Life After Journalism School
I’ve been meaning to write this post for a long time. I went back to Ohio University in late January to be a part of E. W. Scripps School of Journalism’s Senior Saturday event. Fortunately for me, this was the second year I had the honor of keynoting the series of presentations–which are, obviously, geared toward senior journalism students who are looking for that “what to do after graduation” advice.
Last year, I talked about personal branding; about making a brand unavoidable. It worked for me–I had an unbelievable experience after graduation with MTV that turned into my current opportunity with U.S. News & World Report. But, honestly, this may not work for everyone. In college, I didn’t know what I wanted to do–so I bounced around in journalism, trying everything from online to print to broadcast and back to online again. I started blogging in general because I was bored, and started this blog early enough in college when I happened upon a post that discussed why you should own your own name.
While I will say talent got me somewhere, the fact is a lot of what I “achieved” during college and since graduation came out of luck and trying new things. Not everyone will or wants to do that and, you know, that’s OK. There are multiple ways to get to where you want to go — there’s no right way or wrong way.
And that was the theme of this year’s Senior Saturday event. I had the opportunity to partner with Meghan Louttit, a New York Times multimedia producer, on the keynote, and we were able to discuss life after journalism from different perspectives. Meghan is an incredibly talented journalist who has obviously seen great success early in her career, and she relied less on a blog and social media platforms to get her name out there. Through almost “old school” practices, Meghan built up a reputation at The Washington Post as a skilled producer who was willing to take on new challenges. Her reputation is so stellar, she landed a producer role at The Times before her five-year college graduation mark.
I share this background because it’s so drastically different than my own. I pushed the “own your name/kill it on social/network, network,network” package, but it’s so apparent, even in 2012, that a good work ethic, a willingness to learn, and a passion to be great can still put you on that path to success.
I’m sharing our presentation–LOLcats and all–so feel free to browse the slides and share your feedback.
