How i became a journalist and why you probably shouldn't
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I'm doing a talk at my old college about journalism. This is what I'm going to say.
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How i became a journalist and why you probably shouldn't
- 1. How I became a journalist and why you probably shouldn’t.
- 2. Hello everybody (I assumed some people would turn up when I was writing this slide… oh shit, no one is here…)
- 3. I’m Mic Wright aka. @brokenbottleboy aka. former HUS-VP (Internal) aka. former HUS Ents. Officer aka. Former “pain in the arse for Homerton” (c) A past Head Porter.
- 4. Here’s me in the old bar with some of my fellow troublemakers:
- 5. Good journalists are troublemakers.
- 6. My greatest skill is leaving before I’m sacked.
- 7. A former employer said he’d “created a monster” in me. What he doesn’t realise is that I arrived fully-formed. The monster has been there since day one.
- 8. A good journalist talks to everyone. No one is insignificant. Talk to cabbies, concierges, kitchen porters. Sniff out a story.
- 9. Cambridge is an incredible opportunity. But… Your degree means bugger all.
- 10. Rich kids will become investment bankers with Thirds. Poor kids will have to hustle for their desired career with Firsts.
- 11. My first job? Pensions World Magazine.
- 12. My second job? Stuff Magazine, News Editor My third job? Q Magazine, Front Section Editor – the youngest ever. My fourth job? Stuff again. My fifth? Freelance for places including The Daily Telegraph, The Guardian, The Times, The Sunday Times + Wired. I also served as The Daily Telegraph’s Chief Tech Blogger. I am the only person to have ever held that post.
- 13. 10 tips: 1. Be interested in everything. No one’s job is boring if you talk to them for long enough. 2. Talk less, listen more. 3. Go silent when someone is answering. Hold that silence when they stop talking. They’ll say more. 4. Always take a free drink. 5. If you get the chance to go for a piss, take it. 6. Sleep whenever you can. 7. Find out where the canapés are coming from – stand near that door. 8. Expect your first job in journalism to be brutal and unfair. 9. Realise on day one that your university experience means nothing. 10. Want to be a journalist with all your being. If you don’t, don’t even get started. The pay is crap and the benefits are slow to arrive.
- 14. Now… ask me anything.