Work placement for Journalism

tinkletoes

I did my work placement for a local newspaper for 2 weeks and got 6 of my articles published in it. They were impressed as I never written for any newspaper and said that I could do my work placement for college with them but could not take me on for whole amount of my placement.

So I need to start looking around Dublin region and was wondering has anyone ever do their work placement in any of National papers and if so how did you go about securing your work placement?

jdivision

Via the college course which organised them

roommush

I did my placement at the Irish Times, I wrote a covering letter to the editor and attached my CV. I didn't get a response but followed up with a phone call or two and was finally taken on. Gentle persistence is key!

monument

jdivision wrote: »

Via the college course which organised them

Some courses leave it up to the students to secure their own placements.

roommush

Yes, my course left it up to us to find our own placements but helped if we were struggling.

The beauty of that is you can go for the publications/stations that you'd like to work for, so you'd generally have a better idea of their output and style which is a bonus when you can concisely include such details in your covering letter

tinkletoes

roommush wrote: »

I did my placement at the Irish Times, I wrote a covering letter to the editor and attached my CV. I didn't get a response but followed up with a phone call or two and was finally taken on. Gentle persistence is key!

Thanx it worked the gentle persistence but I tried for a magazine in the end that I really wanted and got it:)

naidheachdair

tinkletoes wrote: »

Thanx it worked the gentle persistence but I tried for a magazine in the end that I really wanted and got it:)

Only a few places will ever be so tight as to refuse someone point blank the chance to go in and do a placement or shadow. And would you really want to work for someone that arrogant? A lot of editors are looking for young, enthusiastic and above all CHEAP new people to replace the grizzled old hacks coming up for retirement.

As long as you're nice about it, polite persistence just shows them how determined you are to work for their paper/mag/radio station. Write in, with a ONE page CV (only showing relevant education/experience, they don't give one about your Tesco job!) and ONE page covering letter written specifically for them plus a couple of samples of work if applicable, then if you hear nothing just phone the editor and ask what's happening with it. That's how I got a placement which turned into a job.

tinkletoes

naidheachdair wrote: »

Only a few places will ever be so tight as to refuse someone point blank the chance to go in and do a placement or shadow. And would you really want to work for someone that arrogant? A lot of editors are looking for young, enthusiastic and above all CHEAP new people to replace the grizzled old hacks coming up for retirement.

As long as you're nice about it, polite persistence just shows them how determined you are to work for their paper/mag/radio station. Write in, with a ONE page CV (only showing relevant education/experience, they don't give one about your Tesco job!) and ONE page covering letter written specifically for them plus a couple of samples of work if applicable, then if you hear nothing just phone the editor and ask what's happening with it. That's how I got a placement which turned into a job.

How did you manage to turn it into job? How did you convince your employer at the time to make you full time?

naidheachdair

tinkletoes wrote: »

How did you manage to turn it into job? How did you convince your employer at the time to make you full time?

By thinking right outside the box and tracking down some great stories and interviewees that no-one else had. (We're radio.)

By being at my desk at just gone 8 every morning instead of five to nine, doing those rubbish Christmas shifts no-one else wanted and being at the end of the phone to answer panicky "X is sick, can you..." calls.

By being really versatile and prepared to never say no to anything, even when it really isn't much to do with news. "Can you blag your way through a sports and rock show?"

In the end, after a few weeks of this I got asked into the upstairs office and told "X is leaving, do you want a tryout?". I think it's more luck than anything. Either that, or they got sick of the sight of me hanging around the place.

Because it's so "competitive" you have to be a bit of a sell-out, do stuff for free that you'd normally only do for pay. But as long as you're good at it and get on with the people there, the sky's the limit. I'll let you into a secret: a lot of that "competition" out of universities is seriously third-rate. They'll jump on you if you show any sign of flair whatsoever.

tinkletoes

Thanx for advice naidheachdair:)

roommush

naidheachdair wrote: »

Only a few places will ever be so tight as to refuse someone point blank the chance to go in and do a placement or shadow. And would you really want to work for someone that arrogant? A lot of editors are looking for young, enthusiastic and above all CHEAP new people to replace the grizzled old hacks coming up for retirement.

As long as you're nice about it, polite persistence just shows them how determined you are to work for their paper/mag/radio station. Write in, with a ONE page CV (only showing relevant education/experience, they don't give one about your Tesco job!) and ONE page covering letter written specifically for them plus a couple of samples of work if applicable, then if you hear nothing just phone the editor and ask what's happening with it. That's how I got a placement which turned into a job.

Well done you!

Serenity Now!

tinkletoes wrote: »

I did my work placement for a local newspaper for 2 weeks and got 6 of my articles published in it. They were impressed as I never written for any newspaper and said that I could do my work placement for college with them but could not take me on for whole amount of my placement.

So I need to start looking around Dublin region and was wondering has anyone ever do their work placement in any of National papers and if so how did you go about securing your work placement?

I went outside the country and kept submitting articles with a CV each time. I got foot in the door with an intl news magazine while based in Scandinavia as a translator for a sub-ed and their remit. Took a long while to get 'in' especially covering subject matter I absolutely hated but it was worth it in the end.
Have since quit the game. There's a helluva lot of competition out there and I just couldn't be arsed anymore lol
Now in a job I just bloody love in an entirely different area (sports admin).
All a good experience in hindsight though. Not exactly a wasted 12 years.