If like me you’re starting out on your career in journalism you may find some things extremely frustrating. Freelancing comes with the baggage of working from the outside, in so that everything you do is hindered somewhat by your out-of-the-loop status and lack of affiliation with a recognised publication. Besides this being new in journalism has the added issues of a lack of opportunities: freelancing is all about the Three C’s; contributions, commissions and contacts and these are all difficult to find when you’re just finding your feet.
The Irish media has had a long history of being nepotistic but thankfully those days are behind us; that’s not to say that nepotism is dead but rather that the Irish media is now no different from its international siblings in that respect. All the same media positions, in print especially, tend to be filled from the inside so where a job becomes available an editor may know the right person, who is working elsewhere, for the position. Then again anyone getting into journalism would be foolish to presume that this is a CV and interview based industry; your education and eloquence only count for so much in a job filled with other demands.
The real problem facing a young journalist is finding stories; unless you have personal contacts any kind of bountiful sources are hard to come by at first, after all who on earth would trust you with confidential information if you have no proven track record?
Then there is the etiquette; if you have an article should you e-mail it and follow it up with a phone call? Perhaps a call first to suggest it? Maybe it is better to pitch an idea before you waste your time working on something nobody wants? And just how open are editors to outside contributions (especially those made by small-fry journalists)? The real frustration comes from the fact that there is no one answer.
In reality you just have to keep hammering away at it until something comes good, at least that’s what I keep telling myself. Keep sending in pieces and suggestions as long as you believe they have a place in that publication (and even if you know they’re unlikely to find one in spite of this). Starting out in any new job or field is difficult, no matter what the area or complexity. Just like the rest of the working world your first steps in journalism are likely to be a baptism of fire; it’s just in this case that the difficult part is usually getting the work rather than dealing with the large quantity of it presented to you.
Since I finished college I’ve had some good runs and plenty of bad ones; at times I feel like I’m getting nowhere. Being more optimistic about it I’d like to think that I’m getting somewhere very slowly, just like I imagined it would be in the “real world”. I hate to use an old cliché but each pitch, suggestion and/or rejection is a learning experience of sorts; like how best to approach something the next time, how best to approach somebody too.
It’s just about hammering away and reminding yourself that you knew it was going to be this tough!