Joe Grimm's News Jobs Café: Ask the recruiter

Displaying My Multimedia Skills?

Q: First off a hearty thanks for these columns. I've read them for a year and am still learning.

You have mentioned more than a few times that newspapers are looking for people with multimedia experience. How should I highlight a substantial Web background when applying for reporting internships?

I am an undergraduate senior with strong writing and editing experience at a college paper. I spent this summer writing for a small daily. But I also have seven years experience as a freelance graphic designer, and have designed scores of Wb sites, including a few for a major university.

Besides a general familiarity with multimedia production, how can I hghlight this second aspect of my experience within the confines of a rporting internship application?

Josh

A: sounds as though you may be afraid of getting pigeon-holed in a production role when you really want to be out on the streets.

If that's the case, I would not work hard to play up my mutimedia skills. Our skills are relevant only wehn we plan to use them.

However, if you can pitch yourself as a multimedia reporter, with some abilities to gather audio, photo and video, you'll be a find for some newspaper.

On your resume, write about how you have applied your multimedia skills on the job and list the software programs you have genuine expertise with. Some editors will key on specific software. Others will key on how you have used it. All who hire you for your multimedia skills will want you to use them.

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Selling My Comic Strips?

Q: I'm a 17-year-old senior in high school without a job. The only thing I think I'm good at is drawing my little own individual comic strip. I'll like to publish it and make little money off it as a job but where do I start?

Jay

A: This is hard to do, especially while you're still a senior in high school.

I would keep doing the strip, especially if people tell you that you have talent, but I would get a job, too. That will start to give you the income and security you'll need. I bet you'll find that you're good at more things.

Keep drawing and try to get published closest to home -- the school paper, papers in the area. Those can be steppingstones to bigger venues.

If you haven't already, learn to do your work digitally. This will open whole worlds for you as it will let you e-mail your strips anywhere.

I'd definitely go to college and I'd take art courese and content courses that will feed your strip. They could be in politics, pop culture, history -- whatever subject area you'd like to comment on in your strips. The art courses might show you other areas, such as page or Web design, illustration or informational graphics, that will sustain you as you go down that long, tough road toward syndication.

Even some of the best-known artists had a very tough time breaking in. You've got to be tenacious as well as good.

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Pitching Freelance Articles?

Q: I was a non-traditional student and recently earned my bachelor's degree at the age of 32. I went to college right out of high school. I went to school part-time longer than I can remember and quit school to work full-time more times than I can count. Eventually, I realized it was time to bite the proverbial bullet and went back to school with a flurry of credit hours that would have impressed some medical school students.

In between starting and finishing my English degree (writing emphasis), I worked for both a daily and weekly newspaper as a reporter (and sometimes opinion writer for the weekly). I also have some freelancing experience. Unfortunately, I don't have any professional writing experience in the last few years.

I realize you'll probably suggest some freelancing to get a few current by-lines, but I have never written professionally in the Detroit-area. I have no contacts here and don't know where to start.

Any advice you can provide will be greatly appreciated.

Nathan

A: The first step toward freelancing anywhere is to analyze the publications in the market. Gather them up from newsstands and other outlets and search out the top several likeliest targets.

Read several issues of each. Learn what they publish and what the approach is like. Pay attention to the titles in bylines, which can indicate which pieces are freelanced. At the Detroit Free Press, for example, freelancers are billed as "special writers." In other publications, freelancers may be called correspondents.

Once you have identified the sections that take freelance work, come up with a couple of story ideas that suit the editorial needs you have identified.

Then look online or call to get the names of editors responsible for those sections. Call them up, ready to pitch.

Treat any assignment like gold. Get details on the editor's requirements and fill them to a the letter. It is far easier to establish a continuing freelance arrangement with an editor or two than to have to go through all these steps over and over again as you bounce from paper to magazine to Web site.

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Taking Charge of My Career?

Q: I’m so glad you started this column. Hopefully, you can help me out.

Here’s my situation: I’ve been with the same newspaper group for four years. I started out as a reporter for two years a 13,000 circ. daily that is part of our four-paper group. I moved up to copy editor on our centralized copy desk, then wire editor. Now, in addition to coordinating wire content for the four papers (one’s 25,000 circ., the other three are each about 13,000 circ.), I’m coordinating content for the larger paper’s Sunday edition and I’m the on-duty Saturday editor. I’m thinking if I just stick it out over the winter, I’ll have some managing/assigning experience and multimedia skills and be in a better position to find a job in spring.

Here’s my problem: I have no idea where my career is going. I’ve always felt that it’s been my editors, not me who have carved my path so far. I don’t know if I want to be an editor — I definitely don’t want to be a city editor, mostly because of the schedule. I really have a problem working nights, weekends and holidays. The only newsroom job I can think of that might fit is features editor, but these jobs seem few and far between.

Here are my questions:

• With my experience, where do I go next?
• Is there any newsroom job that will allow me to have nights, weekends and holidays or am I just kidding myself (will things get better at a bigger paper schedule-wise)?
• What size newspaper can I/should I aim for next?

Thanks,

Kate

A: Most career paths are a hybrid of accident and design. Surprise opportunities, editors' recognition of your skills and your own self-direction push things along. Generally, more experience has led to greater self-direction over one's career. But we are now in a period of rapid change. The landscape is always changing. New needs and jobs seem to develop overnight. This throws a little more accident into the equation. Keep up with what's going on in the industry and invest in your own development to keep greater control over your career.

As you evaluate your options, think hard about how you can increase your opportunities in a digital, continuous newsroom. People with editing and production skills could become even more valuable.

I would not say that hours are going to get better in a world where we are trying to cover more hours of the week. And I don;t think that a tight focus on schedules is an effective way to drive a successful career. However, that may be necessary to have a good work-life balance.

Consider which hours you can work. When our children were young it was beneficial to work nights, and a 3-year-old doesn't know anything about weekends. So-called lousy hours helped us share child care responsibilities. When they began school, of course, nights and weekends became very important -- but I also needed flexibility for daytime parent-teacher talks and after-school sports. Now, with children grown, I work early -- but can work nights again. And I have been taking on a little more weekend and holiday work. The secret is to consider your real needs, to be flexible -- and to understand that we never really get entitled to certain shifts.

I understand what lousy shifts you don't want to work, are there shifts that others want to avoid that wouldn't inconvenience you?

The larger question, career-wise, is what you should do next. Ask the editors who know your work best to engage in some career sounseling and tell them what you like and feel you're best at. Ask them what jobs are developing and how you can get ready for the ones that are best for you.

You may not need to change papers at all. If you decide you need to for a greater challenge, a bigger arene or whatever reason -- and if you like your present company -- see about mnoving up within the rou. Good editors should help with that, too.

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A Cultural Mismatch?

Q: Before I start, many thanks for the thoughtful responses to my question. "Ask the Recruiter" is an invaluable resource, and even throwaway comments that you make on it probably end up saving reporters years on their careers. This is a true public service.

It's the season for recruiter interviews at the college where I'm a grad student. I have two problems that go together -- I was raised in a very traditional part of the country where terms of address and decorum were extremely, extremely important. Now I have some years of newsroom experience by now out of that region, so I know newsroom culture fairly well. And when I see a guy in a suit, I think that either somebody died or the person is a lawyer. I want to make a good impression on these interviews, so I'm going in a gray sportcoat and a conservative tie, black slacks. My thinking is, this looks formal enough to be respectful and sharp, but not so formal that I look out of place, intimidated/ing, or naive. But the prep school kid in me still looks in the mirror and thinks, "go for the suit." The grownup reporter nixes that idea. Am I on the right track, or could I be showing up to these interviews in the sharpest navy suit I have? I really don't want to look like a kid that just got out of Sunday school, or a law student that went to the wrong interview.

The other problem is one I've had all the time, everywhere. When I meet someone older than I am, I refer to them as Mr. or Ms. so on and so forth, and answer "yes, sir," and "yes, ma'am." This inevitably causes problems when I'm at functions with other journalists and am trying to make contacts, because editors often prefer you call them by their first name. I always come across as being childlike, and it's really just me following my mom and dad's sincerest tableside advice. I think I can solve my problem by going straight to first names, but again, the prep school kid in me shudders at that idea -- it's impolite. I think I have a good idea what I'm doing with the first dilemma, but the second one is one of those lifetime quirks that I've never really solved.

Am I the only person with these nutty sorts of issues?

Grad Student

A: You are not the only person with these issues, and they are not at all nutty. They are about how we are acculturated.

First, your situation: Your instincts on dress are correct. The gray sportcoat, black slacks and tie work well in any context. The blue suit could carry messages that will distract editors from the business at hand. (Is he a lawyer, ex-military, very conservative, etc.?) Dress to impress -- but not to distract.

As for terms of address, it is OK to open with courtesy titles and "yes sir," especially if this seems natural to you, and to become less formal if the recruiter tells you to.

On my first day at the Free Press, I did the same thing, and felt quite fine to be told that we were all on a first-name basis.

Your questions about acculturation apply to a lot of people.

In some cultures, it is considered impolite to look an elder directly in the eyes. People who cast their eyes downward or to the side may be trying to show respect, but can be misinterpretted as being dishonest. What a cruel misunderstanding!

In other cultures, handshakes are soft, more like a touch than a grab. Yet in American business culture, this sign of opennness can be taken as a sign of weakness. Another great misunderstanding.

We all do well -- candidates and recruiters -- to do as you have done. Know yourself, think about where the other person is coming from and find a place in the middle that accommodates both.

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How to Get Back into Journalism?

Q: I've been out a newsroom for five years. In that time, I've learned several of the applications necessary for new media: Photoshop, Dreamweaver, Flash. I've also continued to freelance.

I'd love to get back get back into daily journalism using my new skills, but I don't know how to market myself. My dream job would be to create interactive stories for newspapers or other news sites. I've 20 years experience as a reporter; now folks my age are getting laid off, or bought out.

Any help would be appreciated.

     Afi Scruggs

A: Market yourself as a digital journalist.

You're not behind, you're ahead.

If you find that your experience makes you too pricey for some media outlets' pay ranges for multi-media journalists, you may have to pitch yourself as a potential supervisor or producer.

In either case, I think the rapidly rising demand for your new media skills, in tandem with your journalism experience, will lead to something soon.

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Studying Literary Journalism?

Q: I have been a reporter at a small daily in California for two years and have also worked as a reporter at an English-language newspaper in Costa Rica. I am seriously considering a graduate degree in journalism, in part because I would like to improve my writing, which is not much of an option at a small paper with few editors. I am also interested in learning more about literary journalism techniques I could translate into longer freelance pieces.

Despite the debate over the merits of journalism school, I also want to use the experience as leverage for later career moves into public relations or teaching. With all that said, I am interested in hearing anything you know about good graduate journalism programs focusing on literary journalism, especially for reporters who have already done some 'real world' work. Do you think this kind of degree will be helpful in the future or is it still too unknown? How do you think editors would respond to someone with an MFA instead of a journalism degree?

I am looking now at NYU, Stanford, and Oregon, which seems to be the only program with a focus in creative nonfiction.

Amanda

A: Given your career goals -- to vault out of daily journalism and into teaching or public relations -- a master's degree makes sense. It will certainly open some doors for you as an educator.

The degree, in and of itself, will not matter much to editors. Your enhanced skills will, but newspapers these days are much more interested in Web skills than in literary journalism. So, this sounds better as an exit strategy than as a way to advance your career within journalism.

Your inititial list sounds solid.

There are single courses in literary journalism -- Boston University, the University of Maryland, Indian University -- but Oregon seems to be most extensive. Also take a look at the Mayborn Graduate Institute of Journalism in Grapevine, Texas. Its conference for nonfiction literary writers of the Southwest suggests it may be of interest to you.

And, look into the Nieman Program on Narrative Journalism at Harvard. It generally is held each December and may give you the fix you're looking for. Most of the speakers are working journalists. It gets great reviews and keeps up a year-round, on-line presence.

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How Do I Explain the Layoff?

Q: I noticed on your blog that you'll be in St. Louis at the College Media Advisors conference at the end of the month.

I feel as though I owe you at least a cup of coffee as a thanks for all the tips you've given out.

Partly due to your advice, I landed a student correspondent job last June in the Akron Beacon Journal features department. I have the job until next Saturday, when I unfortunately get laid off. Now I'm preparing to apply for summer internships and am back reading through tips.

I'm just a student correspondent (here, it's like an internship, but I can only work 20 hours a week). I graduate in May.

Here;s the question: How in the world do I explain being laid off in my resume? Do I even mention it?

Dan

A: I'm sorry to hear you lost that 20-hour position. Certainly, it's understandable, given that the B-J reduced newsroom staffing by about 25 percent, starting with the newest people. You didn't have a chance.

But a resume is typically not the place to explain why you leave a job. Do that in the interview. In the case of students, the question will seldom be asked. If it is, you have a good answer.

 

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Reveal Political Activities?

Q: I have two personal experiences that I'm quite proud of but am nonetheless hesitant to include in my cover letter and resume when applying for reporting internships.

     One:  I organized a demonstration in support of a controversial political position.

Two: I am currently working as a researcher at a prominent conservative institution.

     I'm a liberal, actually, but I feel that I might scare some editors off as a Scary Conservative Activist Man. What do you think?

Not so Scary

A: I can understand you're proud for these experiences, but I would leave off the first one. It is a one-time, short-term event that speaks well of your organizational abilities but doesn't amount to a resume-length experience.

The research experience is a job and needs to be on your resume. Omitting it would be evasive. You'll just have to let the editors decide how they want to consider that experience.

As newspapers try to separate news reporting from editorials, reporters need to be very careful about taking sides. But you cannot simply leave the jobs off your resume.

 

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When to Explain I Quit My Old Job?

Q: How do I handle this?

Several weeks ago, I quit a reporter's job on a small weekly. I was the only reporter with a too-large beat. I worked for about a year. The longer I worked the more knowledgeable I became on the communities I covered, and spread myself even thinner. I worked hard, developed my skills and got a wealth of experience. I know I did it well because my sources told me so. The editor at the paper was no help to me. In hindsight, I could have handled him better, but the fact is, I didn't.

Thank you!

Michele

A: You worked too hard to get into journalism to now be afraid to even send out an application.

The sooner you do it, the better, as your employment gap is growing.

Do not bother to explain in the cover letter why you quit. That won't really help you. Simply note your employment dates on your resume. Write a positive, powerful cover letter and ask for an interview. The interview, not the cover letter or the resume, is the place for explaining your reasons for quitting.

Keep the in-person explanation brief and not too critical. Take the high road. Try to direct the interview toward the future. A candidate who gets mired in a lengthy explanation of why an old job or boss didn't work out is going to have a hard time getting any traction.

 

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