3 takeaways from ONA’s Career Day

Approach your journalism career with the skills of a reporter

Journalists should be well equipped at looking for jobs and developing careers. After all, their job requires them to be curious, investigative people. But I’ve heard from my journalism students and newsroom colleagues that they don’t know where to start, they’re hesitant to reach out or that networking seems like an entirely different set of skills. 

What if we approached career development and job searches like how we approach actual journalism — with curiosity, focus, source development and a re-framing of established perceptions. Perhaps it would be less daunting.

ONA Career Day was full of students and journalists looking for jobs or help in their careers. The event offered some good lessons to keep in mind when thinking about your journalism career with the mindset of a journalist: 

Experience counts, but so does reframing resume ‘experience’

Real-world experience matters in journalism, especially for first-time journalism job-seekers.