Q. As soon as I graduated from school six months ago, I began working as a metro reporter at a 40,000 circulation daily. At first I was excited -- I loved the location, and I quickly became great friends with the other reporters. Then weird stuff started happening. I couldn't get any sort of guidance from the editors.
When I asked for advice on cops reporting, I was told to just keep the scanner on. When I
ASK JOE A QUESTION
|
To get your question answered on this page, send it to Joe. Please include your full name in your message. If you prefer that your surname not be published, please indicate that. Sign up to receive Ask the Recruiter by e-mail. (sent Monday-Friday at 8 a.m.) |
|
asked for help analyzing city budgets, I was just told to keep an eye out for anomalies. When I ask for help, my editor frequently gets annoyed or seems too busy. I get minimal feedback, and I have no idea if my editors think I am doing a good job or a bad job. I've never had a work-related conversation with the managing editor or editor-in-chief. In the six months I've been here, I don't think I've improved as a reporter at all. Honestly, I think I'm doing a pretty average job, but I don't know how to get better here.
I don't want or need my hand to be held, but I also recognize my own limitations. Obviously I've had my internships, did the college paper thing, etc. -- but let's be realistic. There is no substitute for the real thing, and just six months ago I was sitting in a classroom. Of course I will need some guidance.
I don't want to have one of those ugly short stints on my resume, but I also feel like there's no point hanging around somewhere where I'm not growing. I don't mind making a lateral transfer to a similarly sized or even smaller paper. I just want to improve as a reporter. When should I start looking for a job? Sometime soon? Or should I stick it out here? I don't know what to do, but I don't think the situation here is improving.
Looking for guidance
A. If misery loves company, you have plenty of both.
In 2002,
a national survey of journalists found that our No. 1 complaint is the lack of training, scoring even higher than gripes about pay and benefits.
Recent budget troubles have led companies to cut even the limited amount of money they have for training. And your editors sound negligent in providing on-the-job training and mentoring. Or, they may just be trying to survive in jobs that make increasing demands on their time.
At six months, I don't think you have yet found all the potential sources of mentoring at your newsroom, and you may not have exhausted your search for the kind of mentors you work near. Keep looking. Don't let anything stop your training.
On your own, develop a personal development plan. You will have to search for training offered through foundations, press associations and journalism organizations, which seem to be taking up the training slack. I would make active membership in one of these organizations part of my development plan.
Although your question came in before Howard Owens, director of digital publishing at Gatehouse Media, Inc., posted
his challenge and blueprint for non-wired journalists, it is made for you. We expect good companies to train their personnel. But the best workers show the initiative and resourcefulness to demonstrate that they are learning all the time.
There are many free or almost-free training tools for individuals looking to grow. Yes, it would be best if your bosses would take an active role in your career, but even if they did, you still have to be in charge of this. After all, it matters most to you. Here are 10 places to start for free training. I am going to begin with some of my favorite Poynter resources.
Poynter's News UniversityA 2004 Poynter article by my colleague Sree Sreenivasan on newsroom training help
"No Train, No Gain": Web resources posted by newsroom trainers
Journalism 2.0: How to Survive and Thrive: A digital literacy guide for the information age. A free download
The Press Institute's Journalist's ToolboxNewspaper NextThe Committee of Concerned Journalists Society of Professional Journalists' JournalismTraining.org The Reuters Foundation's Reuters Link, which includes free downloads
Online training in audio and video from the BBC
Coming Wednesday: Editing her college newspaper has taught her that she wants to become a top editor. She is getting conflicting advice about whether to pursue editing or reporting.
Joe says: "We expect good companies to train their personnel....
