Is experience still an asset?

What kind of positions are you applying for? Prep reporting? College? Features? Copy editing?

 

Experience has no value anymore. Neither does quality of work. That's not unique to the newspaper business.

Younger means cheaper and that's all that matters.

 

They don't give a shit about experience. And yes, the rules have changed.

 

My two cents - it seems to matter when you're applying for those "upper-level jobs."

What I mean is, I'm a writer, four years in the biz as a pro, and the guys I see getting the jobs I want (college/pro beats) all have a few years experience at another beat or they're rising stars out of a great internship program (my big mistake was apparently not doing a real internship and working a paying job instead).

Like I said, just my two cents.

 

Son, we are here to teach about right and wrong as well as enforce the law. So here's what I'm going to teach you: That shit isn't ironic at all, dickhead. With all your experience, you would think someone with half a brain would have taught you how to use that word. I guess not, though, so here it goes: If you can logically explain an occurrence, it cannot be ironic.

We're going to let you pass on this one because we liked your movie. But get it right next time. OK, son?

 

That is literally the bomb.

 

just make your point, and tell 'em to get fucked if they don't like it, alex.

 

That's solid editing, Tom Petty.

 

i bold with the best, V.

 

While it should be an asset, I don't think media companies value experience AT ALL these days.

And not to generalize, but paying your dues is a foreign concept to a good chunk of young writers today. I'd like to think most born after 1985, right or wrong, would rather keeping blogging or freelancing than work a day at the Podunk Press for $20K/year.

At the same time, it seems these people are astonishingly more advanced than even a decade ago. I mean, I got my first job in 2003 at a sub-10K hicktown daily after writing about a dozen published pieces combined (student paper/local weekly/summer stringing). Someone who took the same gig seven years later had internships at Newseum and a top 5 national television market.

The competition is incredible nowadays. Unless I was some prodigy (not even close), I would never have gotten a chance had I been born 10 years later, so maybe these hiring editors have a point ... or maybe they're being cheapskates because the company prez said so.

 

The last three hires our shop has made have all been quite experienced folks in their 30s or older.

 

Or the concept of paying your dues has become a much short window. Two or three years in the Internet world is a near-lifetime.