Joe Grimm's News Jobs Café: Ask the recruiter

Worst interview mistakes

OfficeTeam came back with some strange results when it asked people about the worst job interview mistakes they have ever encountered. Among the answers:

• “Someone interviewed for a position and was not given the job. But he showed up anyway, saying, ‘Here I am!’”
• “Someone tried to bribe me during the interview. She really wanted the job and asked how much she could pay me for it.”
• “A job seeker didn’t hang up the phone after calling about a job. I overheard everything he said, and it wasn’t good.”
• “During an interview, when asked what his greatest faults were, an applicant gave too many answers. He kept going and going and going.”

Overdressed for job interview?

Q: I was wondering what is the appropriate thing to wear to a newsroom job interview. I was thinking of wearing a tie and sport coat/blazer, but it is likely to be in the 100s the day I'm interviewed. Is it OK to go without the coat or will I look too casual for a job interview?

Hot seat

A: Take the jacket and wear it over your arm. If you need to interview without it, you'll be all set. If you arrive without one and find that the place is an icebox, you'll be out of luck.

Responses to application?

Q: How long does it take for most journalism organizations to respond to job applications? ( I.e., how long before I should give up hope?) I've been applying for jobs for the past three weeks and I haven't gotten so much as a nibble from about 25 applications, despite having a job with a web site that has a million viewers and a master's degree in journalism.

Brian

A: Newspapers respond more rapidly if they are actively trying to fill a position. Even in that case, a three-week delay is not unusual. It may be too late to expect answers, but it is not too early to make follow-up calls.

Starting over after grad school?

Q: First: I love your site. I've submitted questions in the past, and appreciate all of the work that you've done to help journalists improve their careers.

Here's my situation: I have almost 8 years daily newspaper experience, at small, mid-size and metro papers. I love the job that I have right now. Sounds perfect, right?

OK, here's where it gets tricky: I have the opportunity to go back to school to get a master's degree. It's something I had planned to do almost a decade ago, but never got around to it.

But would that send me back to square one? I've already survived several internships, and have plenty of experience.

And do you think Square One is even a bad place, given the possibilities (such as the Chips Scholars program) for minorities who are college students or recent grads? Are experienced journalists even considered for those types of programs?

Any advice you could provide would be most helpful.

Have a good day,

Mulling the future

A: No one with your experience should go back to Square One for having gone to school. It would be ridiculous. Starting all over would cost you money and sanity.

Use this opportunity to fulfill a long-held dream and to catapult yourself into an even cooler job. Learn skills that will put you in a better position for the next part of your career.

Our industry is changing rapidly. Think hard about what new role you want to have in it. While we are going through this transformational time, reinvent yourself to take advantage of emerging opportunities in multimedia, leadership and reader-focused writing and editing.

Start fresh. Don't start over.

How much work experience do I have?

Q: I worked part time as a web designer for a weekly newspaper chain for a year back in 2000, worked for a year as a data entry clerk, spent 2 years going to grad school but simultaneously working at a 25,000 circulation student newspaper.  From there I got a 3 month contract job as a media consultant and editor for a website, and for the past eight months I've been working for a 1M/unique-visitors-a-month website as an associate editor.

I don't consider the web designer job as "journalism experience" as I was just the shovel they used before investing in shovelware.  I did however work in a newsroom, with journalists, page designers, and copy editors.  Does it count?

Also, does "journalism experience" begin when I start my career or only the times I'm actually working in a newsroom?  Do I have three years experience (Just the student newspaper job and my web-work,) four years experience (time in total) or six years experience?

Brian

A: There are no universally accepted rules on this, but work experience generally has to meet three requirements to "count." It should be fulltime work, it should be journalism and it should be professional, not student journalism.

Homesickness and job?

Q: I've been reading your news jobs blog, and I have to say I love it!

Here's my situation: I'm a 2005 graduate of the University of Alabama's journalism program. I took a copy editing position at my hometown suburban daily in Georgia, but stayed for only three months. I then moved down here to south Florida with my boyfriend because I got a really sweet job offer to copy edit and lay out a daily newsletter. I've now been here for nine months.

Now, because of south Florida's high cost of living and homesickness, I want to get closer to my friends and family in a more affordable area, and I want to get back into newspapers. But I'm afraid that some of the positions I'm looking at ( i.e., features editor at a 6-day daily in Alabama) are a major step down in terms of pay. I'm also afraid that some of the papers I'm applying to for copy editor positions won't consider me because I'm not currently in newspapers.

So any advice for a girl looking to get back into copy editing?

Kristen

A: The good news is that copy editors -- especially with design skills -- are in demand.

I can't gauge your homesickness or bank account, but I can tell you that a three-month job followed by a nine-monther outside of newspapers absolutely must be followed by something that shows some stability. If your next job is less than two years, your resume will make it look as though you don't know what you want and employers will assume, with some justification, that you won't stay long in your next job, either.

I think you can get this next job, but the one after that will depend on how long you stay with this new one. Look at the money issue carefully.

If you make a move, make one that can stick. I hope you make it back.

Extended internships?

Q: I was wondering how recruiters view long-term internship programs at larger papers vs. starting jobs at smaller newspapers. I have just graduated from college and am starting the job search. Some newspapers, such as the Oregonian and the St. Petersburg Times, offer one- to two-year internship programs that allow their interns to have reporting experience on a beat along with mentoring and training. At the same time, these programs are not actual jobs. How do recruiters view programs like this? Do they regard these programs as highly as a starting job?

Thank you for answering my questions!

Ready, set ...

A: The people admitted to these programs don't have the same experience as people coming into permanent jobs at the papers, but they get good editing and experience. Although other people at the newspaper might get more attention, you will be further ahead in one of these programs than if you spent the same amount of time at a much small paper that lacked resources or training opportunities.

Fake job postings?

Q: I applied earlier this year for the photojournalist intern position at the Free Press. Sadly, I had apparently missed the cut-off for application acceptance and my portfolio was ultimately mailed backed to me. You had however, retained the document portions of the packet. I am still extremely interested in this opportunity -- and would be more than happy to reapply if necessary. I noticed that you have re-listed on a website and just wanted to touch bases with you to restate my interests.

Thank you for your consideration,

Frank

A: Sorry, Frank.

Someone is playing games – probably at that posting service.

We have not reopened that position, though you are the second person I have heard from today who has received word from that service that we have an opening. We don’t.

Some services sites scavenge for postings and then repost them to look like they have content. Our ads routinely get posted in places other than where we put them. The problem is that they are sometimes posted after the jobs have been filled or stay up after we have taken them down. This place appears to have found our routine internship posting, stripped off the deadline date and posted it.

Recruiters don't have time to search for unauthorized postings and to then ask the site owners to take them down. I'm sorry they raised your hopes and wasted your time. Your best strategy is to dash off an e-mail as you have or to check an individual company’s own site.

Boring job?

Q: I'm working at my local newspaper this summer and it's going great so far. I've had four stories printed, but it's kind of boring. I know I have to start somewhere, but I just want to make sure this is going to be helpful in getting me where I want to be -- which is somewhere big. I love all the big national or big-city stuff. I'm covering small town events right now, of course. When I apply to bigger newspapers or wherever, are they going to look at what I covered? or are they going to look at my writing?

I told you before how much I loved going to the Free Press and seeing all the jobs there (photojournalism, photo editing, etc.) and you told me I just need to experience it in my internships to get hired for those types of jobs but a lot of those types of jobs aren't around this paper. They even just quit copying and pasting stories and photos a few months ago. So I guess I'm also wondering if, after this job, bigger places will be interested or what I need to do. Am I on the right path?

In Michigan

A: Sorry your work this summer is boring. It is something of a danger sign.

If, on your first real stories, you find you aren’t getting excited about interviewing people and writing, I wonder whether this will be right for you.

But, let’s keep trying. Try to get your passion lit and treat each story as an important one. They certainly are to the people you write about!

If you excel where you are – editors at larger papers will judge that on the basis of your writing and reporting – more jobs will follow. If you didn’t do a good job where you are, they won’t.

The big metros are exciting for a lot of reasons – the issues they cover, they way they cover them and the people they have are some – but you can’t get there if you don’t learn a lot and do well where you are.

Hang in there and, though it’s hard, push yourself to meet high standards.

Job candidate winds up on TV

We call it the communications business ...

The BBC, intending to put a computer expert on camera for an interview, accidentally put on a man who was in the office for a job interview.

Though confused, the job candidate went ahead with the interview and it was broadcast as news. The reporter was a little confused, too. And the computer expert, waiting to be interviewed by one of the world's largest news-gathering organizations? Very confused.

As near as we can tell, nobody got a new job or lost an old one.