Leveraging The Melbourne Writers Festival To Get A Job

September 2, 2010 By Leave a Comment

My goal for this year has been to secure a journalism job in Melbourne so that I can stay in Victoria for at least another few years. Focusing on trying to secure a job has been rather difficult, what with trying to change journalism and everything. It takes time to re-invent the media. A lot of time. This means I haven’t had time to spend hunting for a job, but that’s all about to change.

I’m going to be spending a solid 2-3 months trying to secure myself a job in the Melbourne market. I know the jobs exist. People have told me that there are plenty floating around. It’s just a case of knowing who has a job going, and getting your name in front of them. So today I’m going to try and get my name in front of some of the people who make the decisions.

I’m going to a few of the sessions at the Melbourne Writers Festival. One of which is specifically on recruiting and the other is talking about leadership in the media. Both these sessions include people that make decisions on jobs… ohh and Tom Cowie who I went up against for the Crikey job is also on the first panel I’ll be attending. It is the perfect opportunity to get my name out there and shout out about my credentials, and maybe get people I know on the panels, like Tom Cowie, to drop my name.

Who knows, with a bit of luck maybe I can get my CV in the hands of the people who might be willing and able to hire me. I just want a journalism job. I want to get a start, even if only a couple of days a week. I want to know that I have a future in the industry, and that all my work towards re-inventing the media has not been wasted. I don’t care if it’s broadcasting, print, or online. I just want in.

I would really love to introduce myself as, “Kristofor Lawson, Journalist for …(insert name of some cool media company)” :) So, Wish me luck.

(PS: for all who are interested in helping me out, you can download my CV here)

Filed Under: Job Hunt Tagged With: , ,

Tom’s Not The Only One Who Wants A Job

May 12, 2010 By 1 Comment

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.

Filed Under: Job Hunt, Journalism Tagged With: ,