First Jobs: Newsroom Advice

BiB Contributor | Haley Cihock

Here’s another pile of great advice from our very informal newsroom survey. These are the answers staff members offered when interns asked, “What do you know now that you wish you knew then?”

• Get on board with multi-media reporting – learn to write for print, web, and broadcast.
• Take full advantage of internships – learn everything!
• You have to really want to be here. The pay and the hours can be challenging starting out.
• Contacts are critical – form relationships built on mutual trust.
• The industry changes quickly – keep up.
• More often than not, people want to tell you their stories.
• Work smarter, not harder. And learn how to say, “no.”
• Your success will be directly related to your ability to get along with people.
• Don’t take yourself too seriously.
• Be flexible, and be ready to sacrifice your holidays.
• Be open to growth.
• Stay calm.

Sound pretty universal? They are. What works for other businesses works for ours. Breaking in is often as much about who you are, who you know and how you treat others as it is about what you know and what you show.