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It's time to pull out my favorite hashtag ever: #interntips. Hold on, kids. We are going to learn something this afternoon.
Do not write your cover letter in Comic Sans. #interntips
Do not reintroduce yourself in your first sentence. It's on your letterhead. I see it, already.
If you put your personal website on your resume, make sure it works and the links to "portfolio" don't go to a page that says "Edit your paragraph here." #interntips
Tell me about your clips! Sometimes the backstory is better than the story itself. #interntips
(@Haleaziz -- Demian just told me you said to stop. I cannot. I read a lot of Comic Sans letters today.)
It's a good idea not to send me a cover letter addressed to the editors of @Cosmopolitan. There are cool people there, but it's pretty different. #interntips
The best cover letter I read today (and maybe ever) was from an aspiring journalist who recalled being interviewed himself as a teen. I love these genuine stories about how you fell into the job. It says a lot about you and what you bring to an assignment. #interntips
"Fabrication" is not a good thing in the truth-telling business. Don't say you "fabricated" articles. (See also: The online thesaurus is not always your friend.)
Verbs are your friend! Managed, spearheaded, uncovered, pitched, unearthed.... Cliches are your enemy: "In the wake of," "threw in the deep end..." etc. #interntips
Please make sure your links work! Maybe 30 percent of links I see are broken. #interntips
An internship or other experience in a professional newsroom is a key thing to have on your resume. I see a lot of students who have only worked at their school papers. That's a good start, but don't dismiss need to get outside that student newsroom. #interntips
My resume fills two pages. So yours probably doesn't need to cover five. #interntips
There is a resume template with bubbles you fill out to show your expertise in various areas. Don't use it unless you're ranking your proficiency with language/software/coding languages, etc. If you have 3/5 dots for writing, it makes me wonder why you would want to be a writer.
That's enough for today. I actually love reading resumes from aspiring journos. I think many of them don't get advice about how to do it well. So if you're one of those people, feel free to ask someone who knows. That includes me if you don't know who to ask. :-)
