Repeat After Me: I Will Not Manage a Strip Club…

If you can’t make it as a journalist these days, you can always manage a strip club. An article in the Wall Street Journal, “A Reporter Faces the Naked Truth,” highlights the story of a former Pulitzer Prize nominee journalist who abandoned ship from the industry, taking a job at “the Lodge,” a strip club in Texas.

While this story contains a feature and entertainment element, the underlying message is dark and foreboding. If a graduate from the Columbia Journalism School can’t make it in the industry, how will I survive in the field of public relations and journalism? Here is a 3D list of tips for the job hunt:

1. Differentiate– What makes you different as a news-editorial or public relations student? Have you had specific experiences working with a niche market or group of people? Emphasize the things you do especially well and the unique environments you have worked in to potential employers.
2. Deadline–Your deadline is now. Job hunting and searching for an internship should take place long before the caps and gowns are donned. As an industry, we know the journalism is about networking in advance.
3. Drive–Think about how far you will go to land a job. Of course, there is an ethical element to this question, but in general employers are looking for those who will work the hardest and produce the best work.

Until next time, good luck fellow job hunters!

February 13, 2009. Uncategorized. 1 comment.