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Archive for November 30th, 2006

Be an anomaly

Thursday, November 30th, 2006

This isn’t aimed at the journalists in the room, but apparently only one thing matters on your resume… This is a very interesting take and rather true. You either sell yourself or you don’t. Nobody else is going to do it for you. (Well, unless you hire an agent, which is entirely beside the point.)

I also like this statement:

You want to go further? You want to catch the attention of the other intelligent people out there who will listen to you and appreciate you because of who you are? You want to step outside the classification that successfully stifles about 99.9% of our ridiculous corporate culture? Be an anomaly.

It’s true. And I think it works in my favor. I definitely have some skills — especially Web skills — most of my peers don’t. I am able to think in both a content-oriented and technical-oriented way (i.e. I know what people want and how to realistically go about creating it). I also have a new media mindset that most in the industry are just now developing, that is if they will ever develop it. I’m either lucky or cursed because of this. I haven’t figured out which yet, but I’m hoping it’s lucky.

I’m hoping I’m the anomaly that catches someone’s attention, piques their interest. But not just any someone, someone who gets it. Someone who sees the future and not the past. Someone who is less worried about people not reading the newspaper and more worried about how to get the news people do want, how they want it out there faster, better. Someone who looks at my resume and sees what I can do and not what I have done. My mindset is a little more forward than most in the business, which again will either be good (“hey, look a forward thinking journalist with skills to match interest”) or bad (“girl who can’t pick a discipline or decide between new media and old”). We’ll see.

I’m thinking what the recruiter from the St. Louis Post-Dispatch said is probably true, “2007 will be the year of Internet for most newspapers.” It will be sink or swim, and they’ll be looking for people like me who can bridge the gap. At least, that’s what I’m hoping.

Not cut out for fake news

Thursday, November 30th, 2006

Of course I’m a huge Daily Show fan. (Who isn’t?) So, when I came across this The Most Important Trivia Game Ever on the Comedy Central site, I had to play.

Basically you are tested on your knowledge of pop culture, important people, geography, etc. in the hopes that you can get more “scoops” than other players. The premise is you’re a journalist trying out to be a fake news correspondent for the Daily Show. But I’m kind of bad at the game. At best, I’ve come in second. I’m blaming it on the fact that I’m tired and my reflexes are slow (it’s 2:30 a.m.), and I’m at a weird angle (lying on my bed typing on my laptop). It’s still fun though.

I’ll have to spread this around the office so they’ll stop playing the stupid game where they shoot a kitten as far as possible.