As someone who is looking for a full time job in their field, I have been spending quite a bit of time, arguably too much time, on Linked In. I see job openings with titles like ‘looking for a copy writer’ or ‘part-time editor’ and the people applying for these jobs are most likely people with journalism degrees. And sure, journalists are great writers and editors but there is so much more to a journalist, especially one with a college degree in journalism. So, why should you hire someone with a degree in journalism?
If you didn’t go to school for journalism, you probably don’t know how intense it is. One of the first big assignments was to interview 10 random people on the street about safety on campus. These 10 people could not be people you knew, and you had to get their first and last name and a way to contact them if needed, preferably phone number or email. So, my 20-something-year-old self-walked around campus for probably 2 hours and timidly tried to build up enough courage to talk to complete strangers. By my senior year, an assignment like this would take max. 30 minutes. As a journalist you build up a lot of courage and ‘not-give-a-shit-ability’.
Looking back at my college experience, I covered events varying from drag shows, to pro-life centers, to Iranian freedom protests, to voting centers in rural PA. Journalists cover it all and are completely unbiased and fair in their reporting (or at least the good ones are). In school, journalism students practice speaking about important and controversial topics in a completely unbiased way. I saw some of my most liberal classmates interviewing pro-life speakers during protests and patiently listening to their vocation. In the year 2024 this ability is extremely valuable.
No one is as timely as a journalist. During important events like the Olympics or election day, journalists are on time with their recorder, camera, a pen and paper and a list of questions. Oftentimes to communicate quickly, journalists will run to and from their car to upload data or send quotes back to their editor for quick publishing. And we aren’t just timely, we are making high stakes judgment calls. Deciding if a photo is too inappropriate to be shared, picking quotes from a controversial speech or sharing details about a sensitive topic- these decisions have to be made in a split second. I reflect back on the photographer Evan Vucci and his decision to share the infamous photo of former President Trump’s attempted assassination.
So, I venture to ask you for the third time; why would you hire someone with a journalism degree? Well, if you want an employee who is a well-thought writer, unbiased in their work, is always on time with their assignments, is a great listener and asks important questions, then I urge you to hire a journalist.
(did I mention I have a degree in Journalism and am open to work?)
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