Tips for Recent College Grad

What kind of jobs are you applying for?

Are you going for the bigger newspapers, ie: college or pro beat? Or are you also looking at lower paying high school beat jobs too?

Reason I ask is that a lot of recent college grads/younger kids think they are beneath working their way up/starting on a high school beat.

Not saying you're one of those, but we've seen that all too often on here.

 

http://www.goarmy.com/

 

Sports jobs at good papers are impossible to find. Hard to break in. My advice is to not limit yourself to sports writing and try news and freelancing. Also, freelance for a weekly but don't take a job at a weekly, I havent seen a guy go from weekly to daily in years.

You have to realize that any job at a daily that serves any type of pro or college market will have multiple journalists down shifting who were laid off. I know guys who cover major college sports who are on high school beats.

Advice? Always keep your eye on the prize --- money, stability, a living.

You want passion, but professional journalists write for money. don't be a fanboi or an activist and do it for free.

 

I was the last one to make the move.

 

I've been applying for the smaller market jobs that cover mostly preps. I know my place. I'm not egotistical or do I think I'm going to land a great gig right out of the gate. To tell you the truth, I would prefer to start out at a high school beat to gain some valuable experience before moving on to a more prestigious college beat.

I know it's going to take a while, but I didn't go to school and spend years majoring in journalism for nothing. If I give up now that would just be quitting.

So, how would you approach an editor if you were interested in freelancing for them?

 

Get a job at Walmart...it pays better.

 

To freelance:

Right now, contact every paper within a reasonable radius of your area. If it's a small operation, look for the sports editor. If it's a larger operation, they likely have a dedicated preps editor.

Let them know you're in the area, you just graduated from college and you would like to be added to their list of fall freelancers. E-mail them a PDF packet of your work. Features are nice, but be sure to include at least one solid game story, since that's likely what you'll be doing.

If you have experience with a particular sport (say, soccer or lacrosse), let them know that as well. They might have 10 people they can dispatch for football but only one who knows how to cover, say, field hockey. That person is golden.

Know when the fall sports start at the schools in your area (both practices and competitions). Then about two weeks before the start of the season, make contact with the SE or preps editor again. Remind them that you want assignments. They are busy people up to their eyeballs in prep tabs at that moment, so you may have slipped their mind.

If they add you to the freelance list, fill out your paperwork sooner rather than later. You will likely complete a freelance contract and a W-9 so you can get paid. They may or may not issue you some type of press pass identifying you as being with the paper. But get this stuff done at noon on a Tuesday before football starts, not the first Friday of games.

When they send you on assignment, be sure to ask what information they need for box scores. It varies by paper.

Good luck, and be looking for a day job. Not trying to be pessimistic, but as others have pointed out, the odds are not in your favor of landing a full-time sports writing position, especially if you're limiting yourself to a specific geographic area (if you are).

 

The job market is brutal. You have almost no hope of getting a sports job. We can't even hire part-timers right now.

Take whatever job you can find in any industry.

 

Tis a brutal job market. Keep your head up if you never get a response or get a no thanks. Be willing to move/commute and work for peanuts. It'll take some time, but if you want to work in this god-forsaken industry, you'll eventually find something.

 

Go to NewsVoyager.com or Mondo Newspapers. Look up newspapers there, starting with the nearest papers to you and working your way out. They don't have a job opening? Send them something anyway. Worst-case scenario is they say no. Best-case, you land a stringing job and make a contact that helps out.

Keep checking the jobs open. Apply to places you've never heard of and be willing to move. If you want this life, and I can't blame you at all for wanting it, you're going to have to work hard to get your shot. There are hundreds to thousands of people out there just like you who want it too. You're going to have to outwork them to land a job and you're going to have to keep working hard once you land it. The job market's tough, yes, but if you want this badly enough, you can make it happen.

One last piece of advice: ask yourself how badly you want this job. Unless you really love it, don't get into this field. You don't get paid enough to do it if you don't love it.

 

pursue an internship in the craziest newsroom environment you can place yourself and see where it leads. godspeed!

 

healthy dose unless you have the strongeoust of insiders with 'pull,' as my grandma rose always put it (sounded more like 'pool' with her russian accent), RUN-RUN-RUN from this field of dreams. the odds are astronomically against you.

i always thought i'd be the last person in the world to give anyone advise that didn't take the 'follow your dream' approach but i've been beaten down and finally adopted it after 33 years in the biz. i was one of the lucky ones to beat the odds and it WAS only by luck -- then followed by turning the luck into the realization of my dream. and it was only because my dad (not in the biz) knew a guy (also not in the biz) who was neighbors with the personnel v.p. at the n.y. daily news. when the news was on strike for 78 days in the summer of '78, several 'copy boys' took jobs elsewhere, creating a few openings. at strike's end, my 'connection' was the ONLY reason i even got an interview, during which i was told, 'if you're expecting this job to lead anywhere, be forewarned -- it's not going to happen. it's been years since we've promoted copyboys to reporters or editors.'

being young (21) and stupid, and with nothing else close to a nibble, i took the job. starting at $150 a week, 9-5 (that's p.m. to a.m., mondays/tuesdays off).

yada yada yada, thanks to a perfect storm of sorts, i beat the odds, i suppose. in june of '80 (16 months later) serendipity had as much to do with it as talent. really more to do with it, since the talent NEVER would have had a chance to grow and be seen without it.

guess what i'm saying is: those who are advising you to 'make another career choice' aren't all just bitter folks speaking from their own frustrations. many successful and talented journos are around here offering similar advice. nothing pleases me more than to see young people get the chance to shine like i was lucky enough to get.

y'all know what the numbers are and what you're up against. only you know how much talent you might have. if you have no 'pull' but are oozing with talent and confidence and a healthy amount of arrogance, go for it. have a plan; maybe give yourself a deadline on how much time you should give to chasing the dream. if you have a way to pay the rent (or am as lucky as i was and living at home during my copyboy period) go for it.


just understand fully what you're up against.