Journalism CV example and writing guide

Use a clean, reverse-chronological format that lets an editor find your strongest reporting evidence quickly. Two pages is a sensible ceiling for most applicants, while an early-career journalist with limited experience may fit everything onto one. Put your name and contact details first, then your personal statement, selected skills, experience, education and relevant extras. Add a clearly labelled portfolio link near the top rather than scattering links through every section.

Personal statement

Write two or three compact sentences. Say what kind of journalist you are, which subjects or formats you know and what proves your ability. A journalism personal statement should be specific enough that another applicant could not use it unchanged. An early-career candidate might lead with student reporting, a placement or an independent portfolio. An established journalist should foreground editorial range, audience, output or leadership at an appropriate scale.

Experience and portfolio

List positions and substantial projects from newest to oldest. Journalism entrants can build relevant experience while studying, and a relevant qualification is not the only route into the profession. Freelance commissions, student media, placements, community reporting and independent work can all count when they are labelled honestly. Show researching, investigating, interviewing, reporting and writing through completed assignments rather than adjectives.

Use three to five concise bullets beneath each relevant position. Start with a strong verb, explain the assignment or problem and finish with a defensible result. Give enough context to distinguish a quick rewrite from original reporting. When work was collaborative, state your contribution plainly. A small portfolio of carefully chosen pieces is more useful than a long, unfiltered archive; make sure each link works and that any paywall or access restriction is clear.

Skills, education and extras

Order skills to match the vacancy. Where you have used them, relevant technical abilities may include video, audio, editing, shorthand, social media content creation, search engine optimisation and web design. Multimedia evidence matters more when it names the output and your contribution. "Produced and edited a two-minute interview package" is stronger than "video skills".

Present qualifications briefly, saving space for reporting evidence. Useful extras can include a language used for interviews, specialist knowledge that supports a beat, or sustained volunteering that led to published work. Review your public profiles as carefully as the CV because journalists are advised to consider how their online presence presents them.

Treat each experience bullet as a compact piece of reporting. Lead with the action, add enough context to show the scope or difficulty, then finish with a result. Useful measures include published output, turnaround time, interviews secured, corrections, completion rates and changes in an audience measure. Numbers make evidence easier to assess, but only use figures that come from records you can defend.

A practical structure is: action verb + reporting or production task + scope + verified outcome. "Reported weekly community news" leaves too much unanswered. "Researched and wrote 18 community news articles in one term, interviewing 35 sources and filing every piece by deadline" shows output, method and reliability.

Choose verbs that describe what you did: investigated, verified, corroborated, interviewed, reported, filed, edited, sub-edited, pitched, commissioned, produced, recorded, presented and analysed. Reserve "investigated" for work that went beyond a quick search. Use "verified" when you genuinely checked a source or claim.

Journalists identify and verify information from people, reports, data and social media, cross-checking sources where necessary. An interview bullet can name the format, preparation and how answers shaped follow-up questions. For print and associated digital work, relevant evidence can cover copy editing, headlines and publication photography. Broadcast applicants can describe story research, live or recorded interviews, presenting and voiceover assignments where these reflect their work.

Do not turn every bullet into a traffic claim. Accuracy, speed and editorial judgement also count. Quantify the sources corroborated, turnaround achieved or proportion of copy accepted without substantial revision. If audience analytics changed a coverage decision, state both the result and the action: "Reviewed four weeks of completion data and moved the explainer opening earlier, lifting average completion from 42% to 49%."

Senior applicants should show greater scale. Useful evidence includes commissioning volume, editorial oversight, team responsibility and decisions made from performance data. A senior bullet might read: "Commissioned and edited 160 digital stories across six months, reducing average edit turnaround from 95 to 68 minutes while maintaining the desk's corrections log below three items per month."

Freelancers should identify the type of outlet, commissioning pattern and finished portfolio without implying permanent employment. A portfolio can include work produced for several outlets and pieces published through the journalist's own blog or podcast. Keep confidential sources anonymous and leave restricted newsroom information out of the CV. A convincing bullet never needs to compromise a source or reveal private commercial data.

Place education above experience when a course, student newsroom or final project contains your strongest evidence. Established journalists will usually place it below their employment history. Give the formal award title, institution and completion date. Add one or two lines for a substantial reporting project, placement or publication when it supports the application; a full module list rarely earns its space.

A relevant degree is one possible route, not a universal entry condition. The University of Essex Journalism course awards a (BA) Bachelor of Arts at Honours Degree level. That specific Journalism course is accredited by the National Council for the Training of Journalists (NCTJ), and students on it can study for an industry-recognised qualification alongside their degree. These points describe one course. They do not establish a qualification that every journalist needs, so list only awards you have actually received.

The Certificate of Higher Education in Journalism offered by Birkbeck is approved by the National Union of Journalists (NUJ). Taking that course makes a student eligible to apply for NUJ student membership. Eligibility, an application and confirmed membership are different things: do not list NUJ student membership unless it has been granted.

Entry criteria for a prospective course belong in the course application, not on a professional journalism CV. Check the provider's complete admissions information directly rather than treating one accepted qualification route as the only route. If a language test formed part of your own admission history, include it only when it remains relevant to the vacancy or application.

For every qualification, copy the exact title from the certificate and name the awarding institution and date. Mark unfinished study clearly as ongoing. Never upgrade attendance into an award or present an application as an achieved credential. Once reporting experience is stronger than school-level results, shorten the education section and give the saved space to work samples, placements and outcomes.