^^Agree. The time is over for internships. It’s just plain HARD to get a job…and even more difficult in what we used to call a glamour fields (heavens knows why, the pay has never been commensurate with “glamour”).
Here’s a job description for a general assignment reporter in Oklahoma…as much of these boxes he can check with demonstrated experience is what he needs…or needs to get to. Also he should look at all the postings with Hearst, Cox and other owners:
Here’s a more vague one in a smaller market that only wants 1 year experience, which depending on his tape and what he did in college but might get a foot in the door for an interview for this type of posting:
There are many of these posted every day on Indeed…he could very well have resume issues or demo tape issues. His resume needs to give “back” to TV stations what they are looking for. Have you seen his resume? Does it match the keywords that are in all the postings on indeed? Has anyone in the business helped him with his demo tape?
And yes, for every job he needs to look through his LinkedIn or college network and see if he can find someone to help or needs to connect with someone to get the background for the posting.
Might he apply journalistic skills to this? Find out how recent grads get hired in small TV markets? Seek feedback on his resume tape from news directors or others? Get involved with the SPJ or RTDNA local associations? If he does not already have journalism skills, should he consider alternative careers?
Good point, almost every reporter including on-air, wants journalistic skills these days and you’ll see that in the qualifications portion of every job posting - generally will say “strong writing” or “strong storytelling.” So yes, that box needs to be checked. If he doesn’t have any of that from college activities or internships he can blog etc. while searching for job and further building the portfolio. I’m sure he heard all this in college if he was a communications major - or at least I hope so.
@MomofThreeBoys he made his demo tape at CNN and had the help of several people there. I think it is great, but I am biased obviously. He also said the on-air talent there that he showed the tape to thought it was great. I did ask him about professors and people in college that could help him. He said most of the professors worked at newspapers or radio stations and if they did work in TV they haven’t done so in ages. It was all on the production side of broadcasting.
He also said he was only one of a few people in his classes that wanted to work in front of the camera. Most students wanted to work in production, shooting, editing, directing, etc. I’ll tell him to call career services when I see him this evening and I will pass along those opening you all sent me.
Update: I just talked to him on the phone and he said he is willing to move anywhere even if it is an undesirable small town in the Midwest. He said he thinks he might need to brush up on his shooting, he said small stations can’t afford camera operators and he said that might be what is holding him back. He said at CNN one of the camera operators shot his stuff for him in the field, or a fellow intern helped him when he filmed things inside the CNN Center.
He has a friend finishing up college now that is good with shooting and he is going to show him how to shoot better. He said it’s been a 3 years since he’s touched a camera and he needs to get more comfortable with it. He said he wishes he would have taken more production or advanced production classes. He focused on more on the classes where he got to be in front of the camera, or the focus was on writing/interviewing/investigative journalism etc.
He said the classes where he worked with the equipment was all very introductory, basic, and so long ago so his friend is going to show him how to shoot better and he will add the stuff that he shot himself to his reel.
I have no idea about broadcasting but how is a reporter expected to film and be in front of the camera at the same time? That doesn’t make sense to me? My brother is visiting and I asked him, my brother works in law enforcement and has been interviewed several times by the local news and he said the reporter always had a camera operator filming while he was being interviewed.
Sounds like he’s moving the ball forward! That is good. It’s always easier getting the second job out of college than the first job out of college. If Atlanta is in the crosshairs…he can get himself there but just might have to pay his dues somewhere else for a year or two.
On air talent might actually be on camera 10 minutes a day (interviewing the mayor on the fire which broke out in the break room at town hall). But he’ll be getting paid for a 40 hour work week. Hence- the filming or editing skills. What’s he going to do when he’s NOT on air in a full time job? If he’s doing local reporting, there’s only so much “research” to be done. His employer will put all of his skills to use.
He should consider all the other new broadcast journalism grads who are in the pipeline for Atlanta jobs. All those on-air reporters who are already working in small markets and gaining the experience to jump up into the larger markets. Just think. How is he going to beat them in the competition for jobs? He likely needs to get in line behind them by starting in a small market. Some of those jobs pay so little he’ll need an allowance. It’s not pretty. Is he checking medialine.com?
I have a friend who is a professor of broadcast journalism at a HBCU (though he himself is white).
He has worked in Evansville, IN; Nashville, TN; Bowling Green, KY; and Owensboro, KY. I’m pretty sure that his starting job was Owensboro, just to give you a sense of size of market.
I agree that the pay is likely to be surprisingly low, and most are trying to move up, so being willing to live further away from Atlanta in a smaller market is crucial. I would assume that there is significant turnover in the lower paid small market jobs, too.
Edited to add that my college roommate started at a small station in Northern Illinois after getting a masters in broadcast journalism from Northwestern. Her salary in today’s dollars would be about $23,000.
I was also a print major (don’t get me started about that buggy whip industry) and I agree that tiny markets are where the jobs are, especially for new grads. I graduated college with a guy who got hired right out of school to work at ESPN (you’d know his name, he’s done it all and is a celebrity himself) but there were hundreds of fellow grads who started out at tiny markets where you cover county fairs, the first day of school and other “not fancy but still important” small town news. Stay for a year or three, and move on. It is very unrealistic to assume any kind of bigger market without paying some dues, unless you are truly amazing or at the very right place at the very right time (like my classmate).
I’m in PR, so I deal with both print and broadcast journalists. He’s already at a disadvantage because he’s been out of the job market for so long. Broadcast wise, I live in a mid-market. Most of the reporters are either natives of the area or they started out in sister stations near where they went to college. A few are recruited nationally. The good news is that this is an election year, so stations are probably going to need extra hands on deck - especially since most stations (at least around here) also do a good bit of high-school football coverage. My advice would be to get whatever job he can find at the local station and work his way up. Writing skills are more vital than camera skills. He may also have to do grunt work such as city council meetings, school boards, and sweet potato queen pageants. As he works awhile, he’ll start making contacts. I have found this business is very much who-you-know. In fact, there is only one person in my office who got the job without knowing someone on the inside (and even Anderson Cooper had to start at the bottom despite his family connections). Good luck to your son!
He has to decide whether his dream is to live in an urban area or to be a broadcast journalist. It may not be possible to do both for the first few years.
The people I know who have become on air reporters in the last 5 years or so followed one of three paths:
Paid internship at local station doing behind the scenes work and a little reporting
Job as production assistant, working their way up slowly to on air (and moving to a less known market)
Your son reminds me of me post graduation: dead set on sexy markets and “dream jobs”… it didn’t work out for me (for a few reasons). I graduated from a top JO school and did not end up as a journalist. There are many ways to “make it,” and the industry has changed a lot, but broadcast hasn’t changed as much as print and one of the chief ways to make it is what people are saying: aim for small markets and work your way up. Unfortunately, your son is a bit behind–the time to focus on that and line up that job was before graduating/right after. Plus, often you get into those markets via networking through your school–if the school can’t do that, it may not happen via cold applying.
I agree with other advice here: I would say he either needs to apply for jobs at stations ANY JOB (not just on air), and he definitely needs to learn how to operate a camera. I’m a bit surprised his j-school didn’t teach that? BU makes all broadcasting students produce and shoot as many packages as they are on-air talent for. Being able to write/produce is another huge skill that can get you a job in a decent market. Does he enjoy these things? Writing/producing may be his way in.
Or, he needs to branch out and expand focus–he’s hyper-focusing on “traditional” broadcasting, but what about new media? All the major online outlets do video and need talents in those areas–think Buzzfeed, Huffington Post. Those jobs aren’t easy to get, either, but they do widen the pool. This is also where learning camera/editing skills will come in handy: a lot of jobs to be had–in major markets!–it’s camera/editors/producers/writers who are needed, not just on-air. Or, the on-air talent is expected to wear all these hats (ie: write and produce their own material). Maybe that direction isn’t for him at all, which is fine… but let me tell you: I hyper-focused on “traditional” (print, magazine) media, refusing to consider digital, back in 2006-2007. My peers who did? Are all professional journalists working for now-major media outlets (including Buzzfeed). My career might have gone differently if I’d widened my scope beyond traditional journalism and how my college told me to go out and get jobs. (that said, magazine journalism basically started dying as I was graduating; broadcast hasn’t changed THAT much so the “old” advice does technically work, re: targeting small markets). Online outlets are also WAY more open to young, attractive on-air talent.
Also, general advice: he should start temping or get a job, any job. Jobs lead to other jobs–sometimes not in the exact direction you want, but your own income will always give you more opportunities (as opposed to relying on your parents). I was able to take savings from my first job to move to the city I wanted, then took the savings from my 2nd/3rd jobs (which were not the “careers” I wanted) to move to LA to transition into the TV industry. Sitting around searching for the “perfect” job is a mistake–I wasted 6 months post graduation following that route, and I wonder if I’d have had better luck with journalism if I’d started temping right away, to pay my rent to stay in a major market (instead of having to move home). I wish I’d gone to the temp agency the week I graduated.
It’s pretty much the same in film. Both my friends from college that are (known) producers in Hollywood started ground level, one as a script reader and one working for a PBS station not the news of course, but again, those “glamour” fields…
A lot of reporters do this now at TV stations in the SF Bay Area. All the old reporters and cameramen are being let go or forced to retire, and the new, young reporters do the filming, reporting and editing. I think they’re called video journalists. When doing a report, they set the camera up on a tripod and stand in front of it. I swear I’ve seen some reports that looked like the video came from their phones.
Know someone who recently broke into print journalism in a top daily market. Not identical, but some strategies may overlap and others are spot on with ideas and required initiative.
What did it take? High level of success in two internships (almost a year total) at now full time employer, part time non-internship work there on weekends and holidays during college (offered because of internship performance), cultivating relationships with colleagues, using digital media independently of formal job description to bring attention to the paper and their own published work, learning everything possible about the city, developing both contacts with sources and documented expertise in a few beats, post-graduate job that was initially part time, being always available for any additional hours, taking a full time job that was half at a reporter’s salary, half not, and working like crazy to ride out rounds of lay offs and eventually after 2 years land a full time position with full benefits. There are still no longer term guarantees; this is the pursuit of a deep passion and required familial support as traction was gained. Shouldn’t be so, but that was the reality.
A current portfolio of work is critical to display both skills and commitment to the field, as others have said. The more evidence of engagement and pro-activity the better. It is a career for hustlers and one can become yesterday’s news quite quickly.
Are there relatives or close family friends he can stay with in other markets if he finds an opportunity, even if a very low paying one? Looking for a job is a full time job. As others have said, it will help to build up his portfolio and target likely prospects with input from his school. Talk to older alums in his field and cultivate contacts. Wishing everyone the best.
