Work Experience in the Media

An unfortunate circumstance is when you decide to be a journalist (or any other job in the media) without any cuttings of articles or experience; however, this is not a rarity. An example is my head teacher’s daughter; struggling to get a job in the media due to the lack of experience, although having a degree in Politics and English. This was not enough to guarantee her a job.

Would you want this to be you in the future? No? Neither do I! So as I took the serious implications of work experience on board, it was now time for me to start the searching for a 2 week placement for my year 10 national curriculum scheme.

It didn’t take me long to find a placement. Ann-Marie Stacey (Editor-In-Chief of this magazine) accepted my placement, probably knowing how difficult it is to find one associated with journalism. Unfortunately, I couldn’t accept her offer. As Smaart Publishing is situated in Middlesex, my Mum was worried about me commuting from South London to Middlesex by myself.

With only 3 months left I decided to e-mail nearly every London paper (excluding the mainstream daily tabloids) and consumer magazines I could think of. The London paper, Evening standard, World soccer magazine, you name it, I applied.

I thought I would get instant replies but in reality I only received e-mails from a fifth of the newspapers/magazines to which I applied; all rejections. The advice given to me was that local and free papers are the way to go as they will be in need of extra staff. That was not the way to go.

To my surprise newspapers/magazines such as the Independent, Empire magazine, Four Four Two and Match were the ones who replied. Albeit rejections I was pleased with the replies they gave me; newspapers such as the South London press rejected me as I was too young (15 years old) and no previous work experience whereas the established nationwide newspapers and magazines rejected me solely for my age and some because there not running the work experience scheme at the moment. However, they were pleased I already write for a magazine (take that on board) and were delighted with my enthusiasm.

Now with only one month to go I applied, yes again, to the papers who didn’t reply a month ago. I thought persistence was the key; I go no replies. I did get help from Ann-Marie who gave me 2 magazine publications to contact; one said they’re not taking anyone at the moment, the other, you guessed it, didn’t reply.

With the chance of my getting work experience within the media fading rapidly, I surrendered to accepting the place my school offered, Market research and mainly administrative work at IPSOS MORI; apparently Europe’s third largest surveyor.

At first I was not overwhelmed about the work experience, especially as it was only for one week, but I was proved wrong. As soon as I got there, I was greeted with great warmth and approval.

To cut a long story short, it ended up being one of the best weeks I ever had! It wasn’t that the work was extremely exciting, it was the atmosphere of the departments which was impressive; I was treated as an adult and learned interesting things about a place I knew nothing about 2 weeks previous. Along with that and because of my fantastic attitude and impressive work skills (without blowing my own trumpet) I received a £10 prize, along with being treated to lunch at the pub, I mean ‘restaurant’, at the end of the week. Okay, so I am blowing my trumpet, well, just a bit.

So after now being experienced in work experience (hope that sounds right) and to stop you from making my mistakes, here are some tips on how to get work experience in the media:

Try and go for local papers, free papers and hospital radios as they will probably have the most time for you, but also go for whatever magazine/paper/radio you’re interested in. You may be surprised with what you hear!

ALWAYS start your application with a phone call (to the editor!). The reason why I didn’t was simply because I was too nervous. But how stupid would I have looked if I didn’t get the IPSOS MORI placement because I was too shy to ring. They will be more ready to listen to you when you call than an e-mail which may go unread

E-mailing/letter writing is not the ideal way to contact editors as they will probably go unread as the editors will be too busy. One of the staff at Ipsos Mori gets 150 e-mails a day, puts your e-mail into perspective!

If you’re under 18, be prepared to work harder to get a place. You will be more likely to get rejected for your age unfortunately. Maybe writing for a magazine like this one will enhance your application? But whatever you do, don’t give up!

If you have contacts, USE THEM! You read how helpful Ann-Marie was, although I couldn’t commute to Middlesex she already knew me, which made her more inclined to read the e-mail and accept the placement.

Say what YOU want to do when calling/writing to the editor. If not, then they may reject your applications as it’s a bit vague. Also, if you don’t state your purpose and what you want to do in the placement, you will be more prone to make tea!

No spelling or grammar mistakes if you are writing to them, something which I failed on!

And finally, make sure you know the right person to contact. It wouldn’t be very helpful contacting the junior writer about work experience. Try and search for the editors’ names on the internet, the fact that you spent your time researching their names will impress them.

Now you have got your placement (well you haven’t really but just play along) what do you do while you’re there? Here are a few things:

Try to avoid making coffee or tea, luckily Ipsos Mori had coffee makers and they asked me if I wanted anything, but you may not get that lucky. Hence why you should say exactly what you want to do and say you don’t want to make tea while arranging the placement

Don’t just sit there waiting for work to be given to you, ask the staff, they always have work piled up and would happily accept any help

Don’t just be quiet, but don’t be too out spoken. It will be hard not too be shy but if you have time, which I’m sure you will, try and ask the staff about their jobs, how they got where they are now and any tips for the future. It will improve your knowledge of the industry and will help you interact with the staff.

If someone gives you a task, just do it. Even if it bores you to death, do it with all your effort. If you do well, they will give you better jobs, give you a glowing reference at the end and may ask you to come back and work for them

And finally be polite and courteous. It will especially impress the older workers as their views on teenagers are maybe tainted by what they see in the media.

Well all I have to say now is good luck. If you are a year 10/11 pupil or a university graduate it won’t be easy, but with persistence and the right attitude you will succeed in getting that work experience which will help you achieve you goal of one day working in the media.

Also, even if you don’t get the placement of your dreams, getting any work experience is better than no work experience, so take it with both hands or the person behind you will!