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

I'm known to excel in this area, although I hate the term itself. It implies politically-motivated communication. And honestly, I think the phrase "It's not what you know, it's who you know" is often said by people who aren't very good at what they do. Your education and what you know matters, especially within highly-skilled professions such as journalism.

It is, however, good to stay in touch with people in the field to get solid feedback. Asking editors and reporters to provide you with insight, input, approaches and opinions is a great practice that can benefit you tremendously. It might be handy for you to create a contact list of such people when a critical situation arises, and you need some quick-hit advice.

The Ripple Effect

When you're starting from ground zero in building a network base, don't be afraid to pursue a newspaper that you really like by going in cold. Even establishing one contact internally can be huge, because what often happens is that it ripples out to other people. Hence, more opportunities.

For example, say you connect with one editor (let's call him "Bob") at x-newspaper. Through Bob, you can reach others at that newspaper by letting them know that Bob referred you to them. The ripple effect takes place, and you soon find that you have 5-10 contacts at one publication. So have the confidence to take a

Stage two coming soon...