Joe Grimm's News Jobs Café: Ask the recruiter

How to Spin a Career Change?

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.

Rough Crossing for Foreign Journalist?

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. 

Time to Quit My Job?

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:

• Change the situation
• Get used to it
• Get out.

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.

Freelancing in the Majors to a Job at 50,000?

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.

How to Balance Baby and Job Search?

Q: I can't tell you how much I appreciate your blog, but in particular, the answers you provide to the questions dealing with balances between family and work. I will soon be in the same boat as others.

My wife and I are expecting our first child in May, and I'm very excited about it. I'm also very worried about what will happen with my career because of it. Here are the issues I'm fighting:

1. I've been at the same small daily for six years, and it's basically an 8-5 job with evening events (sports) several nights a week. I think it's time for someone else to take a turn. I'd love to advance to a larger, morning paper whether it's nearby or not (for me, location has only a few limitations). As you've mentioned before, a 3-11 shift seems ideal for raising kids at a young age. I also want to be a good father and actually see the baby.
2. My wife's family lives nearby (which is both good and bad), so change doesn't come easily.

What do you suggest I do? I know you're not a relationship expert, but you've had experiences with this sort of thing, or at least some of it. It's troubling because I do have personal and professional goals for myself, but am afraid I'll be pigeonholed and I'll be stuck in a job that is no longer challenging or rewarding. Am I doomed? The next place I go, if it's anywhere, I want to stay for a long time. I'm almost 30, and I would like to settle down, but this seems like the wrong place at the right time.

Thanks,

Chad

A: Congratulations on the baby-to-be!

Now, let's stop talking about doom.

You have about six months before the baby arrives, so let's get busy and try to make a move while it is convenient. If nothing develops, settle down for a while, let the baby come and meet everyone and then pick up your job search again.

I don't see why the arrival of the baby should have a major negative affect on your career or your mobility.

Stop worrying, dust off your resume and paint that nursery!

Balancing work and family can be challenging, but it is not impossible.

Note: "Ask the Recruiter" has moved to Poynter's new Career Center. The new home is here. Remember to change your bookmark.

To a Smaller Paper but a Better Locale?

Q: I am in a small predicament. I am currently working at a daily newspaper on the east coast after graduating college in May. I really enjoy my job, but the area where I am at is not so desirable and is about eight hours away from my hometown.

I've recently come across a job offer at a weekly newspaper close to my hometown, which I think would make me happier because of the location alone.

1) Does going from a 10K-circulation daily in a rural area to a 7K-circulation twice-weekly 30 minutes away from a city look like I'm taking a step down, even though I'd rather be in the area of the smaller paper?

And 2) As I said, I just graduated in May -- what does searching for another job this soon make me look like? I am not a scatter-brained person who can't make up her mind, I'm just honestly not happy with the location I am at.

Thanks for your help.

Kristen

A: Sit tight.

Leaving a job after seven months will not look good to prospective employers -- unless you plan to stay at your next newspaper for three years or more to show some stability.

And moving to a smaller newspaper that published less frequently will not help create a rising career arc, either.

Persist.

Ideally, we'll see you move to a better area as well as a better job. While this move might take care of what sounds like loneliness, homesickness or cultural deprivation, it will come at the cost of some career mobility.

Make more visits home or to other cities to keep your sanity, but also steel yourself for putting in about another year getting great at the job you have -- and then using that success to make a move that makes sense for you professionally and personally.

Note: "Ask the Recruiter" has moved to Poynter's new Career Center. The new home is here. Remember to change your bookmark.

Would an Employment Gap Hurt Me?

Q: I'm a 26-year-old reporter who has been working at a 30,000-circulation daily newspaper for the past 2 1/2 years. I've been considering quitting my job to teach English as a second language in Europe. I plan to freelance while there.

My question is: If freelancing doesn't pan out and I return to the states looking for newspaper work, would the move to Europe hurt my chances landing a job?

Sincerely,

Cory

A: Probably.

That's not to say you shouldn't go.

But you should go knowing that if you leave a daily here and are not engaged in any sort of journalism there, you will have at least three hurdles to clear:

• Your clips will be old.
• You will have to explain why you quit journalism and why you want to come back.
• Your journalistic growth will have gone into a state of suspended animation and you will not have much more to commend you to employers than you had when you left. The best your chances would be is just the same as they were before you moved overseas.

That said, the chance to live and work in Europe may be too great for you to pass up and this may be the best time in your life to do it. To have it all, don't make the move until you have nailed down a journalism job or some dependable clients for your freelancing.

Note: "Ask the Recruiter" has moved to Poynter's new Career Center. The new home is here. Don't forget to change your bookmark.

Move to a Job with a Faster Pace?

Q: I graduated from one of those "marquee" J-schools in the summer, and after three months surfing my parents' couch, I landed a job at a well-respected trade newspaper in a very, very big city. Given the state of the newspaper business, I was getting a lot of very polite "please keep in touch" emails from metro editors. So when presented with a solid job offer (and the chance to get off my parents' couch) I jumped at it.

The location is great (top three market), the pay is excellent for someone just out of school (around $40k), and my colleagues are cheerful and willing to lend a hand to the new kid. There's only one problem: I hate it.

Although we're a daily paper, we're also a trade pub, and the editors don't want spot news. They like features and analysis. It is not unusual for a reporter to spend a week on a single story. I find the pace to be mind-numbingly slow. I love to jump at a breaking story. I have a hard time dragging myself out of bed in the morning to go to work.

I'm also afraid that working at a trade daily is not exactly a stepping stone on my way to my ultimate goal: a job at a wire service or on a metro desk. I took this job because it was a solid paycheck at a newspaper. But have I taken detour that is leading away from an eventual daily hard news reporting gig? Should I just suck it up and be thankful that during this hiring crunch I have a job at all?

Thanks,

Restless

A: Yes, you are going to have to suck it up a little. Recalling those three months on the couch will help.

But you have to get out of this place where you hate to go to work. That can kill a career. It's pretty clear that you have taken a job at a place that has the wrong culture and that you did it for some good reasons, not knowing entirely what to look for. But let's get a new job in 2007.

Work with your editors to try to change the metabolism in your little corner of the newsroom. Tell them what you're looking for, volunteer for or pitch every potential breaking-news article and run, run, run. I wouldn't be surprised if they hired you, in part, for your go-getter attitude. Max it out.

Make this job work and you'll get the experience and clips you need to get the next job, which you will no doubt make sure has a culture that is more favorable to you.

Will My Old Boss Dump on Me?

Q: When checking with a previous employer's human resources department, what questions can a potential employer legally ask? What information can a human resources department legally release? If an individual was terminated from his or her previous job, can/does the human resources department provide the specific reason for termination? Finally, if a potential hire received unemployment compensation from his or her previous employer, does this send any kind of "message" to a potential employer? Any advice you can provide would be helpful.

Julie

A: The burden you're alluding to is on ex-employers. Giving references can be a real danger zone for them. Basically, they don't want to say anything negative that can get them sued for wrecking someone's chances to get a job.

To keep themselves out of trouble, many companies have a policy that forbids managers from giving anything other than employment stop and start dates.

This policy is not always helpful to job-seekers. Think of the person who did a good job, but can't get anyone to say anything favorable about them.

Some employers might be squirrelly about hring someone who collected unemployment, but their feelings could change depending on the reason why that happened. I'd be surprised if another employer tells anyone that you collected it and I would drop my teeth if they told them why.

The biggest challenge for you, I think, will be handing the inevitable questions about why you left that job.

 

Note: "Ask the Recruiter" ihas moved to Poynter's new Career Center. The new home is here. Don't forget to change your bookmark.

From PR to Journalism?

Q: I currently work in PR and am looking to go to journalism school.  I've always thought PR is a good segue into journalism, given the shared goals of concise communication and necessary writing skills required by both fields, not to mention the fact that PR professionals work with the media often.

But one admissions counselor expressed some concern with my current profession.  Though she wouldn't say why would PR be looked upon differently than other professions that are not directly related to journalism? How might I combat this sentiment?

Alex

A: Her reservations may have to do with bigger issues than mere skills.

We journalists can be holier-than-thou when it comes to the pursuit of truth and justice. I think you've just been out-holied.

This admissions counselot -- and many editors -- may wonder if you can strike an impartial balance and pursue the real story after working to shade or spin stories.

The goal of pure objectivity remains just that. Journalists now talk about being fair, balanced and complete.

If you want to make the move to journalism, go for it. We certainly see a lot of journalists go  into PR. But be aware that you will encounter some editors who have the same reservations you have just seen in this admissions counselor.

It will take time and work, but you can develop the proofs that you are pursuing truth with as much vigor as the journalists you now hope to join.

Note: "Ask the Recruiter" is moving to Poynter's new Career Center. The new home is here. Don't forget to change your bookmark.