what looks good on journalism resume? so new to all of this..

[amg1322]

hi all! so after a bit of a hiatus I have returned to school. My initial degree is in exercise science and I was on track to study to be a pt. After realizing that creativity made me far happier than everything I have come back to school. Initially i thought I would go in the direction of graphic design, but I am a freelance photographer and really want to get into communication design or photojournalism. My resume reads full of sports industry related jobs and activities and clubs. I'm basically starting over now. I have about a year left of undergrad and will be apply for 2016 admission to grad programs. Can anyone offer some advice as to what kinds of things look good on a journalism resume? What clubs or programs should i be trying to get into at school? Any activities that would stand out? Sorry I know i'm asking a lot and its long, but I'm new to this whole world and really just a bit lost..any advice is welcome. thanks everyone!

[thegnuguy]

A big part of any journalism application is going to be your portfolio. Typically, portfolio pieces go hand in hand with major aspects of your resume. So when you intern with the local paper and write a piece about the depth in the secondary, your time there goes on your resume and your article goes in your portfolio. So to build both, you just need to get involved somewhere. Anywhere is better than nowhere. Journalistic research looks good on resumes and can produce some great clips, but it can be kind of hard to come by. My interests are diverse, but one of them is tech journalism, so I applied to work in a Drone Journalism lab at my university. It was a great experience. Any time you can be writing for a real audience (like the school paper, a special blog, or anything like that) will be good. You need to be active on social media and show that you are continuing to follow the news and produce thought provoking reactions, even if it's just a couple of tweets. A lot of journalism interviews start with "Where do you get your news?"  and that type of question. Just be aware of news around you. 

That was rambling and probably redundant, but I hope it helps! Feel free to pm me if you have any more specific questions.

[amg1322]

A big part of any journalism application is going to be your portfolio. Typically, portfolio pieces go hand in hand with major aspects of your resume. So when you intern with the local paper and write a piece about the depth in the secondary, your time there goes on your resume and your article goes in your portfolio. So to build both, you just need to get involved somewhere. Anywhere is better than nowhere. Journalistic research looks good on resumes and can produce some great clips, but it can be kind of hard to come by. My interests are diverse, but one of them is tech journalism, so I applied to work in a Drone Journalism lab at my university. It was a great experience. Any time you can be writing for a real audience (like the school paper, a special blog, or anything like that) will be good. You need to be active on social media and show that you are continuing to follow the news and produce thought provoking reactions, even if it's just a couple of tweets. A lot of journalism interviews start with "Where do you get your news?"  and that type of question. Just be aware of news around you. 

That was rambling and probably redundant, but I hope it helps! Feel free to pm me if you have any more specific questions.

wow thank you! that was a really helpful advice. I will definitely be sending you a message soon to talk a bit more if you don't mind. I am working on a couple connections that might be able to help me get into an internship with a local paper. How soon is too soon to do an internship? Should I wait until I have more writing under my belt or is it a learning experience at any given point? I have started looking into getting involved with my schools paper. I would really like to stay on the photojournalism side of things, my photography portfolio is quite vast, but it's my writing samples that are far behind. I am working on creating a social media presence for myself outside of my freelance photography. But I do realize that's not enough to put on a resume. I can't help but feel that I'm so far behind from students who have been working on this since their freshman year or even before, unlike students like me who are starting at the midway point.