Q. I'm a young journalist who has been fortunate enough to have excellent career moves open up for me at opportune times, and to be hired for those positions.
Pretty much as soon as I reach a point where I feel I've soaked up all the lessons I can, a logical career move has presented itself.
Now I'm rapidly approaching that point in my current position and, with the market as it is, I'm not sure that's going to happen this time. And even if it does, I'm not sure it would be wise to leave behind the seniority and small amount of security I have now to be the low man on the layoff totem pole. I have no interest in grad school.
But I know I need to keep learning and improving my skills. When the market does get better, I want to be in a position to make a move.
If I can't move to a new position to keep growing in my field, what other resources can I use to become a better journalist? Budget cuts have impacted my company's willingness to pay for conferences and training, but I do try to take advantage of free and low-cost options like
News University and professional scholarships.
What else can I do to keep improving? And what areas would you recommend focusing on?
Thanks for your always helpful column,
Where Do I Go from Here? A. You have a good perspective on your career and how you can grow it. A key part of growing strategically, rather than simply opportunistically, is by learning. You can learn much of what you need to learn, now that on-the-job learning has slowed, without becoming a full-time student again.
However, don't rule out a part-time program, especially if your company will help pay the tuition. This could be a great benefit that is not being tapped.
Start by identifying your traits and talents in a general way. Your list might include adaptability, consensus building, synthesis, analysis or attention to detail. From your list of strengths, tease out a few that seem to be most valuable in terms of where you see the industry going and the role you'd like to play.
These traits will be part of the brand you're building. They should point you in a general direction if not a clear path. Pay attention to mashups of seemingly unrelated skills. For example, a person who is excellent at statistics and feature writing could be on the way toward being a one-of-a-kind writer or researcher.
When you have chosen the talents you'd like to grow, think about the skills that feed into them. These can be software programs, greater mastery of things you're already doing or a suggestion to seek experts in the areas you want to really own. They may not be where you are working now, but they certainly exist in your town. Seek them out, learn from them, join their networks. Your next opportunity is likely to come out of a network like this, so do not skip this step.
The recipe: Identify your talents, forecast which skills will be most needed, learn, practice and network. You can start today.
Coming Monday: She is a non-traditional student and has not been having much success getting an internship. Is there such a thing as favoritism toward full-time, younger students?
