Journalism Career Day provides advice to students

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Student journalists got a notebookful of wisdom from professionals during Journalism Career Day Tuesday.

Creating a network of sources and contacts is key to landing a job in journalism, said Ken Tabacsko, feature editor at The Saginaw News.

“Good clips and having people say good things about you are two essentials to getting a job,” he said.

Getting that desired internship takes some effort.

“How do you make yourself known to the place you want to get an internship? Most successful people do it by networking,” said Andrew Johnston, photo editor at the Detroit Free Press. “You need to separate yourself from the rest.”

Students were making connections during Career Day.

“I would say it is useful to journalism students just from a networking standpoint,” said Erin Murphy, Sterling Heights senior. “As a public relations major, I have got a lot of connections. I’ve networked with a lot of public relations professionals.”

Personal experiences also were discussed during the daylong event.

“My defining moment changes each morning. I found out very quickly that advertising is very competitive,” said James D. Stevenson, advertising sales manager at The Saginaw News.

Dave Alexander, business editor at The Muskegon Chronicle, said he started early in his journalism career.

“I prepared, literally, from the eighth grade on. It is never too early to get started. It takes some sacrifice to get to where you want,” Alexander said.

Career Day was designed to provide business opportunities, educational experiences and networking for CMU journalism students.

JRN 556: Public Relations Seminar students organized the day.

“Two weeks into the semester, we started planning. We all just used our contacts through internships and with alumni. We kept in contact with the speakers from last year,” said Rochester Hills senior Natalie Stubenvoll, JRN 556 student.

The day was presented to highlight CMU journalism programs, such as integrative public relations, news editorial, photo journalism and advertising.

Many panel members were CMU alumni and enjoyed interacting with students and the chance to come back to campus.

“I was a student at CMU. I love the journalism program here,” said Marjory Raymer, political reporter for The Flint Journal. “I hope we can give students a couple concrete ideas or issues they can use to help them get a job or pursue a job.”

Stubenvoll said the event provided plenty of valuable information for students.

“I think they are missing out in not coming. It’s a good experience,” she said.