Stop Letting Resume Mistakes Silence Your Broadcast Career
Identify and correct the errors that keep hiring managers from calling you back.
Common Mistakes That Kill Your Chances
Each mistake includes why it hurts, how to fix it, and before/after examples
- Hiring managers skim objectives and discard generic statements
- Fails to showcase on‑air personality and ratings impact
- Reduces keyword density for ATS
- Replace the objective with a 2‑sentence professional summary
- Highlight anchor experience, market size, and key achievements
- Embed broadcast‑specific keywords
Objective: Seeking a position as a news anchor where I can utilize my communication skills.
Professional Summary: Award‑winning news anchor with 7 years experience delivering breaking news to a 1.2 million‑viewer market. Proven track record of boosting ratings by 15 % during prime‑time slots.
- Vague bullet points don’t differentiate you from other anchors
- ATS looks for numbers and action verbs
- Hiring managers can’t gauge your contribution
- Start each bullet with a strong verb
- Add specific metrics (ratings, viewership, awards)
- Show results of your reporting
- Anchored daily news program. - Conducted interviews with guests. - Produced news segments.
- Anchored the 6 PM news, reaching 1.2 M viewers and increasing ratings by 12 % YoY. - Secured exclusive interviews with state officials, boosting social‑media engagement by 30 %. - Produced and edited 20+ live segments weekly, maintaining 0 % on‑air errors.
- ATS filters out resumes missing industry terms
- Recruiters search for keywords like "teleprompter" or "scriptwriting"
- Your expertise appears generic
- Research job postings for common broadcast terms
- Weave keywords naturally into summary and experience sections
- Create a dedicated "Core Competencies" list
Skills: Communication, Writing, Teamwork
Core Competencies: Live Broadcast, Teleprompter Operation, Scriptwriting, Breaking News Coverage, Editorial Judgment, Audience Engagement
- Hiring managers view sloppy layouts as unprofessional
- ATS may misread dates or section headings
- Important information can be missed
- Use a single clean font (e.g., Calibri 11pt)
- Standardize date format to MM/YYYY
- Apply consistent heading styles
Experience: News Anchor – XYZ TV Jan 2018 – Present Education: B.A. Journalism – ABC University 2014 – 2018
Professional Experience News Anchor, XYZ TV – 01/2018 – Present Education B.A. Journalism, ABC University – 09/2014 – 05/2018
- ATS cannot parse image‑based PDFs, causing your resume to be rejected
- Keywords become invisible to parsing algorithms
- You lose control over how content is displayed
- Export your resume as a text‑based PDF or DOCX
- Run it through an ATS simulator to verify parsing
- Avoid embedding the resume as an image
[Scanned image of printed resume]
[Text‑based PDF generated from Word with selectable text]
- Use a clear, bold header with name and contact info
- Write a 2‑sentence summary with ratings and market size
- Add a Core Competencies box with broadcast keywords
- Quantify every anchor duty with numbers
- Standardize dates to MM/YYYY
- Keep fonts uniform (Calibri or Arial, 11‑12pt)
- Save as a text‑based PDF or DOCX
- Proofread for spelling and AP style consistency
- Convert objective to summary
- Add quantifiable metrics
- Insert broadcast keywords
- Standardize date format
- Apply clean layout
