How to Get a Job in Journalism (From a Fresh Hack)

I am about as new to the media world as Donald Trump is to politics, currently in my first (properly paid) job in journalism as a features writer after graduating from uni this year.

Credit: Pixabay/Skitterphoto

By Arun Kakar

When I was looking online for tips about becoming a journalist, I found it pretty hard to find advice from people just getting started in this current media climate. It feels like every week big publications are cutting staff and losing money, so it's pretty difficulty to be optimistic about ones prospects here.

Journalism is a career I’d always wanted but thought foolish to pursue seriously for its competitiveness and the reasons above. As a humanities student, much of the time spent applying to jobs is tough: You’re not specific enough to fit into anything in particular, and often the jobs you are considering (for me this was journalism, advertising, publishing) are the most applied for.

What was important at that stage was not focusing solely on journalism and just finding a way to get into doing something I wanted.

It’s not been easy, but I’ve already learned a lot about how to get that all important foot in the door and hopefully begin to build a career in one of the most rapidly changing and exciting industries around. I’m by no means a success story and I am certainly not a big-shot hack. These are just some of the hoops I learned to jump to get on the irst rung of the ladder.

Here are 5 tips I’ll share for those hoping to do the same:

Read the News

This is the most obvious tip on a pretty obvious list. As a minimum I’d (humbly) say read a newspaper cover to cover every morning, and withhold prejudices about certain papers. It’s important to understand what people are reading and the angles that papers are taking rather than a fraction of what’s out there. A quick scroll down BBC news just ain’t going to cut it.

You’ll notice from the start that it’ll very quickly advance your understanding of the world you want to go into and expose you to a range of opinions. No journalist should live in an echo chamber.

You don’t need to read every page of every paper, but reading widely and often is so, so essential. The amount of people who tell me that they want to be a journalist and then admit to being uninformed about key news issues is something that will be exposed ruthlessly by any editor at any interview you get. This happened to me and it was brutal. It’s the minimum requirement.

The internet is a bewildering place that spoils us for choice. Just reading the news isn’t enough, especially if you have any ambition of writing features. A good way to do this is to use RSS feeds from a range of sources as well as things like Pocket, Twitter and Flipboard that will keep you in the loop with longer, more in depth material.

It’s also important I'd say to stay curious, not only because it’ll look proactive to any employer, but because its intrinsically quite rewarding. The magazine world is vast: go out of your way to buy a new title every month and see what it's doing differently. Listen to podcasts, watch movies blah blah blah…the more rounded you’ll be. This is especially important when it comes to tip #4.

Oh, and pay for stuff. I’ve not been blessed with vast riches, but it makes sense to support the industry you’re looking to get into. Many of the papers and larger magazines run really cheap introductory offers and you can be promiscuous here. I got three months of The Telegraph for free when I took out an introductory '12 issues for £12’ subscription of The Spectator. Very Tory I know, but you’ll see right away the reason why the best publications deserve to be paid for.

Train

This is where it becomes tricky. After being under a ton of debt after uni, the last thing I wanted to do was shell out for a course that offered no guarantees of getting into a business that is shrinking.

What I’d say is that whilst it might not be essentiual, but seeing this as an investment helps. With the industry more competitive than ever, it is important to show that you have some core skills that put you above the crowd. Things like media law, shorthand and a knowledge of SEO are respected and often necessary. Editors are looking for people that understand the techie stuff they don’t know about, but still have a skillset that respects the fundamentals of journalism.

Yes, I’m in more debt because of it -and in the UK student debt is a never-ending process of paying back-but there is no way I would ever have got this job had I not trained. Everything I thought I knew about journalism was rewritten and things I didn’t even know about before have turned out to play a crucial part of my day to day.

Also, once you get that job- you can begin to pay it back. Compared to my existing student debt this is nothing. It’ll be gone by the end of the year.

Write

Obvious, but again so many people don’t do this. If anyone with an internet connection can set up a blog in 10 minutes, what’s your excuse for not writing? Shed any fears about not having anything to write about or no one reading your stuff- so much of getting a first job is having something to show an employer which backs up what you said on your CV.

If you’re at uni, join the paper. If you’re not, there are plenty of blogs out there that’ll let you contribute for free. I wrote a column for a site writing about  music mixes for over a year. I didn;t get oaid, but it only cost me my time.

Building up a body of work that shows a keenness and ability to write will demonstrate your dedication to this career.

But in 2017, unfortunately only being able to write often isn’t enough. A multimedia understanding will put you a cut above the rest because so many employers are looking to enhance their digital output. Start a podcast, join your university radio, learnt to edit and make video. These are all things that now play a key part in most publisers' content strategies. Just look at the number of magazines out there with podcasts and youtube channels. That number is only going to grow.

These aren’t necessary, but God, saying that you can, for instance produce audio and video content (alongside being able to write) is CV gold. Make your employer believe that you can make their life easier by spreading your skillset as wide as possible.

Flexibility

Graduate schemes are few and far between in the media world and they’re inundated with applicants. I didn’t get on a graduate scheme, and neither should you expect to. That’s not to say it won’t happen or not to apply, it’s just a case of doing the maths: the odds are not in your favour here.

Take a look at the number of titles out there and you’ll see that there are few areas uncovered by the media. The chances are that you’re not going to get your dream job from the off. You’ll most likely need to work your way up and through the industry in order to get there.

The most important thing at this stage is getting your foot in the door, which will you give you a starting point where you can grasp the working fundamentals of the trade. It might be an unglamorous title, but often what you’ll learn here is crucial to what you’ll take with you when moving to pastures new. I certainly do not have my dream job now, but realised quickly that this is for the better. Had I gotten my dream job right out of the gate, there would be no chance of getting away with the mistakes and learning-on-the-job part of things that I’m currently working through now.

Also it’s much easier to get a job at a title not everyone is clamouring after. Think about it: lots of people will apply to be a features writer at the Guardian, but not so many will be applying to the same position at the Grocer for example. The people who apply for the big role are often those who have worked for years on trade titles, plying their craft.

That’s not to say don’t apply for these roles. I mean, you’re going to be applying a LOT! I must have fired out over 100 applications and heard back from about 15%. Apply to literally anything you think you can do, using any source for jobs you can find and be persistent!

Oh, and call people! Don’t be afraid to pick up the phone a few days after sending off a CV to ask if the editor if they received it.

Don’t send out the same cover letter and CV either, its lazy and an editor can tell in an instant if its copied and pasted. Learn abut the role, the publication and use the cover letter as an opportunity to show what you in particular can spoecifically bring to the job.

Resilience

Journalism is a contact sport. Building up a network is an important way to learn about the job and it’ll help once you’re in work. Building contacts is good for advancing your career, and is often the bedrock of certain things like seeking comment that you’ll need to do every day.

Store every phone number- you never know when it may be useful.

By contact sport, It also means that it’s going to be tough. Rejection, being told your copy is shit (multiple times), not feeling like you’re actually any good at this/if its worth doing, the state of the media world and the competitiveness of the job market are all reasons enough to think twice about following through. But by being resilient and persistent in your efforts (and hey, maybe even following the tips above) so you can at least say you’ve given it your all.

Never make the mistake that I did early on of thinking that you’ll get a job because you came out of university being able to write essays and enjoy reading. I realised quickly that just an interest wasn’t going to make the grade.
You have to live and breathe the news, roll up your sleeves and get stuck in to show you can give this everything you have. That means doing all of the above and working bloody hard. Put in the extra hours if you get a first job, and if you don’t have a job: blog.

Again, there are 440 million blogs worldwide. If you want to be a journalist and aren’t blogging…why not?

I learned the hard way that it’s too easy to sit back and think ‘I’ll set up a blog another day’, or ‘maybe I’ll leave this to read later.' We can all make excuses, but don’t be one of those people too proud to admit how little they know or how a job is going to come to them just because they apply to jobs with the same CV/cover letter to give themselves the small gratification of ‘at least I’ve tried,' only to be disappointed when they hear nothing back.

By keeping on your toes with a thick skin and a hefty dose of willpower and energy, you’ll be fine. It is tough, it is really hard work and you are forever learning from mistakes. But God, it is the best job in the world. Good luck!

Disclaimer: There are other things like social media that I haven’t had the space or time to cover. What I’ll say about that is I still struggle with Social Media as well as several other aspects of the job. I am still woefully inexperienced and get caught off guard almost every day, which I might save for another entry.