Moving from the desk

In the current job climate, can a person legitimately get a reporting job, or some other kind of job not called "copy editor"? Particularly if you've been in the business a little over 2 years and has spent the last year desking?

Most places ask for writing clips along with their resume. Is there an expiration date on when you can submit clips you've written?

 

It'll be hard. You'll probably need to get fresh clips via freelancing. (Or maybe your paper will let you pick up a reporting shift?)

Generally, clips older than one year have passed their expiration date.

 

Oh, I don't know about that. I've got some great clips from 2-3 years ago that I used to get my current job. A good clip is a good clip, period.

You might have to freelance, jake, but you probably should try to get some more writing clips. It can only help, especially if you've only been in the biz for two years (and spent most of that desking.) Use college writing clips, too, if you have to.

 

I'm in a similar situation, basically trying to move from the desk into more of a writing job. How do you guys usually show your clips on a resume (embedded in the document)? And do you usually use the jpegs from the plan (is it considered unprofessional to have a scanned copy of the actual print article)?

 

Jpegs from the plan? Not sure what you mean there.

It's got to be legible, that's for sure. If a scanned copy is hard to read, find another way. Paste it into a Word document if you have to.

I've got PDFs of all my clips and they print out beautifully. If you're e-mailing your resume/clips to an employer, combine it all into one PDF file and you won't have to worry about attachments. You can also print it out easily and send it through snail mail, too.

 

What I mean by jpegs was exporting the image from the InDesign plan and saving it as a jpeg, rather than a pdf, so I could just embed it in a Word file or something like that, rather than setting it all up as a PDF

 

The scanned copies are perfectly legible, I have a very high-quality scanner. Basically, I just wondered if it was considered more professional to have the version straight out of InDesign or whatever layout program, or if most places prefer the clips as they appeared in the paper.

 

Too much work.

Just print to PDF (if you're on a Mac) or use a program like CutePDF (free download at cutepdf.com) and make it one file.

The advantage of PDFs is that you control the presentation -- sometimes, Word files show up differently on someone else's computer, or they aren't formatted correctly. So, make your clips into PDFs if you can help it.

 

Moving from the desk to a reporter position is about as tough as moving from stringer to full-time. In the long run, it's probably easier to just find another job elsewhere.

 

Well, I don't have a choice, anymore. I got canned today! I was just wondering if it was at all possible for a copy editor to get a job writing somewhere. I suppose I best start freelancing, assuming I don't starve first. heh.

It's lame getting fired for not being perfect.
But, in a way it's for the best.

 

sorry to hear that Jake. Good luck with the freelancing opportunities.

 

Thanks for the tips, I hadn't thought about the possibility of a Word doc showing up without the formatting.