j.jobs

A girl that worked for me last summer is just finishing her first year in journalism at Carleton and is looking for a job for the summer to get experience. I gave her a few options and thought I share them:

Although it's tough to get jobs in this field, there are a few things you can do to get experience:

Jeff Gaulin Journalism Job Board
This is a great site for jobs. Most of the jobs require more experience but there are some entry level positions and it'll give you an idea of what jobs are available. www.jeffgaulin.com

Community Newspapers/bulletins/newsletters
One of the best thing you can do is volunteer for a newspaper to get some writing experience. Put a package together with your resume, any clips you may have garnered from your school newspaper and other article type news pieces and send it around to some community newspapers in the area. Tell them you're looking at getting experience in the field and that you would love to do some research or look after the community calender, writing up article briefs etc. I did my internship at the Mirror newspapers in Toronto and it was a really great place to get experience and lots of clippings! They might not pay anything but the experience you'll get will be well worth it. Check out this url to search for community newspapers: http://www.ccna.ca/

Volunteer at Rogers
This is a really great way to get amazing experience. Rogers television always has something for volunteers to do -- again not paying positions but you can put this info on your resume and no one needs to know you didn't get paid for it. Check out any opportunities here: http://www.rogerstelevision.com/option.asp?lid=25&rid=16

Charities
One thing I'm doing this year is volunteering for the communications committee for Habitat for Humanity. This is another opportunity to get some good experience, while helping others at the same time. Just search for charities in Google and look at the various press releases etc. to get contact information to see if they need any help.

Freelance Opportunities
Of course freelancing is always a good thing to get started in. It's tough to get into but if you have a good idea you should pitch it to a newspaper to see if you get get your article published.

Here are some other resourses to consider:
http://www.campusaccess.com/campus_weB/educ/e4grad_jopro.htm
http://www.pwac.ca/resources/infores-jobs.htm

The most important thing is to stay positive -- having a career in journalism is tough but rewarding if you stick with it and love what you're doing. I think the best bet out of all these is to volunteer at a community newspaper covering the small community type issues and listings -- it'll get your foot in the door and give you great experience. Also, make sure you write for your school newspaper because the more clippings you get, the better it is for your resume.

Happy Hunting!