If you’re serious about pursuing a journalism career, start building a resume. How? Find internships. Internships have taught me valuable lessons about having a journalism career, increased my skills in writing and reporting, and have been a confirmation that journalism is my chosen career path.
Apply for as many as you can find. If you’re just getting started, consider working at your town’s local newspaper. Sometimes interns are not paid, but the experience is the most important. During my senior year of high school, I interned at my hometown’s newspaper, Northwest Florida Daily News. This improved my resume and gave me experience for internships I have had since then.
Consider freelance writing, too. You can be a freelance writer for anyone, anywhere. I was a freelance writer for Florida Trend’s Next: Your Future After High School in St. Petersburg while living in Fort Walton Beach. Send your resume and clips of your work to as many publications as you can. I attended a session at the FSPA convention last year where Kristin Harmel, author and journalist, spoke about magazine writing. She encouraged internships and freelance writing. Harmel said the editor of one publication she freelanced for didn’t even know she was 16 at the time.
You can do it. Harmel advised to pitch story ideas to publications. Send an email with
the subject “Query or Pitch about (your idea) from experienced writer.”
She did this for publications including Women’s Day, People, and Accent
on Tampa Bay. Through a simple call to the editor of the Daily News, I had an internship there within a couple of weeks. Give it a try.
Harmel also suggested the book Writer’s Market, which tells you how and where to get published. It’s printed every year and lists thousands of listings for book publishers, consumer magazines and more.
