Students start off 2020 with a career coaching night hosted by JCU and Advisory Council

Three years ago Theresa Ebden, chair of the RSJ Advisory Board, wanted to give j-school students more practice for job interviews in a professional environment. Acknowledging that students are often under pressure to make good impressions in a competitive industry, she understood that it could be scary at times when sitting in front of veteran journalists.

“Especially in our digital world when so much of our communication is text and email. The face-to-face interview can be daunting,” said Ebden. “Nobody picks up the phone anymore, so I thought why don't we just do some practice runs.”

Fast forward to late January of 2020, when RSJ alumni and industry professionals gather with j-school students for another Career Coaching Night. Organized by Ebden and the Journalism Course Union (JCU), the event gave students an opportunity to participate in multiple mock interviews. The “interviewers” were established newsroom professionals, giving tips to students on how to stand out as an applicant after every interview.   

Kayla Zhu, a second-year RSJ student, says one piece of advice she was given was to come to interviews prepared. Doing research on the company and looking into its past projects, Zhu says proves to be helpful in interviews when trying to set yourself apart from other applicants.  

“Going forward it's better to be over-prepared than just reading the job description, especially with news outlets,” said Zhu. “[News outlets] do so much, and produce a lot of projects; they want to know that you know their content if you're going to be writing for them.”  

Other professionals said in a newsroom, there will often be many people capable of doing more than one job. For example, editing video and audio one day, and writing scripts and articles the next.  

“You have to really drive home the reason why they should hire you and not someone else...because the industry is changing so rapidly, it's important that you point out that you have a diverse skill set,” said fourth-year RSJ student, Trevor Green.

Ebden says that since Canada is one of North America's most competitive media markets, the students who actively seek advice and guidance have the potential to succeed in landing a job.  

“The students [who] are the ones willing to get all the advice they can take, they're the ones who end up standing out in the interviews,” she said.   

Kathy English, one of the interviewers and the Public Editor of the Toronto Star, said that bringing youth into the newsroom will shape journalism for the next generation.

“We need you guys for the future of journalism, so anything we can do to work together to create that future I think really matters,” said English.