When I was asked by a friend to sit in on his reporting and writing class at my [first] alma mater, I couldn’t pass the chance up. Lou needed area journos to participate in a “journalism roundtable,” which would involve sitting, talking about our career choices and taking questions from students. I felt more than a little like a fraud, given my intern status and all, but I’m a former student of that class myself, and I really wanted a chance to meet some of Lou’s whippersnappers and hopefully share with them a few hard truths about the industry.
In the end, I figured, my place in this world is more reflective of reality anyway.
(Before I get to those truths, let me say this: I was really delighted to see that Piet Levy, another former Loyolan (also a former RedEye intern), had decided to join the class and speak. He’s an awesome writer whom I’d always really looked up to, so I was happy to hear that he’d been able to keep making his way. He introduced himself to students with the same brand of joy and quirkiness he possessed as a Loyola Phoenix editor years ago, so to know he hasn’t yet burnt out was nearly inexplicably comforting. If you don’t read his stuff, I hope you do so after reading this.)
So, here’s a little bit of what I had to say to the class (the stuff I remember, anyway):
- “Network your ass off.” For as tough as this industry can be, networking has always been really important. It’s just most important these days.
- “Share. Be nice. Don’t steal.” The new tenants of Web-based journalism.
- “Find a mentor. Make relationships and nurture them. And not in a fake way.” I might not know all there is to know about this profession, but I do know this: For every person who wants to learn, there’s somebody out there who wants to share what they know. In journalism, there are mentors aplenty.
- “Don’t give it up. If you love what you do, you shouldn’t have to.” Here’s hoping.
It was sort of shocking to see that only a few students used Twitter. Two had blogs. A handful read RedEye. It was not shocking, however, to see one student head of out the crowd and come up to shake hands and introduce herself to all of us. I smiled at her, and remembered how it felt to do that exact same thing a handful of years ago.
I hope she manages to find her grip and hold on tight.
Being an intern at 25 is a little like still having to sit at the kids table when you’re in college. – @squillace
