Bylines Beyond: What Do You Mean I Don't Have Experience?

I think the biggest challenge for recent journalism grads--well, any recent college grad really--is that no matter how good you are, you're going into the abyss with zero experience. Now I don't mean zero experience literally, but most editors want to see years (2-5 generally) of post-college newsroom experience to even consider you as a candidate. At least when you're talking about dailies with circulations over about 35,000.

This is odd to me--it's strange that hundreds of accumulated clips and newsroom internships seem to become "invalid." In addition, journalism thrives off (or should thrive off) of raw talent and fresh ideas to match the fast-paced and ever-changing field. Unfortunately, that's not how many editors view it.

In any case, there's ways to get around this. I did.

Stage one is goal-definition and networking.

Goal-definition

First, it's great to define your goals and figure out a gameplan that helps you achieve those goals. Do you want to start at a small paper but be the lead reporter? Or a big paper and work your way up from a small role? Do you want a flexible part-time position or a secure full-time one? Consider factors such as salary, market-size, work culture, location, opportunity for upward mobility, types of coverage, financial circumstance, etc.

Something that's really important in this process is to pick a method that's best for you. A lot of people will preach to you about what's best, but in the end, you're the one that's going to have to walk into work everyday. So be sure to make decisions that are best for you. If you're unsure of what you want, have a handful of intelligent, non-judgemental people that you really trust to be your support system. That can range from editors and reporters to college professors to best friends to family.

Networking