Career change?

[emony]

I have decided to become a sub-editor. I've got no formal experience, I'm not a proper, published journalist, although I am at least qualified as one, I expect to be paid roughly what I'm on now or more, and I have no idea how to break into the field. But apart from that, I see no obstacles whatsoever! HAHA!

It's nice to have a plan :)

Comments

[sarahofthedead.livejournal.com]

You don't need to be a journalist to be a sub-ed, though, surely?

Breaking in - er, I imagine the key would be to look for a magazine advertising for one, or to freelance for a bit. If I hear of anything specific I'll try to be more helpful.

[emony.livejournal.com]

No, people do keep saying that to me, but I am a sceptical sort of girl, so I tend not to believe it. I'll try not to let it put me off any more though.

I can't really afford to freelance - bills to pay, etc. - but I'm going to start scouring the job pages to see if anything comes up. :) You never know!

[sarahofthedead.livejournal.com]

Where are you based?

Having just asked the sub-ed who sits next to me, he reckons an English degree would be helpful. That, or a journalism degree, since Media Law is also useful. (I'm sort of roughly transcribing what he's saying here...)

Easiest place to start would be Imagine, which is in Bournemouth.

[emony.livejournal.com]

I'm living in Aldershot, on the Hampshire/Surrey border, at the moment, but I'm not married to the place, so that's relatively flexible.

I've got a Politics degree, and an MA in Journalism, as well as an NCTJ preliminary qualification whatnot, which involved a bit of media law, among other things. Bournemouth would be possible, although the south coast is a bloody expensive place to live, unfortunately. I'll investigate further. Thanks :)

[sarahofthedead.livejournal.com]

It is, and Imagine's pay scale is shit. (Circa £11k - ouch.)

Thing is, usually, after about 6 months or so, Imagine's better employees seem to get poached by Future (in... Bath/London) and the pay there is much better. Working for Imagine is only recommended insofar as it might be the easiest place to get a foot in the door, because they're pretty much permanently recruiting. If there's somewhere better, then, obviously, that's better. ;)

[emony.livejournal.com]

Ouch indeed. The shitty pay was always something that put me off journalism as a career. Taking a cut of almost 2/3 of my salary is not even considerable at this stage. If only I had a rich husband to support me in my whims!

I'll have a look there though. You've got to start somewhere, after all, and I can hardly expect to waltz in at the top pay scale with next to no experience, so it's fairly likely I would have to take a pay cut of some degree. Just hopefully not quite that much! ;) I think I'll take my little work laptop home tonight so I can do some more research while sitting on the sofa watching Hollyoaks.

[sarahofthedead.livejournal.com]

Yeah, I know - I'm only a year into my "career" and even now that would hurt. You're qualified and stuff, though, so it's not like you're just some inexperienced kid, there should be much better out there. It's just a question of timing, I guess.

[emony.livejournal.com]

Yeah, I'm sure you're right. I'll just have to plug away at it and wait for the right opportunity to present itself. Thanks :)

[sarahofthedead.livejournal.com]

Also obviously if you need any pretend-journalism credits you're welcome to write for Den of Geek at any time... ;)

[emony.livejournal.com]

Hehe, thanks :) I can probably get you some more Torchwood stuff, if you like. Or .. what else would be of interest?

I'll even try to get it in for the deadline this time! ;)

[sarahofthedead.livejournal.com]

Don't worry about it. ;) The Torchwood stuff isn't majorly time sensitive, though when the new series starts, it will be. Hopefully by then we'll be able to pay our writers, though, rather than the current mess we're in. Grr, argh.

I've got a guy writing reviews of other Torchwood episodes now, and I don't want to end up not using something someone's worked on. Hmmm. What do you know/care about? Harry Potter is obviously the really relevant one right now, but there's a ton of genre stuff we haven't covered at all.

[emony.livejournal.com]

That's cool. Torchwood isn't my major interest anyway.

Hm, what am watching at the moment? Let's see. I have got my HP book on preorder, and I saw the film this weekend, although I've only seen it the once. I've also been recently been watching: Heroes, BSG (catching up with s3), SG1 (only season 10, though I am planning to catch up on the rest at some point), SGA, Doctor Who of course, Supernatural, Life on Mars, House, CSI, Ugly Betty. I'm planning to watch Studio 60 when it starts up on More4, and I keep meaning to catch Dirt on Five US, but I've missed them both so far. Might catch up online though. That's probably it for the moment. There's older stuff as well, like Due South, Firefly and Buffy, which I have on DVD.

[sarahofthedead.livejournal.com]

Wow. Okay -- we don't have anyone reviewing the last Harry Potter book, so far as I know, and I imagine that's the kind of thing we'll run multiple reviews of anyway, so that's a possibility.

When Heroes starts on BBC2, I do want to put up reviews as and when they air, so that's also a possibility. We always need Battlestar Galactica and Stargate stuff, especially if it's new (though, new to the UK, we're trying not to be too obvious when/if people are watching downloads, for obvious reasons!) Supernatural would be great, since I don't have anyone covering that... pretty much anything you mentioned, if you wanted to write about it (rants and rumours and all that stuff, as well as reviews), would be awesome.

[niennah.livejournal.com]

Hurrah! Plans are good. I think so. I am useless without plans. So yay, go you! *g*

[emony.livejournal.com]

Hurrah hurrah! My problem isn't making plans, though, it's sticking to them. But we'll see. I like this plan. Fingers crossed, eh? :)

[odycee.livejournal.com]

A plan! Not evil but it's a start. ;) I'm always very envious of people who make plans and then make them public. I never dare because I know I'll never follow through!

[emony.livejournal.com]

Heh, it could be evil - depends what direction I take it in ;) I have to make it public really, or nothing will ever happen. It might still be that nothing happens, but at least in posting and replying to comments, I am thinking about it. So, fingers crossed :)