Journalism jobs, internships and resume tips

So it’s time to take those classroom skills and put them to work in a real-world setting. Whether it be at an internship or full-time job … newspaper or magazine … TV or radio … PR or publishing … this web site has some information that you might find valuable

1. Preparing for an internship

2. Getting that resume ready

3. Specific internship opportunities

4. The job hunt

1. Preparing for an internship

In general, I urge students to complete at least two internships before they graduate. But they don't have to be internships where you get Fairfield course credit. Spending the summer between freshman and sophomore years in working on your local hometown weekly newspapers can give you an early feel for whether you enjoy this type of work – and put a few dollars in your pocket as well.

You must be at least a junior to take an official Fairfield-sponsored internship. I urge students to look at their last three semesters and try to complete two internships in those three semesters. Completing an internship in your final semester of senior year is a good idea because if the company likes you, they may keep you for the summer and then permanently.

Before doing these internships, though, consider:

Have you taken sufficient coursework so that you’ll do a good job, emerge with valuable experience -- and someone who will write you a good recommendation? For someone interested in print journalism, they generally means completing courses in News Writing, Journalism Editing and Design, plus a third ENW course.

Have you taken those classroom skills and applied them first to the campus media? I urge all students to try The Mirror … and WVOF … and the Ham Channel and see what setting feels most comfortable

Be sure to research the company for which you want to work. Read their newspaper or magazine. Research their financial health or history; ask the reference librarian for help. Come up with 4-5 nuggets of info you can sprinkle into your job interview to show you took the time to check out the company.

For English majors, information about internship policies and procedures is now available online:

http://www.faculty.fairfield.edu/bowen/internships/policy.html

Specific internship openings are at:

http://www.faculty.fairfield.edu/cnaser/crs/

If you are seeking a print journalism job, an employers expects you to have some clippings from a newspaper. You should have five to eight pieces that show a variety of styles. Mount each on an 8 x11 page, create a packet and give it to the employers with your resume. Also see: http://www.freep.com/jobspage/toolkit/clips.htm

On all web sites listed, be sure to look at related links and explore the entire site for related information.

2. Getting that resume ready.

· Pay equal attention to the Cover Letter and The Resume. The purpose of the cover letter is to get the potential employer to look inside your packet and look at the resume. The purpose of the resume is to get them to call you in for an interview.

· For Cover Letters, consider the AIDA format (first paragraph grabs Attention of employer, second explains your Interest, third sparks some Desire on part of employer to bring you in, fourth paragraph is an Action step in which you say you’ll call and see if you can come in.) For more background on this, see:

http://www-rohan.sdsu.edu/~renglish/370/notes/chapt15/.

See Promotional; Goals and the AIDA concept

· The FU Career Planning center can help you pull together a resume.

· MS-Word has built-in resume templates that are very attractive and easy to use. Go to start, then New Office Document, then Other Documents. Look at the three resume styles presented; open one and plug your information into the template. There also is a resume wizard to help you; just follow instructions

· Great web site for resumes: http://www.freep.com/jobspage/toolkit/resume.htm While there, also look at the other free services, listed on the page to the right

· Great set of tips: “A Foot in the Door: The Best Way to Get Hired?” http://www.poynter.org/column.asp?id=52&aid=24041

3. Specific internship opportunities

Both the English and Comm. departments at Fairfield have faculty to help you land an internship. Dr. Simon (x2792) will help you with any journalism or PR-oriented internships

Web sites that are useful:

Internships that pay: http://www.asne.org/kiosk/careers/interndate.htm

Radio and TV jobs: http://www.ruf.rice.edu/~willr/cb//job$.html

More TV internships: http://www.tvjobs.com/intern.htm

Print internships: http://www.studentpress.org/acpjobs/

More general sites for summer jobs and internships:

Jobtrak summer jobs and internships www.jobtrak.com

Catapult summer jobs and internships www.jobweb.org/catapult/jintern.htm

Internship programs, http://internships.wetfeet.com/home.asp

Again, check out http://www.freep.com/jobspage/

4. The job hunt

The mother lode: four superb sites with multiple job listings in each.