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THE PATH OF A JOURNALIST

by Bill Cross

Famed biologist Thomas Huxley said that everyone should “learn something about everything and everything about something.”

Media as we know it barely existed when Huxley died, but his philosophy can be applied to the journalism and mass communications industry today. To have a successful journalism career, it is important to have a strong specialty, but it is also important to understand — and experience — other parts of the industry.

Copy editors become clean writers. Ad designers become creative page designers. Broadcast writers become concise print journalists.

Even if you never switch career paths, learning other trades will help you work better with your future peers. Whether you’re an ad designer working with a salesperson or a magazine editor laying out a reporter’s story, better communication will make your job less stressful and more efficient.

Knowing that, employers will favor candidates with diverse college experience and coursework, but with extensive experience in their field of expertise.

Take these three suggestions into consideration when building the foundation of your career, and you will be an appealing job candidate when you graduate four or five years from now:

Dabble

Within the J-school, take classes outside of your professional interests. If you’re an advertising major, take a news writing class. It will help you understand the other side of the business, and you’ll get to know people on the other side of the school newspaper’s staff.

If your specialty is newspaper design, take a broadcast course. As the Internet allows more media convergence and Web sites require more designers, you’ll be adding videos and sound clips to your layout sooner than you might think, and you’ll want to know what makes good broadcast.

Every side of journalism and advertising affects the others. The more you can take in during your four years, the more attractive you’ll be to employers.

Work

Nothing on your resume — not grades, extracurriculars or awards — can substitute for real, published work samples. When choosing a college, make sure it has the student media outlet you want: a newspaper, magazine, radio station, television station or multimedia Web site. And make sure it’s good. Employers are most impressed if the paper is completely student-run, and students take advice, not orders, from faculty.

Network

You will work closely with faculty advisers at a good student media outlet. Newspaper editors that I interviewed with after graduation agreed that the adviser’s recommendation was one of the most important factors in hiring any candidate, even if he has a few years of experience under his belt.

But go beyond the adviser at your student media outlet. Other faculty members have worked in the private sector and can clue you in to internships and job openings.

Bill Cross is a 2005 graduate of the William Allen White School of Journalism and Mass Communications at the University of Kansas.