Turn Your Reporter Resume into a Story Worth Reading
Spot the biggest resume errors and fix them fast with Resumly’s expert guide.
Common Mistakes That Kill Your Chances
Each mistake includes why it hurts, how to fix it, and before/after examples
- Doesn't tell hiring editors what you bring
- Gets filtered by ATS keyword scans
- Replace with a headline summary that lists beats, years of experience, and key achievements
Objective: Seeking a reporting position where I can utilize my skills.
Investigative reporter with 5+ years covering politics and crime, delivering award‑winning stories that increased web traffic by 30%.
- Hiring editors can’t gauge your contribution
- ATS looks for numbers
- Add metrics such as readership growth, awards, or story reach
Wrote daily news articles for local newspaper.
Produced daily news articles that boosted readership by 12% and earned the 2023 State Press Award for Breaking News.
- Hard to scan quickly
- ATS may miss key terms in dense text
- Use bullet points, keep each under 2 lines, start with strong action verbs
During my tenure at XYZ News I was responsible for covering a wide range of topics including politics, education, and community events, often working under tight deadlines to deliver accurate and engaging stories.
- Covered politics, education, and community events under tight deadlines - Delivered accurate, engaging stories that increased online shares by 18%
- Modern newsrooms need digital fluency
- ATS may filter for tools like SEO, CMS, video editing
- Add a dedicated 'Digital Skills' subsection with tools and platforms
Experienced in writing and editing.
Digital Skills: SEO (Moz, Ahrefs), CMS (WordPress, Drupal), Video Editing (Adobe Premiere), Data Visualization (Tableau)
- ATS may misread dates, causing parsing errors
- Hiring managers can’t track career timeline
- Use consistent month‑year format (MMM YYYY) and city, state for each role
June 2020 – Present: Reporter, The Daily Times, New York.
Jun 2020 – Present | New York, NY | Reporter, The Daily Times
- Use a headline summary instead of an objective
- Quantify achievements in every bullet
- Convert paragraphs to bullet points
- Add a Digital Skills section with relevant tools
- Standardize dates and locations
- Proofread for AP style consistency
- Save as PDF with proper file name
- Add a metric
- Switch to active verb
- Trim to 2 lines
- Insert relevant keyword
