6 Tips For Landing Your Dream J-Job

One of my favorite non j-blogs is Get Rich Slowly, a blog about personal finance. Today, Water Cooler Wisdom author Alexandra Levit guest-posted her tips to landing a dream job -- which I think would be helpful to you readers who have contacted me over the years asking how to break into journalism.

Here are Levit's tips for success:

1. Learn about yourself. Take time to do a self-assessment of your values, how you like to work, and what you’d be compelled to do even if you never got paid. Research careers and industries that map to your skills and interests. Hit the Internet, set up informational interviews, take relevant coursework, and arrange to go onsite at a company in your chosen field.
   
   
2. Don’t be deterred by a lack of experience. In developing a resume and other promotional materials for the field you want to pursue, think about how your current skills and talents apply to the responsibilities you’ll hold in the new job. For example, knowledge of project management, client relations, information technology, and sales will take you far in most types of careers.
   
   
3. Ease into a new career one foot at a time. Perhaps this means earning a paycheck at your current job while doing a part-time internship in your new field or taking an adult education class or workshop on the weekend. The only way to find out if you’re passionate about something is to try it – ideally with as little risk as you can manage.
   
   
4. Remember that any progress is good progress. Even confident people stay in unsatisfying jobs because they feel safe, and because they’re afraid of making a bad decision. But in the quest to uncover a source of meaningful work, though, your worst enemy is inertia. Make an effort to do one thing, like e-mailing a networking contact or attending an event – that moves you a bit closer to your big picture goal.
   
   
5. Start early. Twenty and thirty-somethings have more flexibility when it comes to test-driving different careers. The process of self-discovery is much easier when you’re unencumbered by family responsibilities and substantial financial burdens, and when you haven’t yet reached a level in a career where it’s tougher to turn back. That said, it’s never too late to pursue your passion. More and more baby boomers are leaving the world of traditional employment for alternative career paths that will fulfill them well into retirement age.
   
   
6. Have realistic expectations. Even if you’re lucky enough to hold your dream job, there’s no such thing as the perfect work situation. Every job has its ups and downs, and aspects we love and aspects we don’t love. And dream job doesn’t mean “cushy” job. As your mom always told you, anything worth having in this world requires some effort. There will be some days you feel like shutting the alarm off and going back to sleep, but many more where you feel more energized by the prospect of work than you ever thought possible!

Levit's new book, How’d You Score That Gig? A Guide to the Coolest Careers — and How To Get Them, has just been published. (Thanks, J.D.!)

Journalism Internships Are A Joke (Financially). Period.

Journalism internships are crock.

Let me explain.

Journalism internships are inhumane.

Not because many times the clerical or "bitch" work, as it's often called, does not live up to the potential starry-eyed expectations of a budding journalist.

Not because they can be difficult to obtain.

Not because they often lack any educational (read: real-world) value.

Not because they may be extraordinarily busy and taxing, or, the very opposite, completely unstimulating.

Journalism internships are inhumane because they completely ignore the basic living needs of their interns.

I'm not talking about free housing or meals. What I'm talking about are living wages.

Shelter. Food. Transportation.

A large majority of journalism internships, by major media companies or otherwise, are completely unpaid. Those that are, by comparison, are paltry sums - often less than minimum wage or a pittance of a stipend. The few that are neither of these - TIME and Newsweek come to mind - are ravenously pursued by applicants, and locked down before the calendar year changes.

Interns are people. Ambitious, willing people. All people need to support themselves. Not all interns have unpaid time to spare. Not all interns still receive help from Mom and Dad - some never do. Some are in their early 20s and doing exactly what they're being told - pushing out on their own, financially.

The idealistic point of an internship is to be educational and to serve as a stepping-stone to a future job. The current use of an internship is a near-requirement for a future job.

But largely, journalism internships are useless.

Let me explain.

I live in New York City, media capital of the world. I am a graduating senior in college. I live on my own, without help from my parents. The only way I subsist is through a combination of educational loans and two jobs. I have tried my very best to make those jobs relevant to my interests - primarily journalism.

But it is financially impossible for an intern in school to live independently in an urban center and still pursue his or her career without simply abandoning education altogether and searching for a full-time job.

Let's examine this:

The minimum wage in New York City is currently $7.15 per hour, up from $6.75 in 2006.

Now, let's do some math and compare:

The large majority of internships, specifically in the summer, are unpaid (Conde Nast, for example). Many require at least two to three days a week. If an intern were to find another job to supplement this endeavor, at $10 per hour (a common rate for a basic job in NYC), the intern would make $960 per month (at 8 hours per day, 3 days a week for 4 weeks) BEFORE taxes are taken out.

Some internships pay a small hourly amount or stipend. These internships often require 35+ hours per week. At $7 per hour, the current Hearst rate, that means $1,120 a month (8 hours/day for 5 days a week for 4 weeks) BEFORE taxes are taken out. For a stipend of $15 - common, about enough to pay for the subway both ways and an average lunch in NYC - this leaves nothing, with no opportunity of working a second job to find additional income.

With a rent of $700 - quite affordable by NYC standards - $100 for utilities, and $76 for a subway pass per month, that's almost $900. This excludes food in its entirety.

(Before this becomes an issue, I am leaving weekends out of this. Not only does any sane human need time off, but even if someone wanted to work weekends, it is a near impossibility to find a job - an internship, in this case - relevant to journalism on the weekends. Waiting tables is about it.)

Compare $900 for shelter ONLY with the $0, $960 pre-tax and $1,120 pre-tax above. This is a completely unacceptable living standard - a standard that only those dedicated enough to ensure their own finances pursue in the first place.

Interns are humans. They offer the service of work. Less than often, they receive the "educational experience" they come for. They should, at minimum, be paid accordingly for their time.

Look, I understand the draw of a nonpaid internship at a major, high-profile publication. The prestige is undeniable. But don't these companies have minimal funds to spare? For, often times, work that is often usually done by a full-time, paid employee? A researcher? A fact-checker? An assistant to the editor-in-chief?

Secondly, what if you already have a prestigious internship under your belt? Do you need another? No, you've accomplished that well enough, and your resume can afford to take an internship at a lower-profile publication for actual pay.

Problem is, these publications think they can offer unpaid internships, too.

Really, how many times have you seen "NO-NAME MAGAZINE" offering unpaid internships? Why? Never heard of it! And then you want me to work for you for free? Side-by-side with full-time employees the same age as me? And assume that I'm learning a lot because 1) you say I am, 2) you're a publication, 3) I'm working closely with the 'editor,' one of three total people on staff, and 4) clerical duties really subscribe to an experience an internship can provide but a secretary job can't?

And did I mention that, arguments about the educational or experiential value of an internship aside, they don't provide support for the minimum living wages of one person yet demand the time necessary to provide at least that minimum in lieu of internship wages?

Why don't young journalists just go and get secretary jobs? At least those pay more than $30,000 a year in NYC - for the same type of work: photocopies, bills, contracts, schedules, phone calls, etc.!

And why, then, do applicants still pursue these internships? Are they out of their mind? Or is it a reflection of the persistence of parents to support their children way beyond legal adulthood?

Here's some hypothetical food for thought: I'm a hypothetical intern who does not have parental help and is in-between (summer, or post-grad) without educational loan support. If I didn't have to spend my entire day worrying about putting dinner on the table and making rent (and believe me, I'm worrying - I've already got my timesheet itemized and calculated, really, for the whole summer), wouldn't I be SO much more attuned to contributing, in a positive way, to the publication? If I didn't come in every day and sit next to a full-time employee of the same age (whose only worry is seemingly what club they'll be going to this weekend) wondering why I'm there and not pursuing a full-time job of my own, wouldn't I be much more helpful and less distracted? As this hypothetical intern, I simply cannot appreciate my internship, because I'm too worried about food (and I'm already brown-bagging PB&J). What this really becomes is an evaluation of value: what's worth more? A resume piece or my own well-being and stability?

I understand internships are a supposed benefit, but in journalism, they're seen as a near-requirement - yet someone in HR forgot to notice that, somehow, these people must finance their own lives. Sure, we must sacrifice for the future - but there is a difference between living frugally and simply being unable to, period.

Why is this such an oversight? No rational human being in the HR department could knowledgeably admit that this is sufficient. Can they?

This is why journalism internships are crock.

An intern would give 50 or 60 hours a week if they did not have to worry about basic living needs. Interns are rarely freshmen in dorms - these are more often older, independent people who need to find support yet can't commit to a long-haul salary job because of the very education they need to pursue said job (and are pursuing).

The price of being responsible? Amibitious? Rational? I don't know. But it's just not right.

When did such a low-paying industry become so elite?

Journalism internships are financially inhumane to independent interns. And things need to change.

UPDATE 7:23p: Romenesko picked this post up and paired it with an excellent article by Martin Kuz in SF Weekly on how media companies may be violating state labor law by underpaying non-student interns. My question: what about New York (New York)? Or D.C. (Washington)? Or Illinois (Chicago)? The article on California is a help, but what about where the majority of media companies are?