Ask the Recruiter

Q. In the many years I've spent in my current position, I've worn several hats. My problem is how to best display them on a resume. I currently have a couple of relevant and most recent highlights in bold type and then some bullet points.

Many of the jobs I'm interested in are management positions that say they require management experience. While I've never had the official title, I was an interim manager for a long stretch, and I know I could do these jobs. I obviously don't want to inflate my experience, but I do want to package it effectively.

And even for non-management positions, how do I best list my various experiences to show how they'll make me perfect for the job opening? Or do I just lay it all out and depend on the cover letter?

Thanks in advance,

Could Be Perfect

A. "Ask the Recruiter" is not really a place for critiques of individual resumes, but I can make a few points that might help others.

The first problem with your resume is that it is backward. The first item tells us that you graduated from a very fine journalism program -- 15 years ago. As soon as a journalist gets that first job, or even a really great internship, employment should go above education. If you put your educational experience first, you'll be considered a student. Go pro.

The employment section of your resume is backwards, too. You have listed your first job on top, your freelancing experience last and your current job in the middle. It gets lost there. Put your main job on the top of your resume. Essentially try to follow reverse chronological order within categories.

Do the same things with the series of jobs you have worked at different places. It is less impressive to say, "Copy editor, later acting features editor" than it is to put the big job first. In fact, if you'd like, you can put the big job out there all by itself and include the lead-up jobs in a less prominent paragraph under the heading.

Watch the details, especially when one of your jobs is copy editor. You have a period after a line that is not a sentence. You have misspelled QuarkXPress. It is a tough thing to guess right, but an easy thing to look up. Some editors say that they will toss a resume that has even one mistake on it. Most, I bet, figure that a mistake on a resume indicates that more will come under the crunch of daily deadlines.

Avoid phrases like "cover ... as needed." If you say you did work as needed, you come off as passive. And choose stronger verbs than "oversaw" and "fill in." Without an ounce of exaggeration, describe ways you initiated, led or perfected.

I like that you have won some in-house awards. I am less interested in your freelance success if I am looking to hire someone full time. Prominently listing your freelance experience might make me think you have divided loyalties, or that I will have to compete for your attention. 

Coming Monday: This journalist sought success by starting an online publication in Ann Arbor, Mich., months before her old newspaper did it, too.