Journalist Hopeful Looking For Advice

You said it better than I could. There once was a time when I liked saying I was in journalism.

 

Back when we had money and fun and space to fill with interesting stories?

I remember those days.

 

I disagree with the person who said that the school you attend doesn't matter. I think it matters immensely.

Like any other business, people look out for their own. So there's a Syracuse mafia on the east coast. An NU/Mizzou mafia in the Midwest. And on and on.

Others will vehemently disagree with me, and have, but I have always recommended going to as elite of a school as you can, damn the expense. If you get into Harvard, go to Harvard. If you get into Stanford, go to Stanford. Even if journalism doesn't work out, you'll be set up pretty nice.

 

You sound like a lot of us when we got started. The bug bit a lot of us in high school as well when we worked for our h.s. newspapers, then college newspapers, now the pros.
Unfortunately the business has changed.
It'd be easy to say "don't get into journalism at all. You'll regret it." Read all the threads about the finances of the business.
The best advice might be to actually get a cumbersome double major or at least map out a course of action that would allow you to go to law school or some other field if this business continues on the downward slide.
I think Syracuse, Missouri, Northwestern are huge. Go see your h.s. counselor. He/she will have a list of the best or most noted schools.

Anybody who gets in the field now will have to be different than some of us who hit it hard and never looked back. There HAS to be a No. 2 option or you are going to possibly waste a lot of time and money in college.

 

i give nobody a nod because of where they went to school. i once worked in a newsroom that was 80 percent mizzou grads. impressed? not so much. no different from any other place i worked.

 

With the way the print medium is struggling mightily, I wouldn't recommend anyone get into journalism. People can post their own BLOGS!!! or get their writing fix elsewhere.

However, if you still have a burning desire to get into journalism, even with all the pessimism surrounding the print medium, I would honestly recommend getting a major in something other than journalism. I'd still strongly recommend writing for your college's newspaper (preferably a daily if they have one) and for local newspapers.

As someone who used to look for entry level reporters, I placed more stock in your clips (previously published stories you submit to a prospective employer) than I do in where you get your degree, or even whether you got a degree in journalism.

I was an English major at a university with a prestigous journalism program. I hired a guy who got his degree from Winthrop University because his clips were the best of any of the applicants AND he showed initiative during the hiring process.

Best of luck. Keep us posted.

 

Especially if journalism doesn't work out ...

 

Accountant? You don't need to be that smart to beat a sports writers' salary.

Let me put this in perspective, I just found out that a 21 year old kid, no college degree, got a bump to middle management in retail and will be pulling 40k. This is at the part time job I took while working for minimum wage before I was made full time at my paper, which FT pulls 27k. Could've pursued retail management but have this silly dream about using my journalism degree and having a career and stuff.

I'm sorry, but I had to rant about this and didn't see the use in creating a thread.

 

Well, you can bet that that kid, at least, now has "a career." And probably a pretty good one, at that.

 

80 percent mizzougrad? but he's only one man!!!!

 

Yeah, but he's an effin' stud.

 

I don't mean this as an insult in any way to anyone on this board, but gobucs, there are a lot of people with a bad taste in their mouth right now toward journalism. The struggles in the industry are well documented, here and in plenty of other places. And as someone who just got out of school a year or so ago, the job search certainly isn't fun.

But you know what? I keep pressing, for now anyway, because I have some OK offers and I love to write. And I'm just not that good at anything else.

So if you love to write, and you think journalism is for you, go for it. You may find out sooner rather than later that it's not, and you may find out that it's your only true passion in life. So go for it. Just don't major in it. Major in business, or marketing, or education, or anything that offers you a solid back-up plan in case you get out of school and there aren't any jobs.

But as bad as the market is right now, keep an eye on it. If you're only a junior in high school, there's a chance that by the time you graduate, the industry may have found a successful alternative to what it's doing now, and there may be plenty of decent jobs out there. They likely won't be at conventional newspapers, but there will always be a need for information, and journalists will always be the main gateway from the people who create news to the people who get the news. That, IMO, won't change. The way we do it will, but that won't.

So if you want it, stick with it.

As for colleges, the name doesn't matter as much as the chances you can get. If you want to cover sports, go to a school that has a decent newspaper with rather high-profile D-1 athletics. Hang around at press conferences and games and every opportunity you get to be around the professionals. Get there early, talk to them, ask them questions. Don't be rude or annoying about it, but just ease your way in there. Most of those guys were in your shoes once, and most of them are more than willing to help.

Don't be afraid to walk into the newspaper office your first day on campus and ask for an assignment. You may not get a sports story right away, but get your foot in the door. Take your own ideas down there. Editors love it when a writer can bring his own ideas to the table, so do it. Do your research, find some stories, and ask to write them. A lot of them will have already been done; a lot of them will get shot down because they just aren't good ideas. But ask about them anyway. Try not to turn assignments down. Don't be afraid to skip a class or two to catch that basketball presser when the SE is in a bind and can't get anyone to go. Don't be afraid to sit down with said SE when (s)he edits the hell out of your first few stories and ask him/her why (s)he did what (s)he did.

Journalism is a wonderful occupation that's in a shitty spot right now, but that doesn't mean you should give up the idea right now. You're young, you can afford to change your mind later. Don't rule something out now, especially since every business sucks right now. Just hedge your bets, and most of all, never forget that there's always something to improve and always someone around who's more than willing to help you improve.