Getting a sports reporter job out of college without Journalism degree

Stringing is a better option if you're only working part-time or still in college. Which this kid (I think?) still has some time left in, so it might be a good bet. This is another area where I think not necessarily being a journalism major, but at least taking several j classes, will help you out. You meet professors or other contacts who can hook you up with stringing gigs easier than just cold-calling random editors.

When I left journalism I swore I'd keep stringing but I've never managed to carve out the time. Someday, maybe. Weekends and free evenings still feel like a novelty, so I don't want to spend them working.

ETA: I'd hire the 2.2 guy with clips, no brainer to me, and none of my non-journo job interviews cared what my GPA was, they cared that I had a bachelor's that was vaguely related to writing or communications. I'm always very skeptical of what a master's in journalism gets you, even from a thoroughbred school. For every guy who uses it to score a gig at the New York Times or Washington Post, aren't there hundreds in daily jobs they could've gotten with a bachelor's without a mountain of debt?

 

If you can't find time to string in college, you don't deserve a job in journalism after you graduate.

I worked my ass off in college and the result was that I was able skip a few steps after I graduated. I had three full summers at big papers as an Intern and a couple hundred clips from major papers.

If you look at the people who get decent jobs straight out of college, they all have the experience and the clips.

 

Oh, you did it the right way. More than I did even, and I certainly had clips, just not at major newspapers or from a major university. Made a lot of bad, bad career steps. Got a lot of bad, bad advice, including from my own well-meaning parents.

I'm referring to the advice that he get a 9-to-5 and then string if he wants to do sports journalism. As a hobby, I suppose. But, like I said, man, does that blow.

 

In my experience, J-students that work at the student paper have relatively low GPAs because they never go to class and instead hang out in the office all day.

 

In my experience, as well. As in, that was my experience.

 

Same here, and about all 65 employees at the paper. Journalism professors either loved having us Collegian folks in class because we worked our butts off in the field (although, not always their class work), or hated it because knew we would make an appearance once a week but still walk out with an A.

If only my overall GPA could have been as high as it was in journalism classes.

 

As an econ kid, I can assure you they mostly don't. Just because you can handle rigorous graphs and calculus does not mean you have anything close to the skills needed to work at a newspaper.

Also, do any jobs really ask for GPA? That just seems like resume filler when you don't have something real to put.

 

The thing is, stringing doesn't blow when you're 20, or at least it shouldn't.

I was always ecstatic when I would be able to convince a SE that he needed a volleyball or a basketball gamer and shouldn't rely on what the SID sends.

If you're still doing that in your 30s, well, that's a different story...

 

I guarantee you I've had more background checks and have had to produce my transcript more times in the 3 years I've been out of the business than I did during my 12 years in the business.

In journalism, some care if you have a diploma. I doubt any care what your grades were.

 

You mean in journalism or outside of journalism? In journalism, probably not. But if I had a 3.8 or 3.9 in some rigorous field, you better damned well believe I'm putting it on there. In other fields, it's practically required. Law firms, for example, hire almost exclusively on GPA (law school GPA, though some ask for your undergraduate transcripts, as well). Graduate professional schools are also huge on GPA.

 

And one of the odd consequences of the way newspapers are struggling now is the great opportunities it has created for clips for interns. In New Orleans last year, they cut the second LSU beat reporter position (the guy was moved to an opening on the Saints beat) and replaced it with an intern.

So here was a 20-year-old LSU student getting to basically be an SEC beat reporter for a metro paper as an intern. Jim Kleinpeter, the top guy on the beat, had to be a great guy to learn from and every now and then one of the columnists would come out too.

How do you beat that experience? The intern has since gone on to do a summer internship in Charlotte, so she's going to full of good clips. And there's no way, 10 years ago, she would have had the same opportunities.

 

Stringing blows when you're in your 30s. The only connection I have left in the biz is this site and a chance at teaching an intro journalism class at the community college where I'm already teaching a communications course.

If you're in your 30s, see if you can adjunct. Some are desperate enough that they don't require instructors to have a masters and you'll get paid more for your time.