You’ve all heard the spiel--many of you heard it from me. Drake magazine students get good jobs. OK, so we know that. The question on your mind, though, as you start looking seriously at the future, is “How?” How did these folks get their feet in the door to the magazine world?
I talked with four alums for their perspective. Joe Weisenfelder (’89) is senior editor of cars.com, where he recently celebrated his 10th anniversary. His job: driving cars—from Audis to Jaguars to Volvos—and reviewing them. What does the cynical Joe say about his glamorous-sounding job? “In the end, all work is work.” Still, if your end is sitting in a Jaguar….
Shawn Gilliam (’94) is the new home editor of Minneapolis-St. Paul magazine. Shawn left Meredith after 14 years, his last job being editor of Better Homes and Gardens Beautiful Homes, where he surrounded himself with stunning national and international architecture. Shawn says Generation Y has an enviable role in today’s magazine marketplace because they are valued for their multimedia acumen.
Mike Mettler (’89) is editor-in-chief of Sound and Vision magazine. He’s combined his avocation--music--with his vocation--editing--and has seen the industry change significantly in his 18 years in the field. Because his magazines deal with the high-tech side of the music world, he has had to be resilient and open to change as technology and tastes evolve.
Shana Sternstein (’93) is in human resources as director of recruiting for Classified Ventures, a consortium of five media partners: Belo Corporation, Gannett Company, The McClatchy Company, Tribune Company and The Washington Post Company. Shana’s Drake degree is in psychology and biology; she says she would have majored in human resources had she known about it at the time.
I talked with Joe and Mike about what they look for as editors when hiring new folks, with Shawn about how he succeeded in his new job search, and with Shana about how to successfully work with HR departments.
This is the first of two installments. Next, we will talk about networking directly with editors and working with the HR department.
PEP: Is an online portfolio helpful? Essential?
JOE: I’d say essential. The more a hiring manager knows, the better he/she’s able to determine if an interview is warranted. Something might raise interest where a resume and cover letter alone wouldn’t. On the flip side, it allows a manager to pass you up. That’s not necessarily a bad thing. Wasting a manager’s time can reflect poorly on your alma mater. Also, this is publishing: Candidates are supposed to be able to express themselves on paper/screen. It’s hard to imagine a candidate who has to be met in person to be appreciated for a print (or should I say text?) job. (Sure, you must be met at some point, but your main quality is the aforementioned.)
To that end, an online portfolio is an opportunity to impress or turn off a hiring manager. A clear, attractive, understandable collection of past projects speaks volumes. A thrown-together one does too. It’s an extension of my long-standing advice about resumes. A manager who has a stack of them is actually looking for reasons to weed you out. If I find a single mistake in a resume, it goes right in the trash. We’re not hiring engineers here. If you can’t get it together to get the job, how will I expect you to perform on the job?
SHAWN: I have a profile on LinkedIn.com, a professional networking site. And because I was editor of a magazine, I had that printed example to show.
MIKE: I look to see if I can find them elsewhere on the Web—Facebook, MySpace, and Linked In are all good places to look for editor profiles, common ground, and possible entry points. Many editors are on all three of the above, and if they've shared the right information, I can get a better sense of who they are and what they're looking for.
SHANA: It is a great thing to have, but it has to be appropriate work. If they have a YouTube or My Space account out there, they should clean up their act. Anyone can go out there and see that stuff. Get rid of the party pictures. If your parents can’t look at it, it is not appropriate.
Linked In is a great tool and I would love to see more students get on it. All my recruiters are using it. I am on it as well.
PEP: When should a student start job hunting?
JOE: Yesterday.
SHAWN: I applied for the job at Minneapolis-St Paul in July. I interviewed August 30 and got the job October 9. More than three months passed from the time I heard about the job until I got the offer. So I suggest graduates give themselves four to six months lead time.
MIKE: NOW! It's never too early to look since today's market is so volatile and decisions are made faster than ever.
SHANA: Good students look before they graduate. Even a semester before graduation. We may only hire one or two new grads a year, and when we need people we need them right then usually, so we can’t plan that well. That might mean we lose out on the top students. The cream of the crop of students are proactive.
PEP: If a student does not have a media internship, is that a liability? How
can she or he overcome it?
JOE: By media, does that mean multimedia or journalism/publishing? SJMC’s, and particularly your program’s, emphasis on internships was exactly the right approach. I’ve passed on candidates with undergrad and masters degrees in journalism who hadn’t really done anything, in favor of undergrads who had. Initiative goes a long way in our business. Cars.com long ago got to the point where we’re in a position to demand the most from applicants. We want the former campus editors-in-chief, not the random student, and the more the person seems to have done, the better.
SHAWN: Publishing today has a strong multimedia bent. Most editors at Meredith, for example, are expected to have an online presence; video experience, or at least aptitude, is highly valued. Editors who can be comfortable behind a camera move ahead much more quickly than those who are camera shy. I had a double major at Drake in magazines and public relations, and I have always regarded that public relations background as a key asset because it made me comfortable in front of people.
MIKE: It can be. Real-world experience, especially at this level, is super-important because the ramp-up window is a short one.
SHANA: If they don’t get an internship, they need to do some volunteer work. I love to see that they played sports, volunteered, worked at the paper even if they didn’t get paid. If they have a job that has nothing to do with their major, list that on their resume. I don’t care if it’s a video store. I like to see that they helped pay for their education. I like to see that on a resume: “Paid 30 percent of my college education.” Students need to show that they didn’t just go to classes.
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