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Q. I'm a 22-year-old college senior and will be graduating in May. My major is communication arts, with an emphasis in writing, but my focus is journalism. When I chose my school, I was a history/education major, but switched to journalism in the middle of sophomore year. As a result, I am pursuing a journalism career in a school that doesn't have a strong program.

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I have some good experience on my resume -- an internship at a local daily, a year as sports editor for the weekly school newspaper -- but now that I am doing independent reading about writing and journalism, I'm realizing that my clips might lack elements of good journalism, making them not that special.

My interest is in sports reporting. With the little background I have given you, what do you think I should be looking for as far as my first job? Am I going to need to start somewhere small until I can build up some solid clips?

On Deck

A. Yes, you will likely have to start somewhere small. Most people do.

But your advancement will depend far more on how special you become than on what you're doing in school. I wouldn't worry about that.

Joe Grimm

I periodically ask our editors, "Who is your next hire?" Some don't understand why I am asking if they have no openings.

Our sports editor, Gene Myers, gets it. He says, "That's not going to be a problem, Joe. My problem will be choosing among all the great people I've been reading."

He's always on the lookout -- but he's looking for that X factor. If you want to make it, you have to develop that something extra, that something special -- something other people will have a hard time reaching because they just don't have that talent.