There aren't too many opportunties to show flare or creativity on a resume -- you can do that in your cover letter -- so the most important thing is to talk up your work experience. It's also very important that your resume be easy-to-read and easy-to-follow.
There are multiple formats you can use to craft your resume -- a sample template is available below -- but there are a few things you should keep in mind no matter what layout you choose:
- Keep your resume to a page -- Some veteran professionals might need multiple pages to get across the breadth of their experience but, as a recent college grad and/or someone getting started in the field, you should be able to get everything on a single page. This is key since many employers don't want to print out multi-page resumes.
- List only relevant experience -- Since you probably don't have a ton of professional experience, it's tempting to list every job you've ever had. Don't. You need to tailor your resume to your job hunt. In this case, since you're looking for media jobs, focus on internships and other related work you've done. Your employer won't be terribly interested in the fact that you were a swim instructor in high school or that you worked the cash register at The Gap. If, however, you doubled as a swim instructor and writing tutor, by all means mention the experience.
- Beef up the experience you include -- It's easy to lose track of exactly what you did during a summer internship you had two years ago, but you need to try and remember. And, while you should NEVER lie on your resume, you can make certain seemingly mundane tasks seem more important. If you spent hours at an internship filing, characterize the work in terms of how you relied on your organizational skills. (After all, filing does take some forethought.) Also make sure to list at least a few things you did at any job and/or internship you list. Having only one bullet point under a heading makes the job look slight and unimportant. If you really don't have anything more to say about the experience than that one bullet point, drop it from your resume.
- Think long and hard about your "career objective" -- Some resume templates, especially for those of fresh grads, encourage beginning with a "career objective." I personally don't think this is necessary for a resume but it can work well. That said, if you are going to headline your resume with this, make sure it's applicable. You don't want to interview for a position as an editorial assistant at a publishing house and have your career object be about becoming a meteorologist in the future. Also, try to come up with an objective that's meaningful to you.