Note: "Ask the Recruiter" has moved to Poynter's new Career Center. The new home is here. Remember to change your bookmark. I will keep this page active so you can follow along. I think you'll like the new home, as it comes with all kinds of resources from Poynter and its Career Center.
Q: I am a recent graduate with internship experience. I just received a job at a small family owned newspaper. I really want to move up to a larger newspaper after I work here for a couple of years.
Does the fact that the newspaper is family owned make a difference to recruiters at 100,000 circulation size newspapers when considering candidates that they will hire? Would I have a better chance at getting a job if I worked for a smaller paper owned by say the McClatchy company?
Hilary
A: Ownership does not make the difference. Quality does.
There are some excellent newspapers owned by families and some excellent ones owned by large corporations. And, as we have seen lately with the breakup of Knight Ridder, the nature of ownership can change in a wink. Some of those newspapers are still part of McClatchy, while about a dozen went off in different directions, to ther companies or to private ownership. The ones that went private seem to have suffered most, but in the process, McClatchy sold its largest paper, the Minneapolis Star-Tribune. We don't yet know what changes that will bring.
Focus on doing the best work you can with the best people you find at the best paper that will hire you.
Q: Recently, a new job opening came open in my department for a position that -- on first glance -- seemed intriguing. It was new and a chance to get in the ground floor of something. So, I did the internal application and prepared for my interview.
When I got there, I knew it wasn't for me. The pay was low, the office didn't have the energy I wanted and the job wasn't quite what I expected. A short bit after that interview, another position opened up in my department, one that I'm again interested in.
My question is this: How do I approach my boss again to sign another internal application? I like my current job, I'm just not sure I'm going to grow anymore in it. The hours are horrible, but I learned to deal with that a long time ago. I just believe this may be a good way to grow as a journalist.
Thank you for any advice you can give me.
Internal Candidates
A: Applying for internal opportunities reminds our editors about us and our interests. It can get us into interviews where we talk about big issues like mission and vision. But applying too frequently can make us look dissatisfied and directionless. It can even hurt our credibility. You don't want editors saying, "Well, of course he applied. He applies for everything."
Before you apply for a new job, think about where you're going. What kind of job will this new job lead to? Does it take you in the direction you want? If it does, do your homework. Talk to people about the work, the wages, the hours, the benefits and the burdens.
In many cases, you can ask questions about a position without making a formal application. Be crystal clear. Some editors will confuse an expression of curiosity with one of genuine interest. Tell them you're not applying, but have some questions. If the answers add up, then you can apply.
On this job, sound out your boss and other workers on what the job is like. No surprises this time. If it sounds good, then explore the subject of what your chances would be for getting it. If it looks good, go for it. And good luck. If you don't get it, you should wait a while before I tried a third.
Q: I recently graduated college and have been interning at a large metro in the meantime while I look for jobs. I went to a job interview in another state for a couple of days and told my editors and the internship recruiter that I was doing so.
When I returned from the job interview, I told my editor that if I am offered the job then I might have to start immediately and leave within a week (that was a week ago). Yesterday I was offered the job. I accepted and told my internship coordinator and editor that I would have to leave after the end of this week.
They both congratulated me and said that it would be fine. However, at the end of the day the internship recruiter called me into the office and said that I should put in a two weeks notice because I am putting them in a bind if I leave after this week.
I honestly understand the need for a two-week notice, but if I wait for two weeks then I might not be able to do the job (they need someone to start immediately because of beat changes). Also, for financial reasons, a job is the best logical step for me to take right now. The internship is supposed to last another month and a half. Also, I'm really not getting much work to do here; the editor is struggling to find stories for me to do. Some people have told me that I need to do what is best financially and what is best for my career.. and also what will make me the happiest. If I do what is best financially, career-wise and for emotional happiness - all answers are leaning toward leaving at the end of the week for the job.
What would you advise me to do? I completely understand the professional two-week notice, but if I'm not working on many stories anyway and it seems more of a trouble for the editor to find something for me to do, and if I'm stuck eating Ramen noodles all day, then wouldn't a job seem logical? Shouldn't the internship recruiter be happy that I am going to take a job?
Thanks,
Betwixt and Between
A: You are in a mild bind that does not appear to be of your own making.
As you describe things, you first told the editor you might have to leave suddenly, and there was no objection. You then told two editors you would be leaving right away and there was no objection. By the time the internship recruiter told you that a two-week notice would be better, you had already committed to the new paper.
I would meet with the recruiting editor and explain that you understand a two-week notice is standard, but that you had asked for some leeway and met no objection -- until later.
I should think that your present editors do want to see you succeed and that you want to maintain good relations with them. Limit your discussion to this sequence of events. Telling them that they have you on Ramen wages or that they can't keep you busy enough will not help your cause and could ultimately turn a graceful departure into an ugly one.
Hang your whole story on the change in signals, be gracious and go to that new job.
Q: I have been in the newspaper industry for just under 10 years and have always believed in the media and believed it would perform well for several more generations. Over the last year I have watched as that passion has dwindled and my faith that we will still be around in 10 more years.
I could go into details as to why but I will spare everyone that debate. My question is this; I obviously need to look at a career change as I my passion is gone, how would you suggest I "spin" this career change? I am afraid if I cite my true reason many will ask the obvious question will I lose passion in this as well.
Thanks
Ed
A: You clearly realize you can't get a new job if you seem mopey.
So, figure out what you'd like to be doing down the road and think of the interim jobs between what you're doing now and where you'd like to wind up.
This takes work. You will have to go to school on yourself and on a range of possible jobs. I have just finished reading a book that could help. It is called "Breaking the Bamboo Ceiling" by career coach Jane Hyun. We met and interviewed this past week. Her book is obviously written for Asian-American people, but it has solid advice for anyone and a nice set of career-assessment tools that could help you.
When you go interviewing, we want you focused on what you are climbing for, not complaining about what you have been through. If you are building toward a new career, there should be no need to spin anything.
Q: I read your column every day and I think you give excellent advice, so I'm hoping you can help me with my situation.
I'm a British journalist engaged to a New Yorker. We plan to get married as soon as my visa comes through, which our attorney says is likely to take between three and nine months. I'm excited about my wedding and the opportunities the move may present for my career but I'm a little worried about whether U.S. editors will recognize my qualifications, the variation in writing styles between English and American newspapers and how I will cope without a sound knowledge of media law and the political system in my new country.
Your column and the U.S. job adverts I've read give me the impression that the preferred route onto a newspaper there is via a journalism degree. I have a degree, but not in journalism, which doesn't matter much here. U.K. editors prefer that candidates take an intensive six-month journalism course after they graduate, which trains them in law, politics, news writing and shorthand (useful as audio recording devices are not allowed in our courts). Then, after 18 months to two years on the job, trainee reporters take a final set of exams known as the NCE. Those who pass are considered qualified senior reporters.
This is the stage I am at now. I have just passed the finals, have about two years' experience and have produced some strong clips, which have won me a couple of awards. For the last six months or so, I have been reading several U.S. papers on the internet each day and have totally fallen in love with the idea of working for a well-respected alternative weekly with a circulation of 260,000. This would be a step up for me as it is my larger than the paper I currently work for but what really appeals to me is its strong reputation for investigative journalism, which is my passion. A few days ago, I found out the editor is advertising for staff reporters. I feel I can't let this opportunity pass me by, but how can I apply when I can't be specific about when I can start?
My second dilemma concerns how to present my credentials to U.S. editors. I'm assuming that they will have little or no knowledge of our training system. Should I provide some explanation of it on my resume or save this for the interview?
Thirdly, the tabloid writing style on my paper here is very different to the more narrative, in-depth coverage of the paper I want to work for. I'm worried this will put me at a disadvantage. While I have been trying to expand my understanding of U.S. politics and intend to take classes in media law once I arrive, I am also concerned that my lack of knowledge in these areas could be hazardous during my first couple of months there.
My resume looks pretty good on this side of the pond but I’m worried that my hard work may get lost in translation. I’m prepared to do whatever it takes to overcome the quite considerable obstacles this move will present and would very much appreciate your advice on the best way to go about it.
A: First off, let's not try to apply for this immediate opening. Your situation is too complicated in the short term for you to be of any interest. More openings will come along. You may find, once yo gethere and talk to your target paper, that you will need to get into another publication that they hire from. It could be that your experience just isn't yet what they desire.
You seem to have a good understanding of your obstacles. Moving to the highly competitive New York market is another.
I am not sure that you need to go back to school to, in effect, get recertified under U.S. instructors. You do need to study up on media law here and taking a class or two or three is a good idea. You also need to make sure that everything you write -- including every letter and e-mail -- is in a style that will be acceptable to editors in the States. Maybe you should recruit an American to give those a once-over, at least initially.
It could be that no American newspaper will get really interested in you until the visa issue is settled. Then, your experience should carry you. You may have to concisely explain on your resume the training you received, but the fact is that journalists do get hired here without journalism degrees and sometimes without having completed any degree at all.
Keep positioning yourself, expand your search options and plan a great wedding.
Q: I and my journalist friends are often puzzled by the behavior of editors -- generally, of course -- but in this case, specifically during the courtship phase of the hiring process.
Why is it that encouraging, flattering talks with editors and recruiters that start off so well can suddenly come to a dead halt? E-mails are left unanswered; phone calls unreturned. Weeks and months go by in total silence. Are they just not that into us? What happened?
Sincerely,
Lonely on Metro
A: Ah, the fickleness of it all!
Although it may not seem so, this is a two-part question. The first part has to do with how does one go from hot to not. The second part is all about why doesn't anyone tell me?
Many behind-the-scenes circumstances can cool off what had appeared to be a hot opening.
A hiring freeze, for example, can chill things off.
The application of a seemingly better candidate can, too.
Sometimes we see an internal candidate, applying late, snatch away the opening.
And there can be a botched handoff where one person starts the process and then hands it to another who is not so attentive.
We can give a hundred other reasons, but they all lead to one question: So why don't the editors simply pick up the phone?
Again, there is another multitude of possibilities.
Although you might doubt this, editors don't like to deliver bad news any more than normal people do. So, we drag our feet.
Sometimes, the situation gets bogged down -- say, with the appearance of additional candidates -- and we wait for things to play out. The first candidate to be considered for a job will have to wait a lot longer than the last one considered for their answer.
Of course, there are instances where editors are just inconsiderate and don't think or care about how much this means to the candidate. One person told me, "I interviewed with them and never heard from them again. I gues I didn't get the job."
So that's what happens. What can you do about it? The calls and e-mails -- to more than one person -- should shake loose an answer. But you're left wondering and worrying about how often to call.
Note: "Ask the Recruiter" has moved to Poynter's new Career Center. The new home is here. Remember to change your bookmark.
Q: My editor is a real fascist. She micro-manages everything I do. She never admits when she's wrong or when she makes mistakes. Rather, she places the blame on other people.
Working with her has become the worst. The other day, she handed me a story assignment at 4 p.m. She'd been sitting on it all day and wait to the last minute to give it to me. When I showed obvious signs of dissatisfaction, she told our top editor that I don't like to work hard.
Speaking to the woman is like speaking to a brick wall. She never listens or considers intelligent suggestions. My biggest annoyance is that she edits my writing so that it fits her style. That doesn't seem right. If she doesn't like the way I writer, why did she hire me?
Once, she sat down and had a one-on-one meeting with me. She said I shouldn't complain about working 10-hour days. She looked at my time sheet and said, "You haven't even been working that much over time. I see you only worked nine hours OT last week."
I wanted to pull my hair out and scream.
As you can see, I'm all over the place with this letter. I guess my question is: When is enough enough. At what point do I declare mutiny and rebel, quit, walk out or get fired?
Edward
A: Once upon a time, I was unhappy (though not as unhappy as you are) with the way some things were going for me and Becky Baybrook, then on the human resources team with Knight Ridder, told me that when things get bad, we have three choices:
I though the advice was a little harsh, but it works.
It sounds as though your situation is not going to change. Mutinies are good for fantasies, but they almost never work. The top boss clearly listens more to your editor than to you. So, changing the situation is not an option.
Anyone who calls his editor a fascist and who is thinking about pulling hair -- his own or the editor's -- is not going to get used to the situation.
You're at Option Three: Time to go.
Be in charge of that process. Get your resume and work samples together, get them out and start interviewing.
Leave on your own terms and your own timing. Try not to get fired. It doesn't sound as though there would be much severence for you, and that will raise questions when you interview.
When you walk out the door, don't slam it. Remember, this is not a situation you can change -- that is why you're leaving -- so hurling a few insults back over your shoulder won't change anything. It might make you feel better, but they will fall on deaf ears. It's not worth your effort. Just find a good job and move onto it without investing any more emotion in the one you'll be leaving.
Note: "Ask the Recruiter" has moved to Poynter's new Career Center. The new home is here. Remember to change your bookmark.
Q: I spent three years as a beat reporter at a pair of small newspapers, picking up a statewide award for my reporting at one point, before taking up work as a freelancer at a major American newspaper.
My writing has improved, but I'm eager to get back into a newsroom and, most of all, to find a mentor. It looks like a small newspaper (circulation 50,000) with a decent reputation is about to offer me a job. I like the editors at the paper - they seem ambitious - but I wonder if I should hold out for a bigger paper at this point.
Am I likely to improve as I'd like at a small paper? Will my resume look odd if I go from a large paper (albeit as a freelancer) to a small one? Is the job market so forbidding these days that I should take what I can get?
Flummoxed Freelancer
A: That 50,000 paper could be a good base to build from.
Compared to the place where you're freelancing, 50,000 seems small, but it is mid-size, at worst.
The 100 largest dailies in the U.S. are roughly those above 100,000 circulation. The next 100 are roughly between 50,000 and 100,000. After those 200, there are almost 1,300 more. So, 50,000 is not quite circulation and professional Siberia, especially if you have had a chance to check the place out and have found it to be ambitious and inveted in people's growth.
Most of the work will be up to you, of course, but I would expect that, given your major-metro experience, you should be able to advance quickly. Good work on some significant stories could pop you up above 100,000 in a few years.
I would not be dissuaded by the 50,000 circulation.
Note: "Ask the Recruiter" has moved to Poynter's new Career Center. The new home is here. Remember to change your bookmark.
Q: I'm a second-semester freshman who was admitted to a school of journalism directly, with most of my prerequisites filled by high school AP tests and dual enrollment classes. Because of these things, it's likely that I will be able to graduate with a dual degree (in Political Science) in three years, and I have been encouraged to do so or to take advantage of study abroad programs by advisers. But I'm a journalism student - and that's what I came to Missouri to pursue.
However, I know that without clips and internship experience, I'll have a difficult time finding employment once I get that degree. I'm on staff at the college paper, and have lots of clips -- some that recruiters from large, respected papers have told me are as strong as older applicants. I wrote for a large, professional paper in high school, by opportunities afforded to me in a teen section.
However, my internship search keeps coming back to the fact that I'm young, and I'm still without any form of internship, after applying to a variety of papers for Summer 2007.
How do I convince recruiters that I am serious, though perhaps young, and let them know that my relative age isn't a discredit?
Jay S.
A: You sound serious to me, but you may well be facing an age problem.
You're at a great journalism school and it would not surprise me if some of the other students who have a year or more on you are having more success.
Keep plugging. Stay confident. Recruiters remember people who show promise early. Get as many interviews as you can. And keep going after internships.
You are dead right that trying to start a journalism career without any experience in a mainstream, conventional daily face a much harder time breaking in.
A semester overseas sounds like a great idea. And graduating a full year early will help the budget, but if you have to sacrifice an internship in order to do it, it will cost you in other ways.
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