Ask the Recruiter

Q. I'm a recent graduate. I've been working for six months as a copy editor and page designer at a medium-sized paper I was assigned to through a scholarship program. After a month there, the paper hired me full-time.

Though I came on as a copy editor, it seems I'm mostly doing page design, which I can do, but it isn't my strength or preference. Though we haven't had many financial hiccups, morale is very low. In the past month, four journalists have left for other jobs, some not in journalism.

Q. Without getting into specifics, I would like to know your position on Twitter (as well as blog entries) and the seemingly acceptable practice of misspelling words and using poor grammar in tweets.

Recently, I was told by someone who oversees a company's social-networking efforts that "Nobody expects anyone to apply AP style to updates on Twitter. In fact, using AP style within discussion-oriented social networks is roundly discouraged. Also, it is generally accepted that there are errors within updates due to the speedy (and often experimental) nature of the platform."

Q. I'm an undergraduate student in her fourth and final year of study. In May, I'll be graduating with a bachelor of arts in journalism, a minor in psychology and an honors concentration that amounts to 18 credits of multi-disciplinary seminars. I've been a permanent fixture at my university's weekly student newspaper, and by graduation I will have been its editor in chief for three consecutive semesters.

I've been diligent (and fortunate) enough to have landed two internships: one at a nearby, 80,000-circulation daily, and one at a 180,000 circulation paper in Florida, where I interned full-time on the metro desk. I was also part of a two-week student journalism institute with The New York Times this past summer, for which selection was extremely competitive. While there, I got to write a long feature on an in-depth topic and take photos that were eventually used in an online slideshow. It was there that I got bit with the multimedia bug. Therein lies the reason I'm writing to you: I still have some doubts and trepidation about job prospects.