journoprof

It’s always good to have an example to inspire you when you’re drawing up a resume, so I did a little hunting around to find some sample resumes for journalism students. Here’s one I found at College Grad.com (hit on the first link on the list when you get to the site) which I like because it has an expanded “Education” section that lists courses taken at college.

If you want to see how professional journalists and authors are establishing their “Web presence” take a look at Author Bytes.com. These are professionally made websites with all the bells and whistles that you’d expect. Take a look at New York Times columnist Paul Krugman‘s site. I liked the layout of the one belonging to writer Alison Overholt. I’m not advocating that students pay to have a site made for themselves, rather I’m suggesting that students use these professional sites as a source of ideas for layout and organization.

There are plenty of web platforms that students can use for FREE to create their own “web presence,” such as WordPress.com, which is what I use for this blog, or Blogger, or Tumblr. These free platforms can be used to create a site that meets your needs. If you’re a journalism student, you may not yet need a page devoted to public speaking, but you might want to create a page to display some great photographs you’ve taken. Some of my students put their resumes on their sites, which is useful when hunting for internships or jobs. (I would recommend that you DO NOT put your address or phone number online. An email address should be enough.)

If you need ideas for cover letters, here’s one for a journalism internship from Best Cover Letters.com.  Here’s another one for a journalism job from Best Cover Letters.com. Remember to CHECK THE SPELLING of everything you write, PARTICULARLY THE NAME OF THE PERSON YOU ARE WRITING TO. Also, these samples are out there on google for all journalism students to see. Don’t use them word for word!

For those of you who have clips from newspapers that don’t have websites, you could do what Purchase Journalism Student, Michael Shor did, which was to scan the clips, then post them on a free website at sites.google.com. Prospective employers can now see his clips online, which many want to do these days.

Job hunting can be tough. Aim high. Have a few back-up plans. Be polite but persistent. Believe in yourself. Don’t take anything personally.

May The Force be with you.

Seniors take note: Here’s a great piece from The New York Times over the weekend which has some great advice about how to be online-ready when you start your job hunt. It talks about professional networking sites like LinkedIn and Xing for networking and sites.google.com as a place to set up your own Web site. There’s even a little advice about how to clean up your online profile so recruiters don’t dig up ghastly online material that might count against you.

This just in from Poynter’s Al Tompkins: An interesting post about TV stations going to recruit “backpack journalists” with multimedia skills. Here’s the LINK.

The pathway to a job in local TV news — provided you’re willing to work long hours for minimal pay — is perhaps easier now than it’s ever been for kids out of college with minimal experience but a willingness to learn on the fly.