10 steps to get that media job

If you know what kind of media career you want, these pointers will help. If you don't, then the MediaGuardian books In Print: A Career in Journalism and On Air: A Career in Radio explain the variety of jobs there are and how to get one.

Many people dream of a career in the media - but not everyone succeeds. Yet there are a huge number of careers available in journalism and in broadcasting; getting the career that suits you is as much about being professional and persistent as it is about the skills you have.

These 10 steps will help you get that media job - if you already have a good idea what kind of media career you want. If you don't, then the MediaGuardian books In Print: A Career in Journalism and On Air: A Career in Radio explain the variety of media jobs there are; each book include interviews with media professionals, asking them how their early decisions affected their careers; and an extended version of this 10-step plan.

1. Research
Employers always say: "It's amazing how many people come looking for jobs without knowing the first thing about us." So be a media junkie. Watch plenty of TV; listen to the radio; get digital; read newspapers; and surf the web. To improve your media knowledge, read MediaGuardian and MediaGuardian.co.uk, plus the trade press, particularly Broadcast, Televisual and Press Gazette. These publications all have job ads; media companies also advertise vacancies on their websites. And remember, research is as much about good note-taking as the reading you do.

2. Build contacts
Media is all about contacts. But just because none of your friends or family are in media jobs, that doesn't mean you can't make contacts of your own. So enlist everyone you know to your cause. And that means everyone - friends, family, non-media work contacts - because everyone might know someone in the media.

When you find someone, call or email, mentioning the person you know in common. Ask them if they can make time for a chat. Then ask about themselves: how they started out, what their working week is like, what advice they can give. Finally, ask if they know someone else who can talk to you. When you're done, make sure they have your details - and keep theirs in your contacts book. The more people you meet, the better chance of meeting someone who can help you in your career.

3. Get work experience
Nothing prepares you better for working in the media than doing the job. So work experience is a useful way in; and in TV, working as a "runner" is the traditional first rung.

Again, getting work experience is about research and networking. Check employers' websites - the BBC, for example, has a "work experience hub" online. If all else fails, get a copy of a media reference book - In Print or On Air would do nicely - and cold-call the editors or producers at the six small media outfits you would most like to work for. The smaller and the more understaffed the company, the better your chances.

4. Show off your work
It sounds obvious, but if you are not producing good work, you will never cut it in the media. So prove how good you are. In journalism and artistic jobs, that means building a portfolio; in TV or radio, it may mean creating a showreel or a demo tape.

The best thing about a portfolio, showreel or demo, of course, is that it stops you thinking about the job you want to do, and makes you get on and do it. So, work for whatever media outfits you can - newsletters, websites, hospital radio, whoever will use you. Aim to build a portfolio that reflects the work you want to do in future - and when contacting employers, send it along.

5. Consider a course
You have two main career paths if you want to be in the media: go straight into work, or do a course accredited by a media training body.

It is tempting to go straight into work: it pays the rent, it gets you on the career ladder early, and teaches you how to do the job in the fastest way. But there are advantages to doing a course with a strong practical element first. In TV or radio, it will help you increase your technical knowledge; and in journalism, it may give you skills such as shorthand, law and knowledge of public life. Ultimately, though, a course is useful in helping you make those essential media contacts; in getting media experience; or in building that portfolio or tape.

6. Consider a niche
If you have an interest in and knowledge about a subject - be it arts, travel, health or a region of the country - consider making it your niche. This applies to almost any job - presenting, journalism, camera work, whatever. Genuine expertise is always bankable. And don't worry about being pigeon-holed too early: many people who start out in niche areas go on to broader things.

7. Get the tech skills
If you're going for a technical job, you should get some basic experience of the skills involved - whether it's doing the lighting at a student theatre, or editing audio at hospital radio station. But even if you're not technically minded, you should know how technical concerns affect others. As a budding student journalist, you might not know everything there is to know about desktop publishing, but you should know something. Media is about teamwork: the more knowledge you have, the better the team works, and the more employable you are.

8. Target your CV
The traditional CV is not always required to get a job in media, as jobs are often won informally by word of mouth. But if you are using one, then the secret is to prepare a different CV for each job for which you are applying. So go over your experience, work out what is most relevant, and give most space to that. Under each bit of experience, bullet-point three things you did that are especially relevant. Don't devote too much space to your education; instead emphasise the media experience, including student media and courses. List all relevant tech skills. At the bottom, mention a few interests for a personal touch. In the covering letter, explain who you are, why your experience is relevant, and why you want the job.

Ensure your spelling and grammar are perfect; keep CV and covering letter to one page each; and use simple, clear design in a well-known font, at a readable point size.

9. Prepare for the interview
Interviews are about the stories you tell, and how you tell them. You are presenting a version of yourself. So prepare. Remind yourself what you said your skills were; then take time to remember something that happened that backs them up. For example, your CV might mention work experience at a local paper; so in the interview, you might recount how you met a particular challenge while working on a piece, and how the team helped get you through. The implied message is that you have the essential skills needed for working in a small team.

Again, there are basics. Dress smartly, speak slowly, make eye contact and project your voice. Come up with intelligent questions. Expect the unexpected: you might have an active interviewer who grills you; or they might be passive and apparently uninterested. You might be in a plush meeting room, a tiny office, even the company canteen.

10. Consider freelancing
You do not need a permanent job to have a successful career in media. You could be freelance - that is, paid only for the work you do, or on a short-term contract. In TV it is quite possible to go your entire career without getting a permanent job at all. At least a quarter of the broadcasting workforce works freelance; and in journalism, many people work freelance shifts in order to be in the running when a job comes up. However you work, be organised and market yourself. Keep a database of contacts, and back it up. Find websites, such as Production Base in TV, where you can advertise your services. Get business cards. Keep files of ideas and opportunities, and do plenty of market research as outlined in step one.

Tax is an issue: if you are working with your own equipment on a project basis, then you should be treated as self-employed, which means you will be paid gross and fill in a tax return. Contact the Inland Revenue for advice.

It can help to be a member of a union: Bectu and the NUJ provide examples of typical rates for freelances on websites, so you don't get short-changed.

Freelancing can be highly stressful and isolating; but once you have been doing it for a while, it can also seem like the only way to live your life.

11. Persevere
OK, so we said there would be 10 steps. But the eleventh is perhaps the most important. In any career, there will be ups and downs - sometimes it will seem as if you are in control of your future, and at other times you will feel stuck in a rut. Just keep making your contacts and building those skills. It's your life: make the most of it.

Working in New Media

Over the last year New Media may have seen more dot.comedy than dot.competency, but it’s still an exciting – and growing – industry to work in.

The Internet may be last year’s favourite dinner party topic, and newspapers may be relishing its recent slump in fortune, but, away from the headlines, new media is still a viable and exciting business to move into. Prospective adventurers, however, need to be more cautious - and more aware of the skills that they have to offer.

But who or what are they offering them to? If you’re going to get into new media, you need to have a clear idea of what it actually is. Definitions are not easy, but think of it as emerging digital media products with which, to varying degrees, users can interact. It is these two features, digital and interactive, which are the defining qualities of new media.

New media is not solely about e-commerce, dot.coms or even the Web. These things are all important, but so are a range of other practices and platforms, including customer support and viral marketing, interactive TV and information kiosks. So you want to get in. Where do you start?

Rise to the challenge

Don’t feel intimidated about the range of technologies involved. New media is about new ways of communicating, rather than doing clever things with computers, and there are plenty of skills and talents not to mention general experience that you may have picked up from other jobs that can be relevant.

Hardly anyone in the industry actually started out in new media and very few people have more than four years’ specific experience in the business. Most new media designers and editors started out as print-based graphic designers and writers. Almost anyone with a background in marketing is likely to find adapting to new media an interesting rather than a daunting challenge.

Are you wired to a world of opportunity?

Recent developments in the industry have meant that there are currently fewer ‘creative’ opportunities available than before. These days anyone can build a website, but actually making it work and making money out of it is the challenge.

Last year, job sites and the Monday Guardian Media supplement were brimming with vacancies for animators, designers and web editors. Today the adverts you are most likely to see are for the kinds of positions found in more established industries, such as sales, marketing, commercial development, strategy and management. Above all what employers are looking for are not so much specific skills as a readiness to adapt, learn, work with colleagues and apply business know-how to a new environment.

New Media Jobs

If you are looking for new media jobs - Round8 are a Graduate to Director Recruitment Agency who find and develop commercial people for media and digital media companies. The new media industry has grown up. These are serious businesses being run by serious people, and they are looking to recruit those with commercial experience and an understanding of how businesses work.’

One of the main drivers behind new media is technical skills - and they are still in great demand. Analysts IDC suggest Britain will lack 80,000 networking professionals by 2002. There’s a gap in the current job market, crying out to be filled. Everyone knows skills are important and increasingly people are developing themselves rather than waiting for employers to lead the way. But there is no point in skilling up unless you have a clear purpose in mind.

Numerous businesses and organisations offer training courses in new media software tools. But be warned: many of these courses are expensive, and might not equip you with the skills most appropriate for what you really want to do. ‘Learning Photoshop can take a lot of time and money, and won’t be much use unless you’ve already got the proven talent and desire to be a designer,’ says Stephen Whaley, director of industry body New Media Knowledge. ‘It’s important to focus on what you are already experienced and interested in, and then see how this can be brought to new media. People are constantly surprised at how appropriate many of their skills already are.

Are you wired to a world of opportunity?

Before you move into any new career, it’s important to get a feel for the industry. The number of employment websites, online resources and networking events dedicated to UK new media industry are on the rise. Check them out if you’re serious.

Attending events and talks is an extremely valuable way gaining an insight into the industry. From business seminars to late night drinking binges, it’s surprising how much this new industry relies on old-fashioned introductions and personal contacts for business deals and information sharing. And New Media isn’t just the preserve of men; there are many online and offline groups springing up that focus on women and their progression in the industry.

Anyone thinking about moving into new media needs to be aware of the risks:

• at the moment it certainly isn’t a business for the faint-hearted.

• How far the much-publicised US downturn will be repeated here remains to be seen.

• But already there have been scores of dot.com failures in the UK this year, and a large number of media companies have cut back heavily on their online activities.

• Big players like BT, Emap and Granada have all been hit. In this climate, redundancy is a real possibility and, however adventurous you may feel, losing a job suddenly can be a real blow to your confidence.