New job!

I now have a new job. I have moved from the murky world of local newspapers to a magazine job.

I will admit I really enjoyed working for a newspaper, although I never thought I would ever say that.  But you get such a great grounding in everything, from death knocks to court, council meetings to charity stories. It is also a great way to build up your confidence.

So on to my new job I am now a features writer for etc Magazine - http://www.etcmag.net/ and even more exciting it is launching a Hampshire edition in August so I get to write about the county I am proud to call my home.

In my first edition I interviewed Aldo Zilli and Peter Andre. It is great be able to spend time interviewing people and it is so varied. I also met Antonio Carluccio - a cooking legend.

On another note just to plug something, anyone wanting to be a journalist should check out Highbury College who are launching a year course with The News. I did the fast-track 20 week course there and as you know it was hard but so worth it I wouldn't have my dream job if I hadn't attended the course.

Also out of 13 people on the course only a couple didn't get jobs as a journalist, but one does now work for the MET office. People from my course now work at The News, Daily Echo, M&Y News Agency, Rex Features and the BBC, how cool is that.

Check out their website - http://www.highbury.ac.uk/journalism 

Saying that tomorrow I have my NCE exam to be a senior reporter, very nerve wrecking but fingers crossed in a month I will be posting good news! Good luck to anyone else doing it.

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One question...why did you want to be a journalist?

I will admit that once I tell someone that I am a journalist, you can see the cogs turning, they start thinking can I be trusted and then again why.


I have been asked a few times, in interviews for my course, my job and just in general.



Journalists do have a bit of a bad reputation especially at the moment where every other story about journalists is about hacking. But most local journalist would not be able to do something like that, well any moral person should think twice before doing it, anyway, nationals can tread on people, so to speak, because they have the money to and have enough stories out there that one local story can be replaced with another. But for regional papers to be honest people are usually more than happy to tell you their stories as everyone loves a little bit of fame. And we build a relationship of trust as those people may come back time and time again with differnet stories or let you know when something is happening.


So why do I want to be a journalist?

When I was 13, I wanted to be a TV researcher, but then one English lesson after a writing exercise my teacher asked me if I had ever considered being a journalist and it is almost as if a little bubble burst in my head and everything made sense.

I seem to possess a lot of qualities that journalists have, I am nosey or I like to think inquisitive, I ask a lot of questions and my mind is always wondering something. Sometimes completely random and sometimes quite sensible.

I enjoy learning new things and then writing something for others to learn new things.

I enjoy meeting people and chatting to them, that is what I loved about working a shop. One of the best things about my job, was when I did my first story about a baby's pram being stolen and then people pulling together to help her out, for the mum to come in and thank me. It feels nice to help some in a simple way, with words.

I, obviously, enjoy writing, it is very cathartic for me, especially my blog where I can have my rant.

Being a journalist is very varied, although we have the same deadline day. No two days are the same you can plan but then stories just happen. It's like one day you can do a story about a girl in a pop video, then a man who's wife has Alzheimer’s and then a planning story. There is no other job like it I don't think.

I think some people do it for money (not much to be honest) and some to see their name in lights...well print. But me I just do it because I love it. I think that is the only reason you can otherwise you won't enjoy it and won't do it very well. But then it may have been someone told me I was quite good at it and I have never seen myself doing anything else.

Some tips though for any wannabes:


* Get experience, anywhere and everywhere. You pick up a lot of skills and start to think where you could go.


* Get on a NCTJ course, a journalism degree is well and good but a lot of papers want those four letters... N.C.T.J (National Council for the Training of Journalists). I went to Highbury College and did the 20 week course, the hardest 20 weeks of my life but really toughens you up for the real world, I also got to make a lot of good friends. Their website is: http://www.highbury.ac.uk/client/content.asp?ContentId=377


* Don't bad mouth anyone, journalism is a small world and everyone knows everyone or at least someone who knows someone else.


* Keep everything you write, as a record of what you can do.


* I suppose if you want to do it your passion will shine through and those around you will see how much you want it.


* Oh buy a dictionary and a thesaurus.

So good luck!

Everything happens for a reason

I have passed all my exams, 1 A, 1 C and 4 Bs plus my 100 words a minute shorthand. So I am a real journalist, well at least a qualified one. Then from the 3rd May I suppose I will be a proper journalist or at least a paid one.

How scary! If someone had said a couple of years ago that I would be a qualified journalist about to start work on a newspaper I would never have believed them. When I was at Wiley I was very happy working there full time, but still writing on the side so I never thought I would really leave there. But then August 2009 I was told my department was being made redundant and my last day would be June 2010. So figuring out what I had to do: get a job or follow my dream, I took a risk of no money and trained to become a journalist and it has to be one of the best decisions I think I have ever made.

As my mum always says 'everything happens for a reason', and I do believe it. It's hard at the time obviously because you can't see anything good from a bad situation but in the end see and in a couple of months or years you will see everything does happen for a reason.

Looking at the future

As the end of my course approaches I have to decide what I want to do with my future. Where do I want to go? Where do I want to work? Do I want to move? How far am I willing to go?




I know more than anything I want to be a journalist. My work placements have made me realise how much I want to work for a weekly paper, I enjoy feature writing and of course writing this blog. Journalism is coursing through my veins and is one of my passions.


I just wonder how prepared I am to move. I suppose it depends on the paper and the job. I don't want to up-root my life for the sake of a horrible paper and an even worse job. I suppose I am a bit of a homebody, but for the right job I think I would have to consider it.


I have never known anyone to actually do it though. I have read the "I love..New York...LA" books and about to read "I love Paris", in the series a woman finds out her boyfriend is cheating on her at her friend’s wedding and she does what any rational woman would runs off to New York in a pair of Louboutin heels and her bridesmaid dress and not much else. She created a new life for herself as a blogger and column writer. I am sure this does not happen in the real world that people go to a foreign country and are lucky enough to forge a new and exciting career.


I suppose as for my future in journalism I have applied to some local papers including the one I did my work placement at, so fingers-crossed and let’s see what happens.


The life of a journalist is exciting and varied and I do not regret for a second choosing this career path.

The life and times of a trainee journalist

I started the course about a month and a half ago and it seems the longest month and a half of my life.

After being out of education for three years, going back to college was always going to be hard, but going into an intensive journalism course was surely me with my hand over the self destruct button. However, with my aspirations of becoming a journalist in the forefront of my mind there was no other alternative.

The course itself is amazing, I am learning so much so quickly. Before I was snowed under with page budgets, corrections and author emails, now my life is filled with shorthand, articles, news stories, patch work and PA assignments.

I’m not moaning, even though it must come across that way, I really do love the course, especially when I think that in less than six months I will be a qualified journalist. It will be a good feeling to be able to introduce myself as a journalist, and then to quickly have to defend the profession I am going in to, saying I don’t want to write about sleaze or trip people up just to get a good story.

The title of the post is the life and times of a trainee journalist. To be honest the life aspect would be that my life on the whole has come to a standstill. They do warn you in the interview, but you think that they just do it to give you the worst case scenario, they aren’t it is the truth! Every waking moment (and some of my dreams) is filled with the various elements of the course, I’m starting to have dreams filled with shorthand, and this is no way good for my sanity.

I am in week eight and so far I have transformed in two ways. Firstly, I used to be a very together, organised person. However, with the course practically taking over my life and head, I am starting to slip, so much so that the other week I actually got on the wrong train to London, much to the confusion of my friend. I have bought a little whiteboard though to keep track of all my homework and help arrange my life.

Secondly, the course has given me a new found confidence. I have always been pretty confident. I have never minded talking to people, working in Superdrug from when I was 16 to 21 I had to talk to people and I loved that aspect of the job. The only hurdle I had was caring what people thought of me. I read a piece by Lorraine Candy (editor in chief of Elle) and one of the main points she said to being a journalist is to be fearless, as if you care what people think of you, you can’t walk into a room and interview Brad Pitt or Dolce and Gabbana. This course so far has helped me step tentatively over this. Ok, sometimes I do have the panic but on the whole I feel very confident asking people about stuff and not thinking that I look like an idiot.

Overall, the course is amazing and helping me achieve my dream of becoming a successful journalist. Here’s to the future... if I get through the course with my sanity that is.

Another day...

So first things first new Guide 2 out....
http://edition.pagesuite-professional.co.uk/Launch.aspx?referral=other&refresh=gG06T5j11kK8&PBID=898dcbba-75b6-419a-989f-aa69bed7582e&skip=
I have the essential gig guide in there.

New Solent Life is out soon, loads of good articles in the July issue, cupcakes, bbqs, growing sunflowers and breaks away.

Last column in The News today, so make sure you get yours.

So I am now at a bit of a loose end, as Wednesday was my last day at work very strange. I cried my eyes out as I have a lot of good friends there. The day was very good, pub garden, drink and sun, a great way to toast our time at work. However, I have found out I have been offered a place on a journalism course starting in October, so I will be a qualified journalist at the end! FINALLY!!! Means going back to school, which will be a little strange but all worth it in the end when I can say I am a fully fledged journalist.

Oh before I forget as well I am off to a Twilight marathon tonight all three films back to back, then the brand new Eclipse at 12, fantastic.

The R Word...

So tomorrow is my last day at work, the last ten months have flown by and I can't quite believe it will be my last day.


As you can probably gather from the title I was made redundant. It all started in August; I remember it like it was yesterday. Being told that my whole department was being off shored, in one word I was gutted, I felt as if my whole world had fallen apart around me. I loved my job, loved the people I worked with, the company and the place it was based, everything suited me perfectly, until they decided to off shore. It seems now that everyone knows someone who has been made redundant, a year or so ago my boyfriend was, you never really think it will happen to you, you think you are safe, however, that is not always the case.

Over the past ten months it has felt like an emotional rollercoaster; getting over the initial shock of the r-word, then getting back to normal. Then finding out when we were going, how much we were getting, then a sense of normality again with people leaving left, right and centre, then the whole handover process, then the end date. It all feels pretty surreal at the moment and I don't think it has quite sunk in that I am going yet; I am going to miss everyone loads; it’s going to be very strange. But I’m seeing it in the everything happens for a reason mantra, which I suppose is true as in October I am starting a journalism course, which means at the end I will be a qualified journalist. It's going to be tough but I cannot wait.

I suppose all that's left to say is: here's to the future! :)