Should The Undergrad be applying for experience at the nationals?

Work experience – should I be chasing the nationals?

Last summer, I was fortunate enough to land two amazing placements at local newspapers back home in Essex (The Echo and The Yellow Advertiser). I thoroughly enjoyed both placements (and I’m not just saying that to suck up!) and was really lucky to get to go out on some really exciting stories (including a bomb scare outside a mosque and an accident on a controversial stretch of road on the seafront) and land some great bylines in the papers.

Both placements were a real eye opener for me. They were my first chance to experience a proper newsroom as placements I’d done before had been with magazines. Through my degree, I’d already discovered a love for news so it made sense to try out working in a newsroom when I had to complete placements for my course. And as I’ve said, these placements definitely didn’t disappoint.

However, the dream (as for a lot of wannabe hacks I’d imagine) is to work at the nationals. And obviously any job, even an entry level position, with the nationals requires previous national experience. But national placements are few and far between and a lot harder to get into than just calling a news editor and convincing him to give me a chance (as I did with both of my local placements). And I’ve heard that it may not be everything I’d hope for out of work experience, with stories of wasted time on placement at the nationals. And obviously, I’d be less likely to have the freedom and responsibilities I had at the local papers.

Obviously experience at the nationals would look amazing on my CV but I don’t want to feel like it was a waste of time and that I would have got more out of going to another local paper. And of course masters courses tend to only ask for local newspaper experience (although I’m still not sure I’m actually heading down that route – we will see!).

So, what’s next? Well, as you may be able to tell, I’m somewhat indecisive. I don’t know whether it’s best to apply for work experience at the nationals or whether to stick with what I know and build up more experience with various local papers. So, it’s over to you. I’m putting you in control and letting you decide.

I have set up a poll on our Facebook page and I’d love if you could answer for me and decide whether I’ll be applying for work experience at the nationals or at local papers next. Once the decision is made, I’ll send off some applications and let you know what happens. So watch this space…

The Intern

You would typically have less responsibilityat a national/larger organisation, but it will look great on your CV and you never know you could get a couple of bylines, in print or online. Personally I think its best to have a mixture, I've written for my local paper, national consumer mags, a website and publishing companies so keep your options open and try a variety- you never know what you may prefer! What about a news website? CMS ans SEO skills look good on the CV too. Agree with B2B, alot of people start out at say a caravan magazine and then work their way up to a lifestyle national.

mhd_bass

Totally agree with all the Twitter comments saying you can learn a lot from a specialist/B2B mag. They're usually very news-driven and you often get a lot of writing opportunities. A couple of my mates did Inside Housing over the holidays and loved it there, and I loved BMJ (video coming this afternoon, haha!)

ajhalls1

@wannabehacks any work experience is valuable if you make it so.

wannabehacks

@ajhalls1 Absolutely...just trying a little experiment more than anything and reporting back how I get on at either local or national ^NC

chris_mandle

@wannabehacks I do totally think someone should do B2B stuff and report back on it. It's a bit frowned upon, but probably amazing.

chris_mandle

@JayCockburn much jargon that it's actually quite impressive if you can fit into something obscure.

chris_mandle

@JayCockburn I remember someone saying how well it went with an employer at a national that they'd worked on a b2b. You need to learn so

JayCockburn

@chris_mandle Ah right I understand now! My dad writes for Tax Magazine sometimes. I don't see what's wrong! Still getting paid to write

chris_mandle

@JayCockburn you might find, for example, MusicWeek a great mag to work on because you know so much about music tech/industry.

chris_mandle

@JayCockburn despite that, industry mags are doing well because the industry feeds money into them; theyre an important source of info.

chris_mandle

@JayCockburn aspirational. Finance, NHS, Farming, Recycling magazines. People aren't desperate to work on them.

chris_mandle

@JayCockburn they're effectively trade magazines; positions aren't as sought-after because they're not consumer titles and don't feel as

JayCockburn

@chris_mandle @wannabehacks Is B2B frowned upon? I barely even know what it means. Care to enlighten a naive broadcasty?

wannabehacks

@chris_mandle Yeah, I agree... I'll do some research and maybe make some applications for B2B too ^NC

BethWyatt

I haven't had any work experience at local papers so I can't really comment on that, but I think it's worth giving the nationals a go. I did a week at the Daily Mirror last year and it came about just from phoning the paper and being given an address to email. I did so, and the woman was really helpful, we exchanged quite a few emails and she worked with me to find a date which wouldn't clash with the university holidays in which I thought I might be offered my jaw operation. I think she was probably so accommodating because it really came across that I enjoyed the paper, which is the one I've read for years. I had a great week, met some lovely people and learnt a lot. I could send you her email if you were interested.

gingersmith869

@BethWyatt Hi Beth, I'd be very interested in that email address, if that offer still stands? I'm currently in the process of doing exactly that, so if you can help in any way, it'd be greatly appreciated! Thanks.

petenew

Work experience at the nationals is only a waste of time if you let it be. I've done stuff at various places and the ones that haven't been useful were the ones where I sat there waiting for work to be given to me.
The placements where I've been active and introduced myself to people letting them know I'm there if they need help with what they're working on have been useful and the ones where I've pitched my own stories have been the best.
It seems slightly trite to say it but being a journalist is about making your own luck, and that applies to worries too.

HuwLHopkins

if you apply for both you can always speak to one to let them down. explain yourself honestly (and probably in person) and you can do no harm. local editors will realise the important of working on a national

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