Internships
- "The more clear you are about what you're wanting to get out of an internship, the more likely it is you'll get something useful."
- Portfolio pieces
- Go for it, but don't be disappointed if not.
- Contacts
- Career navigation
- Publication map
- Skill tips
- Specialist knowledge
- Unlikely in 1-2 weeks
- Each publication has a specific structure, and the more you can understand that, the better off you'll be and the more you'll learn
- What is the power structure? Who decides things?
- Who decides "when the talking stops" and what happens?
- This can be difficult in newsrooms -- informal and formal power structures.
- Formally the foreign editor should decide the coverage but in practice the editor might decide.
- "Unleash your inner anthropologist."
- Most newspapers can be divided into two categories, with sources of power in both:
- Input
- How are resources allocated; what do readers want; who's going to do what?
- Output
- Once that raw material has come in, what's important, what priority it's going to get, where it'll go, how it'll be changed, etc.
- In a well-resourced and well-conducted media organization, not a single word would make it on page without going through the hands of at least 3 people.
- Filter 1: section editor. Often no more than a glance.
- Filter 2: night editor. Also a quick look: what a story is, what its projection possibilities are, etc.
- Filter 3: sub editor. Trim to spec, put on page, etc.
- Filter 4: revision editor. Review and make necessary changes
- And on...
- Learning who these people are and talking with them will improve your writing
- Figure out the input side -- where are ideas decided, are there idea generation meetings, etc.?
- Make sure you have ideas ready for forward planning meetings.
- Study the power structures before piping up — will your input be helpful/welcomed?
- Find out where there's a need — usually a surplus of people wanting to write and a deficit of people wanting to make others look good (i.e., editing)
- Find sympathetic people who will let you shadow them
- Is there a good editor who will let you look over their shoulder while doing a massive cutting job? Sometimes simply studying somebody who excels at their job is more instructive than trying to get pieces into the paper.
- Go to conferences if possible
- Don't disdain desks in out of the way places.
- If you want to improve your writing, you'll get more practice and watch more editors if you go to a less prominent, less glamourous desk -- i.e., obituaries.
- Obvious but important: read the output of the place you're working at, and especially before you even get there
CVs
- Don't do more than 2 pages.
- If you can't get your life in your early 20s in under 2 pages, you're not going to convince someone you're good at distilling information
- Watch for spelling and grammar errors. Even the smallest errors will get your resume binned.
- "It is never possible for a single individual to check their own work perfectly -- give it to somebody else."
- "Carelessness has extremely high cost" -- your application is the first contact your organization will have with your writing.
Cover letters
- It's a courtesy; keep it brief
- Briefly say what sets you apart
- Mention why you want to work at that specific paper; establish your connection to that place.
What employers look for:
- Intellectual originality
- Passion
- Good degrees
- Determination
- Make the most of what's interesting about you
- If you miss a graduate internship by a close distance, remember that most people who made it to the interview round still became successful journalists.
- Finally — remember these are organizations aiming for large audiences; don't overplay blogging.
- Show you can write stories for several hundred thousand people, not nine people. Don't confuse writing for small, friendly audiences with spotting a story interesting to massive audiences.