How To Find Jobs and Build Careers in Journalism
By Tony Rogers, About.com Guide to Journalism
Here you can discover the steps to take to build a career in journalism, from high school through to college and on to the working world. Learn what life is like in a real news room and what professional journalists say about their jobs. And get a handle on what you'll need if you decide to go it alone as a citizen journalist.
Getting Started
So you're a high school or college student, and you want to work in the news business, but you're not where to start. Here are the things you can do to have a good shot at landing a job when college graduation rolls around.
- How to Prepare For a Journalism Career
- Choose The Journalism School That’s Right For You
- Why Get a Journalism Internship?
- Seven Tips For Getting a Great Journalism Internship
- Five Reasons Why You Should Write For Your Student Newspaper
- Running a Daily Student Newspaper
Getting a Job
So now it's time to launch your job hunt. But the journalism job market is competitive even in the best of times - and these aren't the best of times. You need to arm yourself with as much good information as possible to give yourself an edge over the competition.
- Seven Steps To Help You Get a Journalism Job in Tough Economic Times
- Six Things You Need To Do In College To Get a Job
- Five Skills That Will Make You More Marketable
- Before Starting Your Job Search, Do Some Research
- To Survive in This Job Market, Be Versatile & Flexible
- Clips: What Are They, And Why Do You Need Them?
- Create a Great Journalism Resume
- Write A Killer Cover Letter
Life in the Newsroom
Want to know what it's like to work at a wire service or a small community paper? Here you can get a sense of what lie in the newsroom is like at different kinds of news organizations.
- Working At The Associated Press
- Working at Mid-Sized Daily Newspapers
- Working at Weekly Community Newspapers
- What Do Editors Do?
- Covering the White House
The Pros Talk
Here is where journalists from news organizations around the country talk about what their jobs are like on a daily basis - the good, the bad and the just plain exciting stuff.
- Profiles of Working Journalists
- Pounding Out Punchy Prose at the New York Daily News
- Covering the Environmental Beat at a News Website
- Editing a News Website in New York City
- Editing the Travel Section of The Philadelphia Inquirer
- Covering Sports for an Online Wire Service
- Working the Community Beat at a New Jersey Weekly
Do It Yourself: Citizen Journalism
So you want to try going it alone by becoming a citizen journalist. Here's how you can get started, with information on what citizen journalism is, ways you can ensure that you do quality work and the tools you'll need to be effective.
