We have all heard celebrities during their Oscar acceptance speech say how lucky they are do to what they love. Those speeches always made me want to lose my lunch until I realized on a smaller scale, I feel the same way. It is not the glitz and glamor (both are non-existent in local tv news as a one-woman-band) that keeps me coming back for more.

This past week, I have been sitting in the media room at the Pinellas County Criminal Justice Center watching a murder trial via video feed a pool camera person is piping down four floors. The media room is a bunch of sad chairs, tables that have seen better days and a wall full of electrical outlets. But, it is the in between banter at the table among journalists and reporters from differing generations that reminded me why I love my job.

In this group, there is energy and passion. You can see it in the glare of an eye or the way one smiles over getting to be at events and seeing things unfold others won’t ever be privy to. We have encountered numerous instances in this case where the defense attorney has referenced his client’s underwear and the judge subsequently putting it on record that he could not believe underwear was being discussed in open court. Sounds cooky, no? It is something everyone of us here will remember and retell at a later gathering–oh and lets not forget most of us wrote about it in an online sidebar!

Reporters are like a secret fraternity and we all speak the same secret language. When one of our comrades reminisces about a judge that insisted he wore a cowboy hat during all trials in his courtroom or discovering a celibate man of the cloth was secretly married (both things I have heard this week), we feed off it, understand and impulse kicks in. Sometimes I think reporters are born and there is something in our DNA that is different than the rest of the world. Why else would we essentially be starving artists, shop the sale racks for our next on-air look, work odd hours, have tattered shoes, live states away from family and submit to a Ramon noodle budget?
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By: Ryan Broussard

Journalism students are constantly inundated with questions like, “What do you want to do?” or “What do you want to cover?” Not everyone is going to be able to cover the courts or police beat. Beats like those are not for everyone either. So what else is there for you do?

Whatever you want to.

There are numerous other beats or niches that students can cover and cover well. Have you ever read an environmental magazine, like The Ecologist or E/The Environmental Magazine, or a car magazine, like Road & Track and Car and Driver? Writers for those magazines and others like them found a specialized niche and prospered. You can too.

The skills that your professors taught you in the classroom for covering traditional beats like meetings and speeches apply across all beats. Here are some niche areas of journalism that are available to students:

Environmental Journalism

On my first day as a journalism major after switching from biology, my adviser noticed my biology and chemistry classes and proclaimed, “You are going to go in environmental journalism. They make good money.” While I’m not sure about the second sentence, I do know there is, or should be, a place for environmental reporting in just about every newsroom.

Think about the BP spill last summer. Or the controversy surrounding the Keystone Pipeline. Situations like that call for good, solid environmental reporting. Small-town environmental problems can range from the impact of controversial waste management facility on the environment to a contaminated water table. Being versed in science can really help a young journalist.
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By: Mike Brannen

You’re a cub reporter, months away from graduating with a journalism degree, and are ready to work in the “real world” (ironic the “real world” gets quotations as if it’s a fictional thing!). You’ve got your top cities and news outlets picked out. It’s time to convince them to hire you. At this stage, your resume lacks years of experience. Sure you’ve padded it with internships, but that’s not going to impress me, or the people who are actually going to hire you. Chances are, you have to compete against someone who has more experience than you. But you have an opportunity to outshine them, by delivering a knock-them-out-of-their-seat cover letter.

A resume tells me what you’ve done. A cover letter tells me who you are. A resume shows me what you’ve accomplished before; your cover letter shows me what you are going to do next. If I’m the person hiring you, I need to get an idea that your personality, and what you believe in, will benefit my newsroom.
I believe that I got my first job, in Seattle, and right out of school, because I had a strong cover letter. My current Executive Producer seemed to like it enough to call me with a job opening after I sent it to him.

There are two ways to frame your cover letter: tell a story, or tell your creed.

Your Story
A true journalist naturally embellishes a bit. We do it out of necessity to grab the attention of viewers and readers. It’s time to put those skills to work in your cover letter.

Take some time to think about a day where you kicked butt on the job, or nailed a big story. Describe what you did and why each step was important.

You must weave into your story a way to “brag” about your skills. By “brag,” describe a challenging experience, but not blatantly mention how difficult it was. Let the accomplishment speak for itself.
Sell your reader on why you have a cool job and why it beats anything else.

I would avoid the cliché “I remember the day I knew I wanted to be a reporter” story. Everybody writes that one. As an employer, I don’t care what got you into the business; I want to know what’s keeping you in it.

Your Creed
I wrote mine in this fashion. I detailed what I think are the three main elements of delivering TV news (Live, Local, Now). This formula reveals your values, your news judgment, and your decision-making process.

Your creed is your take on what’s wrong or right with journalism; things you want to see improved, or eliminated. You don’t need an explanation for the things you believe in, at least not in the letter. You probably will once you get to the interview part.

I think the creed is more of what employers want to read about. They can distinguish if the applicant is worthwhile, or meant for the garbage pile.

The creed letter is a bit riskier because what you believe in might not fit the newsroom personality. But, if you’ve done your research, and your letter is tailored to the station’s mission, then you are in a good position for a future interview.

Overall, the type of letter you write should be dictated by the job you want. A story tells me about you. A creed tells me your beliefs.
For either one, make the first line the strongest one in the entire letter. Write it so you know the reader wants to know what comes next. It should be a sentence that no one in history has ever written before, or will ever write again.

Be bold. Be creative. Be original.

Mike Brannen is a morning newscast producer for KIRO7, the CBS affiliate in Seattle. He recently received a Master’s Degree from the University of Missouri-Columbia and completed his thesis, Motivational Use of Twitter. He previously worked multiple positions at KOMU-TV in Columbia, Missouri during for four years. You can follow him on Twitter: @MikeBrannen

By Jennifer Nicole Sullivan

At the Excellence in Journalism conference last month, I had the pleasure of critiquing resumes for two days alongside Generation J committee chair Lynn Walsh. After correcting (and praising!) numerous resumes from college students and young professionals, I came face to face with the age-old resume dilemma: one page or two?

Unless you’ve worked 30+ years, there’s no reason—especially for a recent college graduate—to have a two-page resume. (I’m a former two-pager myself!) Employers simply don’t have time to read two pages.

But don’t fret—everyone can have a one-page resume. Quickly free up some room on your resume by ditching these superfluous elements:

1. References: I saw these on several resumes at the conference. Provide these only if an employer asks for them.

2. URLs: If you have a website, put it in your header sans www. (e.g., jennifernicolesullivan.com). Save all other URLs for your cover letter.

3. Extra words/articles: Use sentence fragments that begin with strong action verbs (no gerunds) to eliminate excess words and articles such as “the.” “I” is never needed.

4. Summary & Objective: Discuss your summary and objective in your cover letter. It takes up precious resume real estate and delays employers from getting to the meat of your resume.

5. Excessive fonts and borders: Keep your resume clean by omitting too many font styles like italics, bold and underline—pick one style and use it sparingly. Keep body font at 11- or 12-point.

6. All caps: They take up more space and tend to look harsh.

7. A separate “Awards” section: If you’ve won awards, keep each one listed underneath the job in which you received it.

8. High school stuff (and anything prior—yes, I’ve seen an elementary school listed!): Unless you’re a college student looking for internships, omit all high school information, clubs, and GPA.

9. College GPA: Unless you have a 3.8 or higher, do not list your GPA. After your first professional job, omit it altogether.

10. College clubs/extracurricular: If you’re still in college, only list relevant activities (e.g., student newspaper editor, SPJ Student Chapter President, etc…). After your first professional job, consider omitting them.

11. Hobbies: If for some reason they’re relevant, mention them in your cover letter.

12. Personal traits: Save all of the “hardworking, multi-tasker, organized” language for your cover letter.

Remember: Focus on conveying your experience and skills that will impress potential employers. Everything else is extra.

Jennifer Nicole Sullivan is a copywriter for Real Simple magazine in New York City. She’s also a fashion, arts and entertainment contributing writer for the weekly newsmagazine Newport Mercury in Newport, R.I. The Dallas native is a former features reporter at Corpus Christi Caller-
Times. She has degrees in theater and radio-TV-film from The University of Texas at Austin and an M.A. in English from The University of Rhode Island. Visit JenniferNicoleSullivan.com and follow her on Twitter @trendyjenny.

There’s certainly nothing new about saying how important it is to have a well-written cover letter and resume. But as someone who has been occasionally lucky enough to be on the receiving end of these first impression-makers, I’m sometimes surprised by seemingly talented people sending in materials that surely do not do them justice. Of course experience weighs heavily in the hiring process, but when comparing two equally qualified candidates, it’s often the little things that make one stand out over the other. Here are a few tips (in my humble opinion) that could serve you and your resume well:

Spice up your cover letter. You’re a writer, aren’t you? Show that potential employer that you can do more than cut and paste the title of a job into a form letter. Don’t come across too casual, but also try to let your voice shine through. I would rather read a cover letter that sounds too informal over one that is boring and staid.

Use terms that everyone will understand. Maybe you really excelled at writing and editing the “daily dozen” at your last job, but no one reading your resume will know what you’re talking about unless you give that job duty more context. Be sure to use general terms that aren’t specific to your old company or publication so that anyone can read your resume and get an understanding for the specifics of past experiences.

Research the position/publication/company to which you are applying. Candidates whose letters and resumes show a real interest in the position or company to which they are applying stand head and shoulders above the rest of the applicant pool. If you’re not already familiar with the company you’re applying to, do your research. And if applicable, incorporate that publication’s tone and style into your cover letter. This said, it’s also important to be sincere. I’ll believe that someone is “excited about the opportunity,” but I’d have a harder time buying that a candidate believes he or she “is the absolute perfect person for the job” after reading only the job description.

Send interesting and relevant clips: What you consider your best clip might not be the best clip for a specific job. Send clips that relate to the position you are applying to. And, if possible, send recent clips. If there are no gaps in your resume, a potential employer might question why you’re sending an article from three years ago. If you’re sending clips in a Word document, be sure to give the article some context if it’s needed–the publication, the section of the publication or any historical/cultural context that add weight to that specific assignment. If you’re linking to clips online, make sure the links aren’t broken and that your article is easily viewable. If the URL to your article is 200-some characters long, create a simplified hyperlink that won’t take up two lines of an email.

Sadly, even the most polished resumes and cover letters can get overlooked–it’s a numbers game, after all. But employing these tips can only help your chances of landing that first interview.