Journalist CV: Example, Template, & Tips

Ensure your CV format is structured to best highlight your unique experience and life situation.

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How to write your journalism CV

Before you begin writing, make sure you know how to write a CV in a way that best emphasises your strengths.

As a journalist, you already know how to find breaking stories and report on them in an engaging way. Now it’s time to make a CV that highlights your skills and helps you secure the journalism job you deserve.

Here are four tricks that’ll help you write up a compelling journalism CV that will hook employers.

1. Begin with an engaging personal statement

Start with an impactful personal statement that summarises your relevant skills and emphasises your fit for the job.

Your personal statement should include:

• your years of experience
• 2–3 relevant skills or achievements
• your motivations for applying

Example personal statements for different journalism CVs

Here are a few journalism personal statement examples for different experience levels and situations:

Entry-level journalist personal statement example

Trained journalist with a BA (Hons) in Journalism & Communications (1st) from University of the Creative Arts. Recent internship experience at Financial News London, where I honed my interviewing, transcribing, reporting, and feature-writing skills. Possess strong time management skills and the ability to work with tight, urgent deadlines. Eager to bring my passion for research and storytelling to the Evening Standard as your next Entry-Level Journalist.

Broadcast journalist personal statement example

Thorough and authoritative broadcast journalist with a BA (Hons) Mass Communications (2:1) from Northumbria University. Experienced interviewer, familiar with audio and video editing software as well as transcription tools. Adept at taking quick, detailed notes in shorthand and swiftly writing them up into transcripts for broadcast. Passionate about delivering high-quality stories and impartial analysis, I’m eager to work with the BBC as your next broadcast journalist.

Mid-level editor personal statement example

Established news editor with 6 years of experience working with reporters, advertisers, and investigative journalists. Possess section editing experience and newsroom management skills, having worked as the Money and Business for the Morning Herald. Committed to delivering exceptional, engaging content, I look forward to applying my in-house expertise as your newest Section Editor.

2. Highlight your journalism skills

Having the right skills on your CV will help employers and editors see that you’ll make an exceptional journalist.

Hard skills, like fact-checking, interviewing, and the ability to write in AP style, are a requirement for most newsroom positions. Here are some more good examples:

In addition, you’ll also need the right soft skills to show employers that you’ll be a valuable team player. Here are some essential examples:

Because soft skills are quite vague at first glance, you should illustrate them with examples. Here’s how a journalist might highlight their communication, interpersonal, and teamwork skills in their work experience section:

Examples of soft skills in a journalist CV’s work experience section

• Decide which reports will be on live broadcasts
• Coordinated with 3 researchers, 2 writers, and 2 cameraman teams with live reports
• Conducted 10 interviews with high-ranking government officials

3. Highlight your journalism work experience

Start each bullet point in your journalism’s work experience section with powerful action verbs. This approach adds energy to your CV and shows your enthusiasm and readiness to take initiative.

Here are some examples of using action verbs in bullet points to highlight accomplishments from your journalism career:

• Conducted interviews of foreign delegates, which was used for 2 international broadcasts
• Covered the oath-taking ceremony of the new city mayor, which was nominated for two university awards
• Won “Best Reporting” in Free Media Awards

Hard numbers help quantify your accomplishments, whether that’s a percentage increase in readership, the reach of your social media content, or the number of articles or posts you’ve created.

For example, instead of just saying you publish articles on social media, show the exact number of views and interactions your posts have generated.

Here are three examples of hard numbers in your work experience section:

• Led the research for an investigative documentary on YouTube about combating fake news, which garnered 1M+ views
• Published 3 social media news posts each day, generating 500 average shares across different platforms
• Supervised the training for 4 batches of interns each year

4. Format your journalism CV professionally

The right CV formatting with highlight your professionalism and reassure the employer that you can handle anything they throw at you:

Here’s how to format your CV so that it’s highly readable and pleasing to the eye:

• Set your margins to 1.25–2.5 cm so there is enough white space on the page
• Use a clean, widely recognisable CV font with consistent colouring and sizing
• Put your contact information, LinkedIn profile, and portfolio at the top of your CV
• List your journalist experience in chronological order, starting with the most recent job you did
• Use bullet points to list your achievements and skills in previous roles

Use a pre-formatted CV template to save time on the fiddlier parts of the application process.

Need more ideas?

Our library of CV examples has hundreds of tailored CVs you can use to fine-tune your job application and stand out from other applicants.

 

Journalism job outlook in 2024 — things to know

According to the Office for National Statistics (ONS), journalists in the UK earn an average annual salary of £38,997.

You can find information about the gender pay gap for journalists on the ONS’ website.

Data source: The Office for National Statistics, an agency of His Majesty’s Government. The information contains public sector information licensed under the Open Government Licence v3.0 and reflects the ONS’s most recent salary (1/11/2023), gender pay gap (4/2023), and skills shortage data (6/2022).

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