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Topic: HR people . . . I need your help!
| Author | Message |
| hurldog | Posted – 3/11/2008 5:57:26 PM | show profile Journalism profs won't give career help? You know, that really cheeses me off. The very least a journalism department could do is justify its existence by helping place their students in internships. What else could be the point of them? Anything relevant that I learned about journalism in college came from internship experience and writing for the school newspaper. I didn't learn a damned thing sitting in a classroom, that's for sure. I wish I would have majored in chemistry or physics or computer science or God knows anything else, as I've discovered that the last thing you need is a journalism professor to teach you how to practice journalism. I have a journalism job, by the way, so that's not why I'm bitter. I'm just experiencing some serious buyer's remorse with my degree right now. It's the last reason why I even have this job. |
| Chamsah | Posted – 3/11/2008 6:16:20 PM | show profile Hurldog You wrote: I have a journalism job, by the way, so that's not why I'm bitter. I'm just experiencing some serious buyer's remorse with my degree right now. It's the last reason why I even have this job. Did we go to the same J-school? I graduated many years ago during a recession. We were handed our diplomas and told good luck getting a job. Yep, that's the advice we got from our J-school profs? I think it's the program's responsibility to have two things 1) a great career center 2) strong alumni programs. Professors can't serve all their students, after all how is it fair to mention an internship to one student but not another? That's up to the university to offer their students. Plus loyalty among alum comes back to benefit in the end. If I were to recommend a J-school today (and I am not sure I would) I'd say to pick one based on the school's rep for placement/alumni network. National ranking otherwise is irrelevant. |
| foodlit | Posted – 3/11/2008 7:13:18 PM | show profile Unnecessary nastiness The ever cranky ManhattanMatt wrote? "Your first mistake ... ... is asking HR people for help. You should be seeking out managing editors, news directors, and producers. THOSE are the people who hire. HR people just push the paperwork through." That's just ignorant advice. Don't underestimate HR, as you'd be surprised how much they help...or hinder your efforts. Believe it or not, hiring managers do listen to what hr (or recruiters like myself) think about a candidate. If you impress us, we'll go to bat for you and it can make a difference. If you do not creat a good impression, we will share that information as well. When looking for a job, you should network with everyone, hr, recuiters, hiring managers, anyone you have access to, as you never know where it could lead. Pam |
| ManhattanMatt | Posted – 3/11/2008 10:10:56 PM | show profile Food ... ... at every television network, radio network, and station I've ever worked, recruiters and PR people had NOTHING to do with hiring decisions. If you got as far as meeting the executive producer, managing editor, or news director, it's THOSE people who make the decisions. What a paper-pusher says has nothing to do with that decision. |
| bookmap | Posted – 3/12/2008 12:53:45 AM | show profile MLA_Chick Aside from all the debates, I really think you have more digging around to do. There are several other media related sites that offer job postings, advice, mentors, etc. Search through the hundreds of postings by other beginners who have posted related questions/problems/fears in the past. There is a TON of information on these boards, you just have to sift through a lot of it. Check out ed2010.com as well. While they focus on magazines, they offer networking events in the city and you can request a mentor to meet with over coffee. The more you begin to research the better off you'll be. Find names of managing editors at various publications. Email them and request informational interviews. It won't be a job interview but it will get your name and resume into the company. Follow up with friends you went to school with; they may work for a company you're interested in and they could forward your resume from within. Bottom line, research research research. I'm no seasoned expert, in fact I'm still on the search for my own entry level job, but I know that its up to ME to do the dirty work, no one on these boards are handing out interviews. |
| foodlit | Posted – 3/12/2008 1:00:30 PM | show profile Matt, You still shouldn't generalize. All hr/recruiters are not just paper-pushers, that's frankly insulting. If I were just a paper pusher, then this would be a dream job considering the income I earn! But, that is not the case, or everyone would be doing my job. Yes, hiring managers make hiring decisions, but you should not assume that opinions of hr are not considered in those decisions. They are, sometimes much more than you would imagine. Remember the saying about how one should never 'assume'? Well, it's true. |
| granitegirl | Posted – 3/12/2008 1:08:13 PM | show profile you should lie and say you went to penn. Penn people get jobs for alumni all the time, regardless of skill or talent. Not to say Penn grads aren't talaneted. But some are not. Almost all are wealthy and well connected to begin with. Nothing impresses a Penn grad more than a Penn degree, allegiance to the DAily Penn and that stupid magazine of theirs (proclaim how it's the greatest thing ever to hit modern literature and journalism as we know it) and make up some coonection to Buzz Bissinger. You'll get networking opps up the wazoo. |
