Congratulations college graduate!
If you’re looking for a job, you might think that you learned everything you need to know in the classroom. Not true.
When I was in school, I did a lot of things outside of classes that helped my career. Looking back, I did a lot of things that were dumb at the time, but ended up helping my journalism and freelance careers.
Here are the dumb things I did in college that turned out to be good for my career:
1. Work for free.
I walked into the office of Loyola Marymount University’s weekly student newspaper, the Los Angeles Loyolan, my first month on campus. I wasn’t looking for a job as much as an extracurricular activity. My first story was a how-to piece on opening a checking account. My editor made me rewrite at least three times. I did it and everything else I wrote that year for free. I didn’t care, it was fun. It took me another year or two to realize I’d discovered what I wanted to do for life.
What I learned: Find your passion, work hard enough and the money comes. By the time I was a sophomore, I was getting work-study money for the hours I spent at the paper. When I became editor my senior year my tuition was 100 percent paid for through a stipend the school paid to the paper’s editor in chief.
2. Write with a hangover.
Freshman year I decided to hit an all-day St. Patrick’s Day party for a few hours before heading to the newspaper office to file a story that was due. Bad idea. The party was a blast but by mid-afternoon when I got to the office and started writing about the campus ROTC program all I wanted to do take a nap.
What I learned: Hemingway and Fitzgerald may have been able to write inebriated. I can’t. Work first and party when the work is done.
3. Give away free stuff.
I started schools as a film major, so sophomore year when the editor asked me to run the paper’s entertainment section I was thrilled. Being the entertainment editor meant attending free screenings of new movies so I could write about them. I got free tickets and albums too. But there was no way I could go to or listen to everything. So I gave away most of what came in to other reviewers.
What I learned: Share the wealth, it’ll help win friends, or in the case of student newspapers and other publications with small budgets, writers. And favors can lead to loyalty. Though I still wish I’d kept “The Wall” for myself.
4. Fake it.
Being entertainment editor was all I ever aspired to. But when junior year rolled around the paper needed a news editor. Would I do it? I said yes. I inherited a handful of reporters, some on work-study, some not, some good writers, some not, some whose entire college experience revolved around the newspaper office, some who’d go missing for weeks at a time. I’d been one of those reporters not long before. What did I know about motivating a mostly volunteer staff? I showed up, worked long hours, and did the best I could to muddle through.
What I learned: Nobody needs to know you don’t know what you’re doing. It helped that someone in a position of authority thought I was capable of managing other people, even if I couldn’t see it in myself. It was the first time I experienced what it means to “Fake it ’til you make it,” but not the last. Halfway through junior year I got tapped to be the paper’s editor in chief and again found myself in a job I wasn’t prepared for. It’s happened many other times over the years. Knowing I’ve done it before has helped me every time.
5. Pull an all nighter.
I never pulled an all nighter to write a paper or study for an exam. But I did work through the night more than once to get the paper ready for the printer (this was before everything went digital). We distributed the Loyolan Monday afternoons, which meant the printer needed pages Monday morning. Once or twice we were so short-staffed over the weekend the few of us who were there worked all Saturday, Sunday and Sunday night to finish editing and typesetting articles and laying out pages. Another time I went to a concert on Sunday night before we were done and paid the price by having to go back into the office after to finish up.
What I learned: Plan ahead, and make sure you’ve got help so when things need to get done you don’t have to all the work yourself. But be prepared to put in the hard work if all your careful planning falls apart.
6. Publish X-rated material.
While I was editor we were so flush with ad money we put out a few special issues close to twice the size of the usual weekly paper. One was a fiction issue with short stories, including a rather graphic piece with a lot of profanity. Our advisor either signed off on it or didn’t see it, but when the issue came out, all hell broke lose. The paper’s senior staff was called before the school’s editorial review board and I almost lost my job.
What I learned: Not everyone will like what you write, and sometimes you have to compromise. In front of the school’s editorial review board, we backed the artistic merits of the piece and explained our reasons for publishing it. I didn’t lose my job, but the school started examining what we did more closely. They also closed the separate checking account we’d used to stash advertising income, another way to rein in some of our independence. Their actions might rankle some, but they were compromises I could live with.
7. Back a nobody.
A lot of students came through the newspaper office looking for an opportunity to contribute, not just writers but aspiring photographers, graphic designers and editorial cartoonists. Many were so-so. Some were just plain bad. When I was editor, a freshman came in who liked cartooning. His technique left a lot to be desired but he had a good sense of humor and was tapped into what was happening on campus. Despite the reservations of some of the editors I worked with, I used him on a regular basis.
What I learned: Take chances on people. That freshman was Mike Smith, who went on to become an award-winning editorial cartoonist at the Las Vegas Sun. Other writers I worked with became daily newspaper reporters, editors and authors.
8. Drop out of school.
When I was getting ready to graduate, the economy was bad. Instead of looking for a job, I stayed in school. I hadn’t graduated with a journalism degree and figured I needed one if I wanted to work in the field. I got a scholarship to a graduate school of journalism. I lasted a year. I was tired of being in school, tired of being a starving student and ready to put the journalism skills I’d been developing to use in a real job.
What I learned: If you’ve got the basics, the degree doesn’t matter as much as the drive. The summer after that first year of grad school I parlayed an internship with a magazine publisher into a full-time job, and never looked back. Years later I went back to grad school – as an adjunct professor.
For me it was probably going to SIU-Carbondale, which at that time was know as one of the top party schools in the country. Grades suffered, but the bonds I made with classmates and the SIU alumni network in Journalism really helped my career and life.
Networking, especially in journalism, is key. Over the years, some of my best gigs have come about because of connections with people I’ve known from previous positions. And college isn’t too soon to start.
Michelle
Speaking of Hemingway and writing with a hangover (which I have no interest in doing, btw), you might like Woody Allen’s new movie, Midnight in Paris. Some beautiful cinematography and lots of dialogue about writing, especially commercial vs. creative writing.
Thanks Susan: I’m looking forward to summer so I can catch some of the new releases. I’ll add this one to my list.
Michelle
Funny and informative post. I headed to my school’s journalism department much like you did, and ended up writing all four years for them and even being an Editor for the university’s yearbook.
I went on to do business writing (as I was a business major). It’s amazing how many people had a mind for business but couldn’t write a well-thought out letter much less marketing material. Every place I worked appreciated my ability to manipulate numbers AND words! (and now I get to finally focus on creative writing!)
I’m enjoying your blog, and still can’t thank you enough for my Blogathon experience.
The funny thing is during college the last thing I ever imagined being was a business reporter. I was sure I was destined to be a film critic: Paule Kael was my hero. But when I decided to leave grad school the economy was a mess and the only job I got was as a business reporter and editor. At first I didn’t know how to read a quarterly report or financial statement or the difference between revenues and profits. But gradually I figured it out. I’d always been good in math (though better in writing) and eventually discovered that being a business reporter was a beautiful combination of the two. There is beauty in numbers, and the stories that they can tell.
Michelle
Our college experiences were very similar. I also learned that rubber cement burns well and you can paint a stripe of it from the newspaper office to the student government office and light it. All hell breaks loose.
Love it.
Michelle
Can’t say I ever wrote for our university’s newspaper. Gosh, I don’t think it even had one, but I did do two “volunteer” internships that were priceless. One for the local newspaper and the other for a downtown revitalization organization. They both gave me a step up to get my first job that paid peanuts but again provided unbelievable experience. And I pulled a LOT of all-nighters for both educational and social reasons…many would make my list of “dumb things I did in college.” Although I never made it to the annual Halloween bash at SIU-Carbondale (Carbondale was close to the school I went to in Southern Indiana), I’m sure I have several friends that ran into Jay! 😉
I guess working at the Loyolan was my internship. Otherwise, I couldn’t have afforded to work somewhere for free.
Michelle
There’s just so many things you learn that you don’t pick up in school, huh? I was thinking about going for a masters degree in like English (since I am a writer,) but then I figured why should I when I already AM one with two published novels? I think my professors were right: the degree doesn’t get you the job, the work does.
http://sandrasbookclub.blogspot.com
I hear you – it still bugs me that I left my master’s program after a year – I’m usually not a person who leaves things unfinished, I was young, poor, and it was what I thought I should do at the time. Looking back on it, I do wish I’d stayed and finished. But I eventually ended up where I wanted to be, on staff at a major daily newspaper. My newspaper career just had a few more twists and turns that the typical journalist.
Michelle
Really enjoyed this post- I loved the way you told what you did or didn’t do- and then what you learned from the experience or how it helped you. Great insights!
Looking back it is interesting to see how everything we do or don’t do definitely set a course for us…it is great to see the course which you have set for yourself and continue to remain on!
Completely Fill My Days: I (mostly) paid for school on my own. My family, kindly, did not charge me rent. So while getting my degrees, I worked and went to school. Getting my AA, each day I would go from school from 8-12 then to an office job from 1-5, then to a coffee house in the evenings and weekends. When I transferred to get my BA, it was a coffee house and jewelry store in the mall. Then I had study work, and of course some hang out time with family and friends. My days were completely packed.
What it taught me: Be thoughtful with my time and money. I was able to get my school work done, meet my work commitments and pay my bills because I kept my eyes on the goal and kept my work and school work organized. For a creative soul and brain like mine, it took small simple daily practices to do it. A lot of those practices stay with me today. I’m able to get more results packed into a shorter amount of time because of the pressure cooker I put myself in while at college. I know how to prioritize and quickly eliminate tasks that don’t serve the end goal.
Amen to learning time management at a young age. My perennial problem is saying yes to too much and then trying to squeeze it all in without feeling fried.
Michelle
Wonderful post! I learned a couple of things as a result of attending college:
1) The person you ultimately compete against is yourself; don’t worry about what others are doing–strive to improve your own writing. 2) Learn the difference between constructive criticism that is meant to make you a better writer and criticism that is just aimed at tearing you down.