The Work Experience Scam

This piece began life as a response to Rosie Taylor's blogpost on getting into journalism.


I decided to do a Masters not to continue my love of Physics, though that was a factor, but to enhance my prospects of coming out of uni with a greater chance of getting that job in journalism by doing work experience in the holidays. To that end, I worked (unpaid) at the Guardian, Times, Independent and Reuters in the holidays and as News Editor of the uni paper during term.

I came out of the year with over thirty national bylines including lots of page leads and also some great pieces for the student paper. I kept in touch with people in the industry throughout the year and am friendly with many of them, meeting many for drinks and advice now.

Now I'm looking to get paid for my work and hitting a brick (pay?)wall. No one is interested.

Journalism is an industry that exploits the young and this needs to change. That interns do the job of paid journalists and do not get paid is a disgrace, especially in a profession that is meant to out exploitation and corruption.

The Independent ran a competition a little while ago where the prize included the chance to "have a byline in a national paper before you even graduate". Who really benefits from this? The student gets a sense of excitement and an ego boost, however, it's the paper that gets the financial reward. And this year the Guardian Student Media Awards have no cash prizes. Just the chance to work for them for free. Well done them for persuading us that that is to be seen as a prize! And finally, one of Rupert Murdoch's arguments for the Times paywall is that journalism deserves to earn money. Not my articles for his paper, it seems.

Yes I am bitter. But even if I were offered a job at any one of the organisations I've worked for tomorrow, I don't think I would ever concede that getting into the industry is based on merit, rather the amount of time you are willing to work for nothing. There is a difference between genuine talent coupled with hard work and just milling about an office hoping to get noticed and be considered for any openings. And it seems that it's more of the latter that is required to get into journalism. Not solely the latter but more of it.

What I do genuinely realise is that those that want to get into journalism enough and have the talent will one day succeed. What annoys me is the unnecessary hurdles put in place by the industry.



On the advice of a Reuters Bureau Chief, I'm going to live the foreign correspondent dream and head abroad. Hopefully this will give me excitement and the chance to write something worthwhile rather than rants like this--the real reasons that I want to become a journalist.