The Unemployment Diaries

The Riddle

Join me on my search to do the impossible: find a job in the journalism industry…

How long does it take a Journalism minor to find a job in a dying industry?

No–It’s not a joke. Stop laughing. This is my life.

If you want to know the answer, you’ll have to keep reading this blog.

Those of you who know me know I like to write. I majored in English and minored in Journalism, but writing is what I love.

Yeah, I know. You probably like to write too. I’m sure your neighbor does too, and that guy whose dog you walk. That’s kind of the problem. We all write, but we can’t all get paid to do it…

After graduating, I was an editorial intern at Progress magazine, “Atlantic Canada’s leading business magazine” as I always say on my resume.  I did things like fact-checking, proof-reading, and setting up photo shoots.

It was all very peachy: I had a big office in a penthouse suite that overlooked the Halifax harbour. I felt important, though my paycheque always reminded me I wasn’t…

After a successful year, in which I re-learnt how to write, edit, and landed myself a cover story, I thought “What’s so hard about this ‘getting a job’ thing?”

All I really did was hit up an old professor for his contacts and VOILA.

Well, It’s seven months and an economic recession later and I’m going to attempt that same thing…

My goal: to work at a newspaper before starting my masters in creative nonfiction at Goucher College in July. The school’s in Baltimore, but it’s kind of correspondance so I can live anywhere and hold down a job as long as I’m submitting my writing .

Not exactly the degree guarenteed to make you a breadwinner (Hence my dad asking, Do you really want to go to this school?). But hey, it’s my upper-middle class dream, and I’ll be damned if anyone tries to stand in my way. Besides, I hear the New Yorker’s always hiring, right?

Why a newspaper? I picture myself at this program being with a bunch of over 40-year-old veteran daily news reporters and published journalists looking for a creative shake-up mid-career. Actually, that’s less my imagination and more based on fact.

The two people I know who’ve done and are doing the program were professors of mine, over 50, and with an embarassingly more amount of experience than I have. They were the norm.

I figure working at a a newspaper will beat down my confidence, teach me to write under deadline, and give me something to commiserate about with my soon to be classmates…

Why is this concept at all interesting? I’ll kindly refer you to http://www.newspaperdeathwatch.com/, which without even going to the site should be self-explanatory. In a nutshell, all us gen x fuckers expect news online for free because some idiot at some newspaper starting putting up online content without charging. Now the idea of paying for any news seems ridiculous. Problem being, online advertising doesn’t bring in much cash, so newspapers are expected to put out the same quality of content without enough funds to pay their writers. It’s a terrible time to try and get in the biz…

Why should you read this blog? Because you like my writing, because you feel sympathy for me (Thanks mom!), or because you want to see me fail. Everybody’s welcome! (Especially if you’re an editor who thinks this concept is brilliant and wants to offer me a job…)

So what was the question?

How long does it take a Journalism minor to find a job in a dying industry?

Let’s find out…