Job Hunting

[Stive Pesley]

22 minutes ago, PodgeyRam said:

Haha, it does seem that way at times. Not going to let it go without a fight though.

Good on ya mate. It's depressing though when you read the DET and see the garbage they churn out in a desperate quest for clicks on their website to drive their ad revenue. I know it's a business and all that, but they don't do the world any favours by pushing non-stories just because they know people like to go crazy in the comments.

Then you see respected old-timer sports journalists like Steve Nicholson having to play the clickbait game in his headlines "you'll never guess what Gary Rowett had to say about this Derby player..." etc

Makes you wonder what the future of news journalism is. Reporting the news is not profitable. Reporting opinion on the news and winding up the general public's righteous indignation is the name of the game if you want to succeed. I don't envy you, but maybe the other posters suggestions on looking to aim for a specialist journalism niche is a good plan?

[Gaspode]

The agency approach is probably your best bet - a large number of companies only recruit via their preferred agencies so approaching the company directly may simply get your letter filed in the bin. Look for old ads from the sort of organisations you want to work for and see which agencies they use.

Also register on LinkedIn - even though I'm not actively looking for a new job, I get a large number of approaches because of my profile on there - it works best after a few years when you have a large number of contacts, but no harm in registering now....

By the way, main advice is not to get demoralised when you send off letters/applications and don't hear anything back - organisations are crap nowadays and treat job applicants very poorly - they don't tend to let you know if they're not interested which is really depressing when you've got your hopes up - keep plugging away and be prepare to be flexible - job experience counts for a lot, so taking something that's not exactly what you wanted may open a door further down the line (as opposed to being determined to only work in one specific field and ending up not working for a while...)

 

[PodgeyRam]

5 minutes ago, Saul Pimpson said:

Make a mean coffee then do you?

I know how, but I must be the only journalist (or prospective journalist) in the world who doesn't like caffeine.

[Gypsy Ram]

9 minutes ago, StivePesley said:

Good on ya mate. It's depressing though when you read the DET and see the garbage they churn out in a desperate quest for clicks on their website to drive their ad revenue. I know it's a business and all that, but they don't do the world any favours by pushing non-stories just because they know people like to go crazy in the comments.

Then you see respected old-timer sports journalists like Steve Nicholson having to play the clickbait game in his headlines "you'll never guess what Gary Rowett had to say about this Derby player..." etc

Makes you wonder what the future of news journalism is. Reporting the news is not profitable. Reporting opinion on the news and winding up the general public's righteous indignation is the name of the game if you want to succeed. I don't envy you, but maybe the other posters suggestions on looking to aim for a specialist journalism niche is a good plan?

I feel for Steve Nicholson. The horror he's experiencing. I can't even go over that site anymore and he's living the story.

[PodgeyRam]

4 minutes ago, StivePesley said:

Good on ya mate. It's depressing though when you read the DET and see the garbage they churn out in a desperate quest for clicks on their website to drive their ad revenue. I know it's a business and all that, but they don't do the world any favours by pushing non-stories just because they know people like to go crazy in the comments.

Then you see respected old-timer sports journalists like Steve Nicholson having to play the clickbait game in his headlines "you'll never guess what Gary Rowett had to say about this Derby player..." etc

Makes you wonder what the future of news journalism is. Reporting the news is not profitable. Reporting opinion on the news and winding up the general public's righteous indignation is the name of the game if you want to succeed. I don't envy you, but maybe the other posters suggestions on looking to aim for a specialist journalism niche is a good plan?

It is quite depressing to look at, but that's the nature of the business these days. People do want good content (and as the Washington Post has shown, they are willing to pay for it).

I have no answers though about how we can stop the decline.

Maybe. Just need that first step on the ladder though and then I'll be able to take stock and decide where I want to go.

[PodgeyRam]

9 minutes ago, Gaspode said:

The agency approach is probably your best bet - a large number of companies only recruit via their preferred agencies so approaching the company directly may simply get your letter filed in the bin. Look for old ads from the sort of organisations you want to work for and see which agencies they use.

Also register on LinkedIn - even though I'm not actively looking for a new job, I get a large number of approaches because of my profile on there - it works best after a few years when you have a large number of contacts, but no harm in registering now....

By the way, main advice is not to get demoralised when you send off letters/applications and don't hear anything back - organisations are crap nowadays and treat job applicants very poorly - they don't tend to let you know if they're not interested which is really depressing when you've got your hopes up - keep plugging away and be prepare to be flexible - job experience counts for a lot, so taking something that's not exactly what you wanted may open a door further down the line (as opposed to being determined to only work in one specific field and ending up not working for a while...)

 

I'll definitely do LinkedIn. Seems everyone uses it. 

Cheers. I have heard companies don't get back to you, so I'm already preparing for the worst (whatever that may be).

[PodgeyRam]

2 minutes ago, Gypsy Ram said:

I feel for Steve Nicholson. The horror he's experiencing. I can't even go over that site anymore and he's living the story.

Something tells me there's no one more horrified by the state of journalism than him.

Plus, he can't even break news anymore because the odds are the club will ban them. It's all so micro managed these days.

The club are the true king in the relationship. They have the power to ban media organisations if they don't stick to embargoes.

 

[LesterRam]

What I would suggest to get some money in is, blog posts and/or content writing, some are on £xxx,xxx incomes

[PodgeyRam]

5 minutes ago, LesterRam said:

What I would suggest to get some money in is, blog posts and/or content writing, some are on £xxx,xxx incomes

I have had several blogs (mainly about Derby County), but none have been monetised. Maybe I could become one of those rich kids of Instagram and get sponsorships from those big brands in return for shilling their products.

[LesterRam]

6 minutes ago, PodgeyRam said:

I have had several blogs (mainly about Derby County), but none have been monetised. Maybe I could become one of those rich kids of Instagram and get sponsorships from those big brands in return for shilling their products.

The good finance and car review writers charge a fortune, probably register yourself on peopleperhour or similar, generate yourself an income whilst waiting for your dream job.

[PodgeyRam]

4 minutes ago, LesterRam said:

The good finance and car review writers charge a fortune, probably register yourself on peopleperhour or similar, generate yourself an income whilst waiting for your dream job.

Never heard of that site before, but it looks promising. Cheers.

[rynny]

24 minutes ago, PodgeyRam said:

Never heard of that site before, but it looks promising. Cheers.

http://www.bbc.co.uk/careers/trainee-schemes-and-apprenticeships/journalism/kick-off-scheme

Not sure if this is of interest or not. 

[PodgeyRam]

1 minute ago, rynny said:

http://www.bbc.co.uk/careers/trainee-schemes-and-apprenticeships/journalism/kick-off-scheme

Not sure if this is of interest or not. 

I have thought about that - in fact I was just rejected by the BBC for their trainee journalism scheme (which is slightly different) last week! 

Don't think they're accepting applications for that one at the moment. Cheers though. 

[Kernow]

I'm not sure how interested you would be in Sports Journalism, but Owen Bradley tweeted not too long ago about applications opening for a scheme that he did to get his foot in the door and started off his career. I'm not sure if they're still open but it may be worth having a look through his tweets/asking him about it.

I personally think that getting paid to report on/talk about football would be a fantastic job, but pretty hard to come by.

[PodgeyRam]

3 minutes ago, Kernow said:

I'm not sure how interested you would be in Sports Journalism, but Owen Bradley tweeted not too long ago about applications opening for a scheme that he did to get his foot in the door and started off his career. I'm not sure if they're still open but it may be worth having a look through his tweets/asking him about it.

I personally think that getting paid to report on/talk about football would be a fantastic job, but pretty hard to come by.

I'm actually applying for a trainee sports reporter job in Watford. I know I can do it and do it well (if that doesn't sound too big headed of me), but I still not sure if I'd want to make a career out of it. 

On the one hand, you're right, you get paid to cover something you love. On the other though, it tends to expose you to worst elements of sport. I read an article some time ago about a man who got his dream job covering Swindon town for the local paper only to have his enjoyment of it rushed by having to deal with the club and everything around it.

[Kernow]

1 minute ago, PodgeyRam said:

I'm actually applying for a trainee sports reporter job in Watford. I know I can do it and do it well (if that doesn't sound too big headed of me), but I still not sure if I'd want to make a career out of it. 

On the one hand, you're right, you get paid to cover something you love. On the other though, it tends to expose you to worst elements of sport. I read an article some time ago about a man who got his dream job covering Swindon town for the local paper only to have his enjoyment of it rushed by having to deal with the club and everything around it.

I'm not sure I would like to do it for Derby, but it is something I would find interesting for sure, so if you're in to journalism I'm sure you do too. I know you went to Cardiff University, but I don't know where you're originally from/where you'd like to be based.

I also recall seeing a tweet from Dan Walker about some kind of graduate journalist scheme based in Sheffield. Depending on where you want to be, that could be worth looking at if it's still available.

[PodgeyRam]

8 minutes ago, Kernow said:

I'm not sure I would like to do it for Derby, but it is something I would find interesting for sure, so if you're in to journalism I'm sure you do too. I know you went to Cardiff University, but I don't know where you're originally from/where you'd like to be based.

I also recall seeing a tweet from Dan Walker about some kind of graduate journalist scheme based in Sheffield. Depending on where you want to be, that could be worth looking at if it's still available.

I'm from Derby. I don't really want to move too far away from home in the near future (for family reasons), which is why I was thinking about floating my CV to companies not actively hiring at the moment. There aren't many jobs locally at the moment - think the closest is in Huntingdon. 

Unfortunately, I don't think I'd be eligible for what he's offering. I think you need to have gone to Sheffield University for his scheme.

 

[Ewe Ram]

All big companies have PR depts that write their news stories, magazine articles etc. Might that be a foot in the door towards your goal? It's something where a journalism degree would be of interest to a recruiter (I used to be one) 

[PodgeyRam]

7 minutes ago, Ewe Ram said:

All big companies have PR depts that write their news stories, magazine articles etc. Might that be a foot in the door towards your goal? It's something where a journalism degree would be of interest to a recruiter (I used to be one) 

Yeah, that might be something to look at. You used to work in PR? Who for?

[Gypsy Ram]

Podgey. I'll PM you my email. Shoot me your CV.