ASE Tampa Tribune/Buccaneers coverage (and more)

I guess the thinking is the degree requirement will limit the applications. But that doesn't make sense. How many people in this business have at least 8 years experience, with two in management, and no degree? If I was hiring, I'd be intrigued by a person who has been able to achieve that level of success without a degree.

 

mike penetti. moving to arizona for personal reasons. good guy and the guys on the Bucs/NFL beats really liked working for him.

 

True, true. But it has been my experience that editors will look the other way on degrees for writers but a management position is a bit different. How you gonna deal with those NFL writers if you haven't read Chaucer in the original?

 

degree doesn't mean anything.
We are not brain surgeons.

Most of the best journalists -- both editors and writers -- that I have ever known did not have degrees. Most of them didn't have them because they were too busy, you know, doing actually journalism, to be bogged down with some algebra class at 8 am.

The degree thing can and perhaps should be used to discourage people who aren't qualified professionally from applying. But any ME or EE who excludes a top-notch applicant simply over the piece of paper is just plain stupid.

 

That better be sarcasm.

 

And some people put in time and "bullshit" working and learning their craft while "qualified" people drank with their frat buddies and spent someone else's money to get through college.

You don't learn anything in college that makes you qualified to be in newspaper management, and the idea that having a degree shows dedication is a bunch of crap.

 

i'll be the first to agree that a college degree isn't so super valuable, experience-wise. so much so, that i've talked with my old communications department head about starting a program for sports writers, where things like homerism, deadline stress, dealing with police reports, suspensions, agents, interviewing tips for different settings and competition are actually addressed.

that said, i disagree with the thot that we just got hammered with our frat buddies on our parents' dimes. i worked for the school newspaper, had another on-campus work study job AND worked part-time as a banquet server/bartender at a hilton. and i still am whittling away at a $30,000 student loan.

a degree does give u a rudimentary knowledge of many things, but also lacks a lot.

however, it DOES illustrate the ability to finish what u started.

 

It's possible to go to college and work at the college paper.
It's possible to go to college and work at a "real" paper.

Because you chose neither, doesn't make those who did less.

 

I went to college, but the convergence of my personal and professional lives when I was younger led me to ultimately choose a job at a "real" newspaper over finishing school. BTW, that job was a management position. I'm not saying that going through college is not something to be proud of, but it certainly isn't some grand, noble calling that makes a person better at their job, or, as some feel, better as a person than an individual who chooses to take a different path in life.


If anyone is assuming someone's less than another, it's the I've-got-a-degree-and-you-don't crowd. That's the kind of arrogance that permeates this business and its often-flawed hiring process.

 

This is the kind of business where your abilities are evident by the time you enter sixth grade. I used to edit two writers with degrees from a well-respected Jesuit college in the Northeast, and neither could differentiate between its and it's. Meanwhile, I could depend on another writer who was sans degree to turn in clean-as-a-whistle copy.

College may be a good experience, but it doesn't make anyone a better journalist.

 

Congratulations. This is the dumbest thing anyone's ever posted here.

One of my best friends in the business is far younger than I am and clearing far more than I am without a degree. He had to pay for college himself so he started freelance writing to help pay for it. He was so good he lined up a bunch of clients and has now put college on the backburner. He's not lazy, he's just smart and realizes he'll make a lot more money and go a lot further in his career if he keeps writing full-time. It has not hurt him in his job search and it will not hurt him in the future because he's learned far more in the field than he'd ever learn in college.

When I was 20, I was told by an editor he'd hire me on the spot if I wasn't going back to college in the fall.

Anyone who thinks you need a piece of paper and a bunch of boring hours practicing theory in a classroom to get a job in this business is an idiot.