Joe Grimm's News Jobs Café: Ask the recruiter

Editing or Writing?

Q: My situation is unique to me, but I'm sure not to you. I was a full-time freelance features writer in Stamford, Conn., in the late '80s. I have a pile of clippings to show for it, which is great. Then I married and had a couple of kids. While taking care of my two very little boys, I was offered a job as an assistant editor for a peer-reviewed professional society magazine (IEEE Electrical Engineering) which required a great deal of copy editing, including papers and articles from around the world. I was lucky enough to be able to work out of the house, using e-mail, Fed-Ex and the telephone for all of my duties. The job lasted four years; in that time, I lived in Connecticut, Georgia, and then the United Kingdom. I was laid off in 2003, due to lower bidding from an editing/production firm.

While all of this was happening, I was divorced, moved back to the States, and am now a single mom. I decided to return to school and currntly have a couple of loose ends to tie to finally get my BA.

I would like to re-enter the newswriting world, armed with editing experience. I'm unsure how to package myself--copy editor? Features writer? I live on Cape Cod, and have many ideas that could easily become "lite" news pieces, but don't know how to contact various editors without giving my ideas away for free!

Any help would be *treasured.*

Sue

A: It sounds like you have a movie in you. Or an episode of Desperate Housewives.

In the meantime, pursue both of your interests.

It sounds as though you enjoy both, so I'd try both. You might find that you like the variety that comes from features writing, but an editing gig like the one you had before can give you the steady income stream you need.

And, right. Only a fool would give ideas away for free. (Free advice is an entirely different matter.)

Hard to return to journalism?

Q: I am a reporter for an education trade magazine and would like to continue my 10-year career in journalism. However, I am weighing a lucrative job offer to write newsletters for an education association. If I accept this position, would it still be possible to return to journalism in two or three years? Would a newspaper or magazine be less likely to hire someone who had worked for an association? I've heard that it's difficult to return to journalism once you've left. Is that true?

Thanks,

A.D.

A: It can be difficult for the two reasons you have touched on. One is that editors can begin to question your commitment to journalism if you make a departure.

The other is that, from the sounds of things, you might have to take a pay cut to come back. Would it make sense for you to take a pay cut later on?

You clearly have been at this for a while and have some long-term interests in journalism. Before you do anything, get very honest with yourself about what you'd like to be doing with your career and your life. If this offer takes you closer to fulfilling your dreams -- all of them -- then it sounds good. If it takes you away from important goals, that's a danger sign and I would look for something else that would be more in the direction you choose.

State job-location desire?

Q: I'm in moving mode again.

The goal is to find a newspaper in Southern California. So the location and size of the paper matter as much, if not more than the position. Is it stepping over the line to mention in the cover letter that I wish to relocate to the West Coast, hence the r´esumé?

And how do I handle applying for two different positions at the same paper?

Bill

A: It is wise to say that you are interested in being in the area that you are applying to. I met with the editor of a small newspaper last week and he would be greatly encouraged if applicants would state their reasons for applying. He often feels they are just applying to a list of places. So, a specific interest can help.

Be a little more careful in applying for two different jobs at the same paper. You might come across as not-too-choosy and that can be misconstrued as not-too-interested or not-too-focused.

Write a cover letter that embraces both positions without getting specific. Make the editor come up with the idea of considering you for two positions.

Bigger paper or better one?

Q: I've always turned to your site for advice. I have a question. Does it look bad to continue to work at newspapers that have the same circulation? When I graduated college I always wanted to work for a larger circulation newspaper but now I feel like my priorities have changed. For me, quality matters more. Does that make me look unmotivated?

Wondering

A: Congratulations.

You have learned something valuable about yourself and newspapers. It is usually better to work for a larger newspaper. It is ALWAYS better to work for a better one.

Trust your instincts on this and don't worry too much about what others will think. You will have a good explanation for them.

Teaching to journalism?

Q: I greatly admire your online advice, which I discovered today.

Do you think that someone who is almost 50 and had a "first career" in university publications could find a home in journalism? I worked for a large university as a public relations writer and editor for nearly a decade and simultaneously did steady stringer work fon the side for a daily. I have more than 100 clips and assorted publications on many topics. I downshifted to part-time (college English) teaching after giving birth to a premature child with chronic health problems, needing a flexible schedule that maximum home time. I did some freelancing before and during that span--but also had a multi-year rehab from an auto accident.

I fear that I am now typecast as a part-time teacher, with no hopes of tenure--though I've always considered myself a "teaching writer." I've taught writing to almost every age group, from college through mid-career to seniors. I write letters to editors (opinion) that get published...but worry that my age, two-pronged career path and life experiences would be viewed unfavorably in the application process. I also have a residual orthopedic disability not readily apparent to others.

Any thoughts on prospects or strategies such as informational interviewing or stringer work again? Is there a statute of limitations on clips, even good ones?

Maria

A: Let's focus on your advantages.

You could bring good teaching experience to a newsroom and that could set you up to be a good education reporter provided you bring inside knowledge but leave behind an insider's view.

Editors will quiz you on that, but you might bring a unique perspective that could provide meaningful, contextual coverage.

As for being a teacher, are there qualities in you that could make you a teaching assignment editor. Those are in great demand, too.

The trick will be showing enough clips to make editors have confidence in your abilities to do newspaper work fulltime. And you'll have a mountain to climb there. But don't throw away your best advantages as you try to engineer this bridge in your career.

Stuck in my job?

Q: There are job-hoppers and then you have your -- what do you call them-- stay-putters? non-budgers? That's me. I've been a reporter at a 25,000 circ. daily (it's small but one of the largest papers in the state) for nearly a decade.

Why did I stay? Life is complicated. My spouse was unable/unwilling to move and my paper has been a good employer-- letting me come back part-time after I had kids.

But now, finally, at age 40, I'm ready to move on. I'm belatedly motivated for typical career reasons -- I want to work with people who will help me become a better reporter and partly for personal reasons -- I just don't want to live here anymore.

I have good recent clips, recent awards, excellent evaluations and I speak and write Spanish fluently. But I'm worried that editors looking at my résumé will pass me over in favor of younger applicants with classic, "onward and upward" career tracks. A former co-worker warned me several years ago about getting trapped and lately that comment has been haunting me.

Do you have any suggestions? After so long, I'm obviously rusty at this job market stuff and I'm not even sure what kinds of papers I should be looking at.

Thanks so much for your invaluable site. It's great, even though those 23-year-old career-plotters who write to you make me nervous.

Stuck?

A: Speaking of 23 years, that's how long I've been at this paper. So, I know where you're coming from.

It is possible, even admirable, to stay at one paper, but it is not good to get stuck in one place in your career.

Mobility is not strictly a geographic quality. As you approach this mid-career change, key on what new things you have achieved recently. If not much has happened, get busy on it and don't try to move until you've got a springboard to leap from.

It could be multimedia, newsroom leadership, computer assisted reporting -- something to tell a prospective editor that although you have been in one place, you have not been stuck.

Daily or weekly newspaper?

Q: I need some help deciding on where to go next in my career.

    After much soul-searching and many, many interviews, my career path recently took a new direction.     I spent seven-plus years as a sports copy editor because sports is a passion and editing is natural and a strength. But for years I have blocked out something that is even more natural to me: teaching and mentoring. I also wanted to do things that had more of a community impact and were therefore more gratifying.

    As a result, I have decided that my eventual goal is to be in charge of reporters at the least, perhaps a few editors, at a mid-sized or smaller daily.

    When I came in second place on what seemed like an ideal job for me (editor of a 5,000 6-day in charge of three editors and several reporters) and missed out on a couple of other switches to the news side and all of them cited my lack of management experience, I took a huge pay cut to come to my current job, editor of a 7-year-old 2,500 three-day competing with a daily that has been in town for 150 years.

    The experience has been wonderful, and I enjoy it and have produced some remarkable packages, but I am spiraling into debt and have to make a move soon. Right now I there are two prospects for which I've interviewed and am waiting on offers and a few more strong possibilities out there, but the competition is tough.

    One of these is editor of a 2,500 weekly in an area closer to where my wife and I would like to live that is part of a larger newspaper group (two dailies and seven small weeklies) in a larger market, with one reporter and a few support staff. Another is news editor of a 6-day, in charge of four reporters and one layout person. Other possibilities I am considering include city editor at an 18,000 6-day, assistant city editor at a mid-sized state capital paper, editor of a 6,500 suburban weekly, etc.

    Would any of these likely be a stumbling block to my goal? Even though we publish three days a week and 90 percent of my career has been at dailies, interviewers at dailies tend to ask about the shift from daily to weekly and ask whether it would be a big shock for me. Would moving to a weekly for a year or two make it more difficult to shift back to daily down the road? If I pick a weekly that's part of a group, do you think I'd have a better chance getting in on the flagship daily?

     Jim in Illinois

A: While you can get the kind of work you want at either a daily or a weekly, it sounds as though you need to be at a daily to have the kind of paycheck you need.

I'd focus on getting back to a daily, relying on your extensive experience there and explaining yor move to a weekly as a way to get management experience that you would now like to bring back to dailies.

I would try hard to not string together two weeklies in a row. You'll just make editors who are skeptical about your return to dailies that much more reluctant.