, you ask what he looks for, how he evaluates potentials candidates. Remember, you are talking about the entire interview process. But, in this setting, you CAN bring up questions about the cover letter and the resume.

At that point, it is very likely, he'll ask to see an example. THEN, you can bring them out asnd ask for specific criticism.

[LMS]

We work in a strange industry. Normal rules do not usually apply to us. I'm not bragging, just stating what should be the obvious. Employees (anchors) often have far more power than the supervisors (news directors) who are nominally their superiors. Our performance, more than in most other industries can be completely redeemable with one great day, or one really bad day.

And the way we apply for jobs is completely off the books.

All applicants should take this to heart: everything you think you know about applying for jobs, or have ever read in a book, is wrong. I've been in a number of professions, and have never seen anything like the resume process in television.

Start with the resume. Aside from keeping it to one page, everything else is unique to us. Ditch the "Objective" section. Put "education" at the bottom. Put your references on the resume and never say "available on request." Leave the flowery language in your job description behing. Don't brag or state the obvious. Everyone knows what a reporter does. You don't have to talk abou how you were responsible for live shots and developing story ideas. Everyone knows you can get the job done. That's why you haven't been fired yet.

After I had a few jobs under my belt, my resume would have caused the average non-television headhunter to have a stroke for how many rules it broke. I started with experience and under each job it had three lines. The first were the call letters of the station and my job title. The second line had how long I was there. The third line had information like whether I was a nightside reporter, and any awards I had won. That was it. Next came education and then references. That was it.

ND's look at a resume for about five seconds and they process one thing visually - the number of jobs you've had. They're doing this while they're popping your tape into the VCR and the only reason they give it more than a few seconds is to see if any of the call letters stick out so they can call someone they know to get the real dirt on you. Otherwise, it gets stuffed in the sleeve of the tape.

Don't waste time with regular resume rules. Make it short, legible, and with the information news directors really need and forget about it. It's all about the tape anyway.

[Ryder13]

It's true.

About a year ago I was let go from my last job. And I decided to try and do something OUTSIDE of TV News. But I didn't change my resume.

Big mistake.

If you say to an ND via resume: "Anchor and Producer of the Midday cast" -- he or she knows EXACTLY what that means. And the number of skills required to do that are actually quite impressive.

However,if someone OUTSIDE of the business reads it, they may know that the anchor is the person who "reads" the news on-camera -- but that's it.

I actually had interviewers say to me, "Well, thank you for coming in, but we're really looking for someone with more management experience " OR "more skilled with computer software" OR "who can work well under pressure" OR (my personal favorite) "who can multi-task".

(OK, OK -- pick yourselves up off the floor and wipe the tears from your eyes..)

So, allow me to echo -- all of the above rules apply. And don't be afraid to ask anyone who is working with whom you have a good relationship if you can use them as a reference. (I just added my mentor -- who has creditials as long as my arm -- to my list of references. Why I didn't think of that years ago, is beyond me.)

[ December 07, 2005, 07:25 AM: Message edited by: Ryder13 ]

[Lá Fhéile Pádraig Sona Daoibh]

Originally posted by Randy Steinman:
</font><blockquote>quote:</font><hr />Originally posted by Sultan:

Anyone have some other tips that might be helpful?And quadruple-check that you have correctly spelled the name of the person you are applying to.</font>[/QUOTE]Excellent point. I might add that it's of premier importance you know if the person you're writing to is a "Mr." or a "Ms."

If the name isn't as clear as John, Susan, Mark, Barbara, etc...put a call into the desk and just ask. If you aren't sure, it's likely others have called and asked as well.

You don't want to send a letter to Sean Whoever and title it "Dear Ms. Whoever" if it's a guy.

[upandown]

I ripped on one of these a couple of weeks ago.
Then they yanked the thread.

But, it seems to me that the first priority in this business should be to write simply and clearly.

[Meow Meow]

I hate when I receive resumes with flowerly inflated language. It sounds like Don King Jr. is applying.

My superrifferous reporting is overseqious and superduperrieffic.

What?

[Lá Fhéile Pádraig Sona Daoibh]

Originally posted by upandown:
I ripped on one of these a couple of weeks ago.
Then they yanked the thread.A softer approach, perhaps?

[Stormin Norman]

Conversationally! Yeah, like the guy on MSNBC right now talking about the guy shot on the Miami plane. "...discharged his weapon..." "...chased the suspect up the jet bridge and the suspect came after them before the discharge..."

Once the suspect turned and ran towards the air marshall, good chance there was a preliminary "discharge" before the weapon was "discharged.

VERY conversational.

[Johnny Deadline]

If you have a good cover letter, you can usually omit the objective line on your resume.

Other tips...

Play up your news-related experience and education. Lead off your resume with PROFESSIONAL experience. If you have other jobs that aren't news-related, but you think they're relevant, list them later.

[Lá Fhéile Pádraig Sona Daoibh]

Originally posted by Stormin Let it Snow Im a Ho Norman:
Conversationally! Yeah, like the guy on MSNBC right now talking about the guy shot on the Miami plane. "...discharged his weapon..." "...chased the suspect up the jet bridge and the suspect came after them before the discharge..."

Once the suspect turned and ran towards the air marshall, good chance there was a preliminary "discharge" before the weapon was "discharged.

VERY conversational.That's precisely why today's "talent" writes like they do - they write what they hear. And too often they hear anchors on major cable networks speaking in with that kind of overly-formal language. That doesn't make it right, nor does it make it universally acceptable.

It's much better to hear conversational words coming from a reporter's/anchor's mouth. It makes the imminent formality of news less-formal.

And that's one of the keys to making it in this business.

[Stormin Norman]

agreed.

[bride]

Originally posted by Johnny Drumstick:
If you have a good cover letter, you can usually omit the objective line on your resume.

Thank you!

I've never included a career objective on my resume. You spell out in your cover letter the job you're applying for. It's written all over your demo tape. Every career objective line I've ever seen has been overly fancy, and doesn't get to the point.

[I'm a Ninja]

Always include how proactive you are in solving paradigms.

I had an old boss who loved to use that one. He is an idiot.

[TVMattNYC]

Originally posted by Sultan:

"To establish a full-time reporting position that will challenge my skills in a newsroom environment."

As opposed to a full-time reporting position OUTSIDE a newsroom environment ...

[Ryder13]

As to the "discharged his weapon et cetera" not sounding conversational -- it depends on your anchor.
The vast majority of them would not be able to say that without sounding stilted -- but their are a few who could pull it off.

The reason? They use very formal language most of the time when they speak -- so to have them try and use "less formal" language, has the effect of them seeming to "talk down" to the audience.

A fate worse than death -- the audience HATES people who they perceive to be "faking it" even worse.

"Conversational" means how THAT person would speak in a conversation.

[icarus112277]

That whole discharge things osunds like it was mandated by a higher-up

[upandown]

Let's get off the hijacked airliner and cut to the chase.
Career objectives are lame.
However, should an applicant feel compelled to write one, he or she would be more effective in mentioning what he or she might bring to the table.

[s'news]

Who is this "chase" and why are we cutting him?

[Diplomat]

Originally posted by upandown:
Let's get off the hijacked airliner and cut to the chase.
Career objectives are lame.
However, should an applicant feel compelled to write one, he or she would be more effective in mentioning what he or she might bring to the table.True.

It's more common now to put a "Career Summary" at the top of the page that sums your experience and ability in a general, one-sentence statement.

I never understood the "objective" thing. If you're sending a resume, it stands to reason that your objective is to get a job.

[upandown]

Because some of us had airliners and bombs and federal air marshals on the brain, yesterday.

Chase that.

Originally posted by Let it s'news, let it s'news ...:
Who is this "chase" and why are we cutting him?

[Jane Craig]

Gee, I thought it was because Chase is going to give us a live, exclusive, investigative continuous coverage team report -- live from the field, as it actually occurs right now -- because you need to know -- and if you don't, it could kill you (or at least be a parent's worst nightmare).

[AutoTranz]

Originally posted by Let it s'news, let it s'news ...:
Who is this "chase" and why are we cutting him?"Ready to take chase....aannnnd, CUE CHASE!"