Filed under: Blog | Tags: economy, journalism, networking, newspapers, public relations
John Sutton
The process of networking for a job brings you in contact with a lot of different types of people in the journalism business. People from different ages, genders, positions, papers and locations. They all have similar and somewhat predictable messages of advice when first contacted in a networking arena.
“Stay proactive.”
“Send unsolicited resumes out to papers.”
“Keep calling and calling until you become annoying.”
All these are common and encouraging words of advice that someone just out of college is looking for in the employment search. I can work on those things.
But this year I have found that while those words might still come from contacts already in the business, some not-so-encouraging advice is also coming my way.
Since last summer, there have been people telling me that I should try and get out of the journalism world. They say there just isn’t enough money and finding a job is nearly an impossible task considering the direction newspapers have taken in recent times. I have to admit I have wanted to listen sometimes to those people who tell me to get out, but I have too much of a passion for being a journalist than to quit now.
Even one of my primary contacts in the job search, Mariel Hart, a Web producer for The Record, in Bergen County in New Jersey, where I interned last summer, has been encouraging me try and find jobs in another industry. When I met her for an alumni gathering in Syracuse she talked about how proud she was of another student for finding a job in public relations.
She told me to not lose three years of my professional life to journalism – something I might be passionate about – only to leave. But honestly, PR has no pull for me. I would not be happy there, it just isn’t for me.
While I still might have the desire to keep pushing on with the search if those in the business are already losing a passion for it, it only worries me to think what might happen to me five or six years down the road.
For now, I have to just keep on hitting that networking button until something positive comes from it. I still am waiting to hear back from The Nutley Sun regarding my interview last week, but for the time being, I need to assume I still do not have a job.
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[...] Journalists are telling j-students to STAY AWAY from the profession, for their own sake. In a new “Help Wanted” blog for UWIRE, recent j-grad John Sutton writes that a former internship mentor is less than keen on his [...]
Pingback by Journalist Tells J-Student: Get Out While You Still Can! :( « College Media Matters May 23, 2009 @ 4:21 pmi agree with you john, it’s a scary world to be facing. but i’ve stared at the new york times day after day for fifteen years and promised myself i’d be there someday, so now really isn’t the time to quit.
good luck with it all…
Comment by juliette June 4, 2009 @ 9:49 pm