Nathan Bransford - The Forums

Over the past year and a half, I've had four articles published -- two online and two in a magazine. All four were about various social justice / peace / community partnerships type of things -- and as I'm trying to get a job in that realm of the working world, I like to put my publishing history on my resume as I think it's a nice boost.

Problem is, though, that the magazine I'm published in is one most people haven't heard of. If you just make assumptions based on the name of the magazine, it makes your eyebrow pop up in wonder. Then if you google it, you hit porn.

I'm published in Mandate, which is the mission and service magazine of the United Church of Canada. If you've never heard of the magazine, it does tend to make people think of a gay magazine of some sort. I found out the other day that if you google "Mandate magazine", the first hit is a gay porn magazine of the same name.

So... how do I put this on my resume? (Thankfully, the article titles don't evoke images of penises.)

This is what I've been putting (using my latest publication as an example)...
"Winnipeg Church, South African Preschool Share a Bond," Mandate, February 2010.

Should I put...
"Winnipeg Church, South African Preschool Share a Bond," Mandate, the United Church of Canada's mission and service magazine, February 2010.

Should I even worry about it? The article title is quite indicative of the article content. (The other Mandate article was titled "Youth for Peace.")

Thoughts?

I'm just glad I wasn't published in Canada's most famous history magazine, The Beaver.

craig wrote:I'm just glad I wasn't published in Canada's most famous history magazine, The Beaver.

LOL. I probably wouldn't worry about clarifying that you wrote for the CHURCH version, because I think the title of your article would make it fairly clear that it's not related to pornography. "Mandate" is a real word, and I imagine anyone that decided to Google it would know that it's probably not intended to mean "Man Date."

In the unlikely event that someone asks you to clarify, then you can make it perfectly clear which magazine you were published in.

Hi, Craig. That's too bad about the porn link, but we all know how common that is with the internet. I would add the extra bit about "Winnipeg Church, South African Preschool Share a Bond," Mandate, the United Church of Canada's mission and service magazine, February 2010." Good luck!

I think you should be fine either way, especially in social service - type jobs. If you're still worried, put copies of the articles into the portfolio you take to interviews.