Today I am interviewing Ashley A. on all the opportunities available to the Journalism students.
Q: Please tell us a little about your college experience and what led you to the University of Memphis.
A: I went to the University of Tennessee and graduated from there 5 years ago, and I’d been living in Nashville for the last 4 years, and moved here to get my Masters degree in Journalism. I am a graduate assistant and in Graduate school here.
Q: How would you describe an average day in your shoes here at the job placement office?
A: For the most part I’ll go through our website, which is on the journalism website, and get rid of any old job postings, and then look through everything the teachers, alumni and professors send me for any job or internships to put on the website. I also contact people in the community that might have an opportunity coming up. There are a lot of local people that know this is the place to get journalism or PR people.
Q: What prospects does the field of Journalism hold for students about to graduate?
A: There’s a lot of stuff. The majority of things I’ve seen, especially locally, are in the public relations field. So the newspaper/magazine things are a little bit more difficult to find, so you’d probably have to move elsewhere to get a starting level position in those. The PR industry especially is just booming.
Q: What advice would you give those students about to graduate?
A: I would say to start making contacts as early as you can, even if it’s just submitting some of your things to places you might be interested in. And if you haven’t already, get an internship somewhere, to have one under your belt, which our website can help you do. That’s very important. People are looking for someone who isn’t starting from scratch.
Q: For those who are just starting with the department, what activities do you recommend so that they are experienced and job ready when the time comes, obviously beside internships?
A: You can also join the PRSSA, I know a lot of public relations students do that, you should take advantage of that. [Those student groups] in combination with internships helps you make the connections you need, and then if you’re in the Journalism fields, submit the work you do for classes to publications so you can put on your resume that you were published somewhere. And also, create your own blog. It’s easy now and you can out your stuff on the Internet to be searched and read. Just getting your name out there in any way possible.
Q: Can you please describe the internship process, like how exactly students apply and what they need to do to get one going?
A: Well, the first thing is you want to have a good resume. You can look online [for examples], or if you want to, you can come and give me what you’ve got after it’s in a form and I will edit it and make sure everything looks good. Then, you apply to each internship individually; there is no blanket process. You want to make sure you are actually interested in the organization in particular. We update in website every Wednesday, so there’s always current postings up there.
Q: What are some internships that the department offers?
A: I don’t think there are any with the department specifically, there are some that happen on campus, I know we had one for the M magazine, the sports magazine, that was a great paid internship. It’s really just a matter of keeping on checking. It changes moment to moment. Even places that don’t have them, you can send someone and email if you are really interested and they will usually keep it on file. That’s how I honestly got my first job. I just sent resumes over email to everyone in the industry I was looking at, eventually, three months later they called and that’s how it works. Persistence, I’d say.
A: Okay, great. One last question, How can students stay informed on everything the office has to offer?
Q: Well, we’ve got our website, if you go to the Journalism Department off the UM website, it’s on the home page. On the right side there is a tab that will say employment, and under that there are tabs for jobs and internships. Also, I post any helpful tips or anything on the Facebook page. You can join and follow us to get updates that way, with posts 3-4 times a week. There’s a team of people constantly get things up there. And we have the boards, one across from my office, which is Meeman 318, where we keep the newest stuff posted.
Aerin: Alright, well I think that the students here in the Journalism Department will definitely have a leg up on getting out in the world and starting their careers.
Ashley: Yep, use it! Come see me! I’m around.
Aerin: Thank-you Ashley A., have a great day.
