A Hodgepodge of questions from a soon-to-be graduate....

Why would newspapers care if someone had an MBA? That's a serious question.

 

MBAs w/ a journalism BA have an inside track into newspaper management.

And recent graduates with an MBA or a MA or MS or JD stand a better chance of getting a job in any field than the graduate that has a piss-ant BA in journalism.

Earning potential is better for MBAs and people with advanced degrees. And that's a serious response.

 

Cool. Thanks. What I meant was that I wasn't trying to doubt the person who said it, since tone doesn't translate too well.

 

It's funny to me how easily y'all throw around a JD ... like, you know, just roll into school for a few days and get an advanced degree in law so you can be a better newspaper manager. Sure. No problem.

 

No one said it was easy, muricelago. But, if you really want to be in the business, and perhaps have a home and family at some point, a degree from State hardly cuts it anymore. That doesn't say great experience and skill doesn't shine. But, there are more graduates than positions, these days.
I know, I see the dozens of clips and portfolios Fed-Exed each week.

 

Does an MBA at a good school earned part-time while still working carry as much currency as a full-time one? I have a couple of top 20 business schools in weekend/evening driving distance, and it would be nice to work on that while I'm still earning during the week writing news/sports.

Or is an MBA earned part-time the associates degree of the business world?

 

1: No. Go with your best work. Where it ran is less important than how good it is.
2: Don't apply for specific openings. They're not going to wait 6 months for you to show up. But send stuff out now, ask for feedback and get on their radar screens. If you can, visit the places you really want to work in the mean time.
3: See above. Maybe start applying for actual openings a month or two before you get out of school.
4: Give them at least a couple of weeks, probably three, then e-mail to "check in and see if" they got it.
5: Yes.
6: Job-hunting in this business involves a lot of banging your head against closed doors. And if you let it get to you it can be really stressful. But don't take it personally. There are probably dozens of other kids just like you trying to get the attention of every paper you're talking to. But the more you can do to stand out, or give them a face to put with the name, the better off you are. And if you do that and keep plugging (and can write), you'll find something.

As for the advanced degree question, I don't know too many writer/reporter types with an MBA, or a JD for that matter, but it doesn't seem like a bad idea if you want to get into management and rescue this business from itself.
The problem with those degrees is paying the loans. I have a (much cheaper) masters' in a non-journalism subject that I kind of cover (I'm a news-sider). It definitely helps me get noticed by prospective employers, and even helps me do my job some days. I'd recommend that route if you can swing it financially/personally, etc., but I'm not sure it has as much value for sportswriters.

 

To clarify my earlier posts, I only suggested advanced degrees for the journalism job-seeker because it's quite obvious that journalism is a field that just doesn't pay.

How can recent graduates repay their loans on some of the paltry salaries out there for reporters? I remember my first year in this business. I put in 100-110 hour weeks, easy. I remember not really ever having a day off until my third or fourth year as a reporter. But that was nearly two a decades ago, when hard work was noticed more, and sometimes rewarded.

Today, it may be noticed, but there is no room for advancement in this industry, and if there is, then it involves doing more and more responsibility and scant pay increases.

I mentioned that a JD or MBA for the job-seeker because that's what college seniors should be thinking about -- not working at a newspaper. They need to get out there and earn a real paycheck so they can pay back the bank for all those years of swilling beer and banging coeds.

Seriously, with a JD, anyone can write their own ticket in almost any field or industry. Several TV news anchors on cable and the networks have JDs. You know they're knocking down the big bucks, while a production assistant behind the scenes, with his or her BA in journalism in hand, is knocking down maybe $32K if they're lucky.

At the big city daily down the road, the ombudsman has an MBA and a JD, and from what I've been told, he's one of 4 people out of 1,000 employees at that paper who is making six figures.

Law school ain't hard. The hard part is figuring out how they hell to make some money to live on while you're going through it for three years. If you can figure that out, just show up for classes prepared and you'll do alright.

College grads with just a BA in journalism face a very CERTAIN future in the news business -- it's CERTAIN that this business just doesn't pay subsistence-level wages anymore. If your shop does, a pink-slip may be in your future. Just ask about 50 sap reporters at the Dallas Morning News about that!

Tribune, L.A. Times, NYT, Wall St. Journal -- no reporter at any shop is immune to pink-slip-itis.

 

Doesn't the MBA/Law School route just feel like selling out, though? It feels like it's what people do when they've lost their ideals and just want to cash in ... I can be convinced otherwise, Sartrean. In fact, I wish I didn't attach that stigma to those paths because personally I'd love to not worry about money. Just seems like I would feel icky giving this up.

 

I don't see it as selling out. I see having an MBA or just any MS or MA or other advanced degree as solidifying one's perpetual employ-ability (for lack of a better word).

My cousin, 12 years younger, is two years out of law school. She works at a non-profit that does truly good work. She makes about 50K a year and works her ass off. Of course, she laments going into private practice or at some high-profile firm and making three times that, but she enjoys what she does.

I also see having an advanced degree as having the ability to tell an employer who is fucking you over to go get bent -- because having an advanced degree such as an MBA means you'll always find work.

Just because one has an MBA or a JD does not mean they have to work in business or law. My brother has an MBA that he recently obtained via distance learning. He said he had to have it to learn the ins and outs of running a small business. But he did fine in the same line of work for 13 years without one.

I'm an out of work sports writer and photographer. I wish I had stayed at school another year to get at least an M.A. Now I'm thinking seriously about law school. Approaching 40, I guess I'll be the oldest sellout there.

Just one's personal preference, I guess.

 

Sartrean - Good points. I guess I think that there is an idea out there - and I think it's pervasive and unmistakable - that with talent and elbow grease, one shouldn't need some fancy, schmancy degree to get where one wants to go. Of course, those of us on the inside understand the challenges of the business, and how there are other factors at work. But I can just imagine my family's reaction, for example, if I ever went the law/MBA route - they'd think that if I'd just been patient for another six months, I'd be granted Rick Reilly's back page real estate in SI.

I don't know if this includes everybody, but I'm sure I speak for a lot of people here - a lot of us in journalism decided this is what we wanted to do when we were 17 or 18 years old, and never thought of ourselves doing anything else. We decided early on that we were WRITERS (all caps), with all the prestige and cachet that being WRITERS included.

I guess you can still be a WRITER and work in law or the business world. Not every book in the nonfiction section at Borders was written by someone who worked his/her way up from the sports department at the Podunk Daily Planet.

I'm idealistic in that I still can't think of a more prestigious title in this world than "Pulitzer Prize winner ..." except perhaps "Mr. President" or "Mr. Senator." That's a tough dream to trade in for a higher salary. I guess that's what I meant by "selling out."

 

Like others have said, send off an email a week after you've sent the package.

BUT, if the ad says no calls or no emails, DO NOT CALL.