Everybody knows it’s hard for graduates nowadays. I’ve heard the entire advice, excuses and put-downs and that i know it’s all the way down to the person person to pave their very own future and grab a slice of the proverbial pie that they have worked hard for. i have been told:
It’s all about experience. That you must make yourself stand proud of the gang. Just have a look at our CEO, he got this job by advertising himself on a billboard…
But how much experience is enough experience Are we actually gaining experience or are we just providing employers with free labour, as increasingly advertise for placements and internships to be able to be unpaid
“Move to London so they can break into the media industry,” is another stock tip. It’s long been a dream of mine to transport right down to the gigantic Smoke from lowly Newcastle, where, in keeping with the mindset that we’ve got to maneuver, we’ve not quite grasped the overall media thing. I heard throughout the grapevine last week that somebody had spotted an Apple Mac in Byker, but apparently it was just coal in a sparkly white box.
We’re simply a boat-building city Up North, renowned for Ant & Dec, Alan Shearer, tangerines in Christmas stockings and tangerines in V-neck t-shirts ‘tashing on’ with other sub-humans in a definite MTV show. The Geordie Shoreificiation of the good city of Newcastle-upon-Tyne has only created monstrous caricatures of a few of our worst traits, tainted our reputation and rendered it difficult to be taken seriously on a countrywide scale as a city of excellent arts and culture.
Up the Tyne from Newcastle. Beautiful and friendly, but not many journalism jobs.
Photograph: Paul Kingston/North News & Pictures
Those of you who aren’t consumed by these myths of the mysterious north will know that Newcastle, especially, have been undergoing something of a cultural renaissance within the previous couple of years. We had the Turner Prize in 2011, like. However a mixture of loss of income, funding or even customer interest in professional media signifies that whilst news outlets and magazines are coping, they’re nowhere near thriving. Able job-seekers are required to maneuver down south – that land of opportunity.
However, this creates several problems. The media is London-centric. There are not any two ways about it. Fair enough, the BBC has moved portion of its operation to Salford, near where I now live in Manchester, that is a step within the right direction but it surely doesn’t greatly change things. The necessity for budding news-makers to start their careers in London seems to create a category gap. Yep, that’s right, I’ve dropped the C word.
It goes something like this: those aiming to excel within the media or creative industries move South or to London (I aimed for the center ground and moved from the relative tranquillity of Newcastle to ‘the new London’. I, too, was drawn in by the lure of MediaCityUK and more opportunity). People who can afford to, or who can commute from homes in London, begin unpaid internships. People who can’t afford to, don’t. Do you notice where i am going here Our news can be run by the well-educated but i believe it’s safe to assert that it is not really a degree playing field of opportunity. Put it this manner: if Whitley Bay FC took on Chelsea, there would only be one winner.
How are you speculated to pay rent How are you expected to eat If you haven’t realised from these rapidly-scrawled ramblings, I’ve had a niche of bother attempting to break into the realm of journalism. I graduated inside the subject last summer and feature completed work experience at newspapers, news channels, websites and magazines however the oh-so-personal human resources emails from companies I’ve dreamed of working for don’t appear to think that’s enough. i have been receiving rejections from robots. What makes c3po qualified enough to reject me Not just that, but why can’t he provide any reason for my loss of success I’m demanding answers. Oh, and will not this open letter show initiative. Won’t it look good on my CV What a sorry case of double standards.
This could seem like your writer’s obituary but it’s born from necessity. Not because I’ve given up, not because I’m resigning myself to a fate of employment I never once dreamed of whilst reading Hunter S Thompson; whilst basking within the musky scent of a morning newspaper; while dreaming of Fleet Street; the notion of being a ‘hack’; of being first at the scene to report to the newsroom; of manically battering keyboards to get copy out in time for deadline…
Maybe i’ve romanticised the industry. The fate and day-to-day running of reports outlets doesn’t necessarily reside of their hands now. Since we consume nearly all of our news for free, companies are counting on advertisements to remain afloat, meaning budgets are so much tighter and the wage bill need to be kept to a minimum. Perhaps I’m naively crying out for things to be like I imagined and this keyboard tantrum will only warn off others who haven’t yet reached the precipice I’m struggling to cross. If that’s all I’m achieving then I apologise, but I heard an identical worries from employers and fogeys who tried to warn how hard the pursuit of employment will be.
I did what all ambitious youngsters do and ignored good advice.
So maybe i’m biting the hand that feeds me – but only because I’ve nibbled, sucked and moisturised the slender, cigarette-stained fingers of journalism for long enough to understand what lies beyond the ordeal.
“Oh, how bitter of you…” i will be able to hear the university naysayers and the happily employed bleat, as those people post-higher education struggle to pin down any form of long-term employment. Here’s the manufactured from a seemingly flawed system where now degrees mean so little but may cause lots long-term financial damage. We will blame the coalition, the recession and the poor jobs market which it has spawned. i will blame the decline of a news industry which I already knew was in decline, but on the end of the day i will only blame myself.
I’ve caught my reflection inside the window of the Costa Coffee I’m stealing internet from on a gloomy Wednesday afternoon and my face has taken the shape of a bitter man. Months of monotony have taken their toll. If this were a movie scene I’m adamant critics can be calling it ‘poignant’. The type of scene where it’d slowly zoom into my face as I stop tapping away on the laptop, look out into the dark and realise: “Oh, maybe it’s my fault in any case.” Cue end credits. The thoughts of a biopic seem a tad premature but if all creativity is stifled into summing up ‘why you want to work for the company’ in 300 words, a mind tends to wander.
Maybe today would has been better spent filling in another application form.
Glen Keogh is a Geordie journalism graduate currently residing in Manchester. When he is not writing about news or culture he’s probably working in a choice centre. He Tweets here.
Any thoughts What’s your tackle Glen’s experience The Northerner is alas among folks who cannot pay – yet – but we are hoping that having the platform is at the least some help.
