Staff Writer Petra Haugen
Staff Writer, City and Culture
[email protected] | (612) 555-2264 | Minneapolis, United States
Profile
Staff writer with two years at a Minneapolis city magazine, filing two 1,400 word features a month plus a weekly arts column, roughly 60 published pieces to date. Reported a six-part series on public housing waitlists that was picked up by two regional outlets and cited in a city council briefing. Comfortable with records requests, on-the-record interviewing and a same-week turnaround, and trained in the outlet's style guide and CMS.
Work Experience
03/2025 - Present, Staff Writer, City and Culture, Mill District Magazine, Minneapolis, United States
- File two 1,400 word features a month plus a weekly 600 word arts column, roughly 34 bylined pieces a year.
- Reported a six-part series on public housing waitlists over four months on 41 interviews and three records requests; picked up by two regional outlets and cited in a city council briefing.
- Take every piece from pitch to publication inside the outlet's CMS, including art direction notes, captions and social copy.
- Covered the arts desk during staff absence, adding 11 reviews in 2025 without missing a feature deadline.
06/2024 - 02/2025, Editorial Assistant, Mill District Magazine, Minneapolis, United States
- Fact checked 90 pieces across three issues and maintained the source and permissions log.
- Wrote 26 short front-of-book items and captions, the first bylines in the published-work index.
Education
09/2020 - 05/2024, Bachelor of Arts, English, University of Minnesota, Minneapolis, United States
Editor of the student weekly for two years, with a print run of 8,000 and a staff of 19.
Skills
Reported features, 75
Interviewing, 80
Public records requests, 65
Fact checking and source verification, 85
AP style, 85
WordPress and Airtable editorial calendars, 75
Languages
English, native
Norwegian, intermediate
Certificates
04/2025, ACES Certificate in Editing, Poynter Institute and ACES
Copy editing, style and fact checking.
Summary
A writer resume is a one to two page document carrying a short published-work index: outlet, date, your exact role on each piece, and a link that still loads. This guide gives you three adaptable versions, the index format that works for editorial, content marketing and book work, and current Bureau of Labor Statistics pay and outlook for writers and authors.
Writer resume examples by experience level
A writer resume is a one to two page document whose real payload is a short, dated index of published work: the outlet, the date, your exact role on the piece, and a link that still loads.
Everything else on the page is standard. The index is the part that decides the hire, and it is the part most writers handle worst, either by dumping thirty links into a portfolio site nobody opens or by writing "published in various outlets" and hoping the editor asks.
Resume guide for a writer resume
This guide and the corresponding writer resume example will cover:
- How to write a writer resume, section by section
- How to build a published-work index by outlet, date and exact role
- Three adaptable summaries: staff writer, working writer and senior writer
- What to do with ghostwritten, unbylined and work made for hire pieces
- What the job market looks like for writers and what you can expect to earn
How to write a writer resume
Six sections: contact header with a portfolio link, summary, selected published work, experience, skills, and education. One page if you have under five years, two once the index has earned its own page.
| Section | What it is answering | Where it goes |
|---|---|---|
| Selected published work | Has this person shipped, where, how recently, and in what role? | Directly under the summary, above experience |
| Experience | Who paid them, for how long, and what did they own? | Reverse chronological, with volume and cadence |
| Skills | Which formats, tools and systems can they be dropped into? | A grouped block, not a keyword stripe |
| Education | Does anything here need explaining? | Short, at the foot |
Put volume and cadence in every experience bullet
Editors and content leads are staffing a calendar. "Wrote articles for the magazine" tells them nothing about whether you can hold a slot.
Write the rate instead: "Filed two 1,800 word features a month plus a weekly 600 word column" or "Produced 14 long-form pieces and 40 short posts across 2025". Add the research load if it is unusual: "eight to twelve interviews per feature".
Then add one number that shows the piece worked. Not vanity traffic on everything, just the one that is defensible: a piece that was syndicated, a piece that drove a policy response, an explainer that has been the top organic result for its term for eighteen months, a series that grew a newsletter list from 4,000 to 19,000.
Run the file through the ATS resume checker before you submit. Most staff writing jobs and nearly all in-house content roles are collected through a parsing system.
Choosing the best resume format for a writer resume
Reverse chronological with the published-work index promoted above experience. That inversion is deliberate: a writer with four freelance years and no staff title has a thin experience section and a strong index, and putting the index first fixes the order in which those two facts land.
A functional or skills-first format is a mistake here even for freelancers, because what it hides is recency. A hiring editor reads dates to answer one question: are you currently writing. An index with three pieces from the last eight months answers it; a skills cluster does not.
Include your contact information
| ✅ Right | ❌ Wrong |
|---|---|
| Petra Haugen | Petra Haugen |
| Writer: long-form features, essays, brand editorial | Passionate wordsmith and storyteller |
| Portfolio: petrahaugen.example.com/clips | Portfolio available upon request |
| (612) 555-2264, [email protected], Minneapolis, MN | (612) 555-2264, [email protected] |
The portfolio URL is not optional and it is not a LinkedIn profile. It is a page you own, with the pieces on it, that loads without a login. Check it the morning you apply.
Make use of a summary
Four lines: what you write, how much of it and how often, where it has run, and one thing that is true of your work and not of everyone else's.
Staff writer with two years at a Minneapolis city magazine, filing two 1,400 word features a month plus a weekly arts column, roughly 60 published pieces to date. Reported a six-part series on public housing waitlists that was picked up by two regional outlets and cited in a city council briefing. Comfortable with records requests, on-the-record interviewing and a same-week turnaround, and trained in the outlet's style guide and CMS.
Writer with seven years across editorial and brand work, currently filing long-form features to a national review while carrying two retainer clients in health technology. Publish roughly 24 bylined features and 40 shorter pieces a year, with eight to twelve interviews behind each feature. Work under both byline and ghost agreements, keep a rights line on every index entry, and have had four pieces anthologized or syndicated.
Senior writer and contributing editor with 14 years in magazines and brand editorial, currently commissioning and editing a quarterly essay section while writing four features a year. Author of one nonfiction book with a trade publisher and roughly 280 published pieces. Built and ran a brand newsroom that took an owned-media newsletter from 4,000 to 19,000 subscribers in two years, and mentor four staff and contract writers.
Right vs wrong: the same writer summary, twice
| ✅ Right | ❌ Wrong |
|---|---|
| Writer with seven years across editorial and brand work, filing long-form features while carrying two retainer clients. | Versatile writer with a passion for storytelling across many formats. |
| Publish roughly 24 bylined features and 40 shorter pieces a year, eight to twelve interviews behind each feature. | Extensive experience producing high-quality content for a variety of clients. |
| Work under both byline and ghost agreements and keep a rights line on every index entry. | Skilled at adapting my voice to any brand or publication. |
The right column can be checked in four minutes. The left column is what an editor has already read eleven times before lunch.
Outline your writing experience
Outlet or client, your title, dates, and the beat or remit in one line. Then three to five bullets carrying volume, cadence and one outcome.
| Instead of | Use |
|---|---|
| Wrote articles on a variety of topics | Filed two 1,400 word features a month on housing, transit and city budgets |
| Conducted research and interviews | Ran 8 to 12 interviews per feature plus state and city records requests |
| Worked with editors to improve content | Took pieces from pitch to publication with two edit passes, holding a 48 hour turnaround on revisions |
| Created content for clients | Held two retainer clients at 6,000 words a month across explainers, case studies and executive bylines |
| Grew readership | Wrote the newsletter that took the list from 4,000 to 19,000 subscribers in two years |
| Wrote SEO content | Wrote 22 evergreen explainers, 9 of which have held a top-three organic position for over a year |
Freelance Writer, own practice, Minneapolis, MN, August 2023 to Present. Long-form features and brand editorial.
File roughly 24 bylined features and 40 shorter pieces a year to national and regional outlets, with 8 to 12 interviews behind each feature.
Carry two retainer clients in health technology at a combined 6,000 words a month across explainers, case studies and executive bylines; both have renewed three times.
Work under both byline and ghost agreements, keeping a rights line and a reference route on every entry in the master index.
Staff Writer, Mill District Magazine, Minneapolis, MN, March 2020 to July 2023. City and culture beat.
Filed two 1,400 word features a month plus a weekly 600 word arts column, roughly 34 bylined pieces a year.
Reported "The Waitlist", a six-part series on public housing waitlists, over four months on 41 interviews and three records requests; picked up by two regional outlets and cited in a city council briefing.
Build a published-work index that survives a click
This is the section that does the hiring, and it is the one thing a writer resume has that no other resume has.
An index is not a portfolio. A portfolio is a site with everything on it. An index is six to ten entries chosen for this job, on the resume itself, each in one line. The format is fixed and the order of the elements matters.
Selected published work
"The Waitlist", Mill District Magazine, March 2023. Reporter and writer, six-part series, 9,800 words. Link.
"What a Bus Lane Costs", Meridian Review, September 2024. Writer, 4,200 word feature, first-person reporting. Link.
"Quiet Quarters", Northern Anthology 2024, October 2024. Writer, essay, reprinted from Meridian Review with permission. Link.
Health technology explainer library, retained client, 2024 to 2025. Writer, 18 pieces, unbylined, samples available under NDA.
"Founder's Note" series, retained client, 2023 to 2025. Ghostwriter, 22 pieces, credited internally, reference available.
Untitled nonfiction book, Birch Lake Books, forthcoming spring 2027. Author, 82,000 words, under contract.
Six elements per line, always in this order: title, outlet, date, your exact role, scale, and access. Nothing else earns the space.
Your exact role is the element people skip and editors care most about. "Writer" and "reporter and writer" are different jobs. "Contributing editor" means you commissioned and edited. "Co-writer" means there was another name on it. If you wrote to someone else's outline and transcripts, say "writer, from client research" rather than implying you reported it. An editor who finds the gap in the interview stops reading the rest of the index.
Ghostwritten and unbylined work
Most paid writing never carries the writer's name, and pretending otherwise leaves half your record off the page. Put it on, honestly labeled.
For ghostwritten work, name the category rather than the person: "Ghostwriter, executive byline series, enterprise software client, 22 pieces, 2023 to 2025, reference available." Never name the credited author, never link the piece, and never claim it as yours without the qualifier. If your agreement allows a named reference, that reference is worth more than the link would have been.
For unbylined work, which is most agency, content marketing and staff production writing, give the client type, the volume and the access route: "Writer, 18 piece explainer library, health technology client, unbylined, samples available under NDA." Hiring managers in content marketing read that line as normal, because it is how their own team's work looks.
For work made for hire, know what you signed. The U.S. Copyright Office's Circular 30, revised August 2024, states that the employer or the party that commissioned a work made for hire "is the author of that work". A commissioned piece only qualifies if there is an express written statement signed by both parties and the work falls within one of nine categories, among them a contribution to a collective work, a translation, a supplementary work, an instructional text and a compilation (U.S. Copyright Office, Circular 30, retrieved 17 September 2026). That is why the rights line matters: a piece you wrote under work made for hire is not yours to reprint, and an index entry that quietly implies otherwise is a problem you do not want surfacing later.
How the index changes by lane
Three lanes, three different indexes from the same career
Editorial: lead with bylines, weight recency heavily, name the outlets, and show range across at least two forms. Six entries, four from the last 18 months. An editor is buying judgment and reporting, so the six-part series belongs at the top even if the essay is the better sentence.
Content marketing: lead with client category and business result, not outlet prestige. "18 piece explainer library, health technology client, 9 pieces holding top-three organic" reads better than three literary bylines. Say which CMS and which brief format you work from, because half the job is fitting a system.
Book work: lead with the contract and the publisher, then word count, then the proposal if the book is not out. "Under contract, Birch Lake Books, 82,000 words, delivery spring 2027" is a fact. "Working on a book" is not, and every editor has heard it.
Keep one long master index in a document you own, with every piece, date, role and rights note in it. Cut the six for each application from that. It is the only way the resume version stays current without becoming a chore.
Build a snapshot of your key skills
Ten to fourteen entries in three groups: forms you write, the craft and reporting work behind them, and the systems you produce in.
Forms: Long-form features, Reported essays, Explainers, Case studies, Executive bylines and ghostwriting, Newsletters, Scripts for audio
Craft and reporting: Interviewing, Public records requests, Source verification, Structural editing, AP style, Chicago style, Headline and deck writing
Systems: WordPress and Contentful, Google Analytics 4, Ahrefs, Airtable editorial calendars, Asana, Otter transcription, Figma for handoff
List your education and certifications
Short, at the foot, and only as long as it needs to be. A degree is the typical entry-level education for writers and authors (BLS Occupational Outlook Handbook, writers and authors, page last modified 27 August 2026), and workers age 25 and over with a bachelor's degree had median usual weekly earnings of $1,578 in 2025 against an unemployment rate of 2.8 percent (BLS, Education pays, 2025 data, table last modified 1 September 2026). None of that is a credential an editor checks the way a licensing board would.
Bachelor of Arts, English, University of Minnesota, Minneapolis, MN, 2016.
Professional development: Poynter ACES Certificate in Editing, 2022. Investigative Reporters and Editors annual conference workshops, 2023 and 2025. HubSpot Content Marketing certification, 2024.
Memberships: American Society of Journalists and Authors, member since 2021.
Choose the right layout and design
Single column, 11 or 12 point, generous margins, no photograph, no two-column template. Writers are the group most tempted to design the resume as a portfolio object, and the group that can least afford a parsing failure, because editorial and content roles draw very large applicant pools.
Hyperlink the index entries and also write out one short portfolio URL in the header, because a printed copy loses every link. Name the file for yourself and the post: petra-haugen-staff-writer-resume.pdf.
Put six to ten index entries on the page, chosen for this job. Give outlet, date, exact role, scale and access on every line. Label ghostwritten and unbylined work honestly. Check every link the morning you apply. Give volume and cadence in experience bullets. Keep a long master index you cut from.
Do not write "published in various outlets". Do not link a piece you cannot claim. Do not put thirty links on a resume. Do not describe yourself as a passionate wordsmith or a storyteller. Do not list a dead outlet without its dates. Do not include a writing sample as an attachment unless the posting asked for one, since editors read the index first and the sample only if the index earns it.
Writer job market and outlook
A flat occupation with steady replacement demand and an unusually high share of self-employment.
| Measure | Value |
|---|---|
| Writers and authors employed, 2025 | 140,300 |
| Projected employment, 2035 | 139,900 |
| Projected change, 2025-35 | 0% (little or no change), -500 jobs |
| Projected annual openings | ~11,900 |
| Typical entry-level education | Bachelor's degree |
| Median annual wage, May 2025 | $76,910 |
Source: U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics, Occupational Outlook Handbook, writers and authors, page last modified 27 August 2026, May 2025 wage data and 2025 to 2035 projections.
Sixty-five percent of writers are self-employed
The single most important number in this occupation is the employment distribution. BLS puts self-employed writers at 65 percent of the occupation, with professional, scientific and technical services at 9 percent, information at 8 percent, educational services at 3 percent, and religious, grantmaking, civic and professional organizations at 2 percent (BLS Occupational Outlook Handbook, writers and authors, 27 August 2026).
No other comparable occupation is shaped like that. It means the majority of writing work is bought as a project rather than filled as a post, and it means your resume is competing against a portfolio-and-rate conversation as often as against other resumes.
Two practical consequences. First, keep the resume ready even when you are not job hunting, because self-employed work arrives on a two-day timeline. Second, the index is the document, not the employment history: a client deciding on a $9,000 project is buying three clips and a rate, and the employment section is only there to establish that you have held a calendar before.
Where the employed 35 percent sit, and what those industries pay:
| Industry | Share of employment | Median annual wage (May 2025) |
|---|---|---|
| Religious, grantmaking, civic and professional organizations | 2% | $80,480 |
| Professional, scientific and technical services | 9% | $77,860 |
| Information | 8% | $74,590 |
| Educational services | 3% | $72,610 |
Source: U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics, Occupational Outlook Handbook, writers and authors, May 2025.
What salary you can expect as a writer
The median annual wage for writers and authors was $76,910 as of May 2025, or $36.98 an hour, against $50,980 for all occupations. The lowest 10 percent earned less than $44,310 and the highest 10 percent more than $139,870 (BLS Occupational Outlook Handbook, writers and authors, page last modified 27 August 2026).
That spread of roughly $95,000 between the tenth and ninetieth percentiles is wide for an occupation with no licensing tier, and the index is one of the few levers that moves you inside it. The industry medians above are a second: professional, scientific and technical services pays a median of $77,860 and information $74,590, so the same skill applied to brand work is not priced below editorial work, whatever the prestige order suggests.
Book work is the exception, and it should be weighed honestly. The Authors Guild's 2023 Author Income Survey, published 27 September 2023 and covering 5,699 published authors reporting 2022 income, found a median book income of $15,000 for full-time authors in commercial markets, or $25,000 once other author-related income was included. Across all respondents, full-time and part-time together, median book income was $2,000. A book belongs on the index as a credential and a calling card. It is very rarely the income line.
The content marketing lane is where much of the paid volume sits, and it is budgeted rather than commissioned. In the Content Marketing Institute's 2026 B2B Content and Marketing Trends Report, published 8 October 2025 and based on 1,015 B2B marketers surveyed between 24 June and 14 August 2025, 19 percent named agency and outsourcing among their top investment areas for 2026. If you are freelancing, a resume that speaks to a marketing budget holder in their own terms, with client category and result rather than outlet prestige, is reaching the money.
Key takeaways for a writer resume
- Put a six to ten entry published-work index above your experience section.
- Give outlet, date, exact role, scale and access on every index line.
- Label ghostwritten and unbylined work honestly, with a reference instead of a link.
- Know your rights line, because work made for hire is not yours to reprint.
- Put volume and cadence in every experience bullet, plus one defensible result.
- Rebuild the index per application from a long master file you keep.
- Check every link the morning you apply, and keep the file single column.
Build your writer resume in 15 minutes with our AI resume builder.
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Pair it with a matching writer cover letter.
Writer resume questions, answered
How long should a writer resume be?
One page under five years, two once the index needs its own block and you have held more than two staff or retainer positions. The index is what earns the second page. A third page is a curriculum vitae, which is right for an academic and wrong for an editorial or content role.
How many clips should I put on the resume?
Six to ten, chosen for the specific job, with four of them from the last eighteen months if you can manage it. The portfolio site holds everything else. An index of thirty links reads as a writer who could not decide which of their pieces was best, which is exactly the judgment the job requires.
What do I do about ghostwritten work?
Include it, labeled as ghostwriting, described by client category rather than by the credited person, with a volume and a reference. "Ghostwriter, executive byline series, enterprise software client, 22 pieces, 2023 to 2025, reference available" is a strong line. Naming the credited author or linking the piece breaks most agreements and is the one thing that will lose you the job on the spot.
Do I need a degree to work as a writer?
It is the typical entry-level education for the occupation, with no work experience required in a related occupation and long-term on-the-job training expected (BLS Occupational Outlook Handbook, writers and authors, 27 August 2026). In practice the index outranks the degree in nearly every hiring conversation. A writer with eight strong recent clips and no degree is a stronger candidate than a writer with a degree and nothing published in two years.
Should I put rates on the resume?
No. Rates belong in the conversation that follows, and a number on the page either prices you out of a role you would have taken or anchors you below what the budget held. Signal scale instead: retainer size in words per month, project length, the number of clients carried at once. That tells a budget holder what tier you work in without fixing a figure.
How do I show results without traffic numbers I am allowed to share?
Use what you can say: syndication and reprints, an anthology, a piece cited in an official document, a top organic position you can demonstrate by searching the term, a newsletter list you own, an award, a retainer that renewed three times. A renewed retainer is one of the most persuasive lines a freelance writer can put on a page, and nothing in it is confidential.