If you have been hanging around the Twittosphere in the past week you may have heard that journalism student Tom Cowie (@tom_cowie) wants a job. Tom is graduating in a few weeks and to put it in his own words he is “a little worried about his future”. Not only is he graduating but he has created quite an interesting and rather brilliant idea to document this transition from humble student into full-time professional journalist.
Tom has even gone so far as to post his pitch for the Crikey Website Editor position on his blog. To be honest, with all the effort he has gone to, he clearly does deserve a job somewhere in the media. Given the popularity of the campaign he could probably easily transition to the dark-side. But I have some news for you Tom….. you’re in for some strong competition.
Many journalism graduates, like myself, are equally qualified for a job in journalism and have struggled unsuccessfully filling in more job applications then we even care to think about. Finding a journalism job is hard at the moment. It doesn’t matter how good you are, there are always many others equally qualified.
So yesterday I posted my intention to challenge Tom for the job at Crikey on Twitter and today I followed up on that challenge. I put together my pitch and sent in my application for the position.
But fair is fair, Tom posted his pitch on his blog for everyone to see. So to be fair to Tom here is the pitch I sent off to Jason Whittaker at Crikey.
“I am a dedicated and passionate Melbourne based journalist with experience in the writing, production, and presentation of news and features for online, print, and broadcast. ABC News Online, the Walkley Magazine, and QUT Radio and Television News have all published my work. I hold bachelor’s degrees in Journalism from the Queensland University of Technology and Interactive Entertainment (Animation) from QANTM College. Additionally I have been an intern in the ABC Online, ABC Radio, and Channel 10 Television newsrooms in Brisbane.
While I am a skilled journalist, my interest in web technologies does not end with news production. I have always been passionate about the internet and have previously worked as the Web Master for the Royal Children’s Hospital Foundation in Brisbane, a role which involved successfully managing and optimising the RCHF website to improve design, useability, traffic, and online donations.
I am experienced with many different software and web technologies including Newsboss, ENPS, iNews, Final Cut Studio, Audacity, Photoshop, Dreamweaver, Flash, WordPress, PHP, HTML, and CSS. Because I learn extremely quickly many of these technologies have been self-taught. I also enjoy building and managing my own blogs and I actively use different forms of social media such as Facebook and Twitter (@kristoforlawson).
Given all of my skills and abilities I believe I would be an excellent fit for the Website Editor’s position with Crikey. I have always loved the independent voice Crikey brings to the Australian media and I want to be part of Crikey’s future.”
I do however wish Tom Cowie all the best in his quest to get a journalism job. Should I ever find myself running a news organisation (my long term goal) I would definitely hire him because he obviously gets online media, a task many journalists still fail to grasp.
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