Journalism Talk
10
Emily Oxbury in Year 12 tells us her top three tips from a talk from EDP and Evening News Editor, David Powles, on 1st February:
1. Work experience matters:
Powles began his talk by sharing an anecdote of his first day on work experience,
which ended in him, alongside a photographer and journalist, covering a story of a
murder in Thetford. The story highlighted the importance of gaining good work
experience. He advised to ensure you get ‘active’ work experience, allowing you to take part in the action, and not just shadow a professional. He continued by
discussing how good work experience can make you a more attractive candidate
when applying for future jobs, due to the skills it can provide.
2. Don’t specialise too early:
The second piece of advice from the Suffolk-born journalist was to not rush into
specialising in a certain area too fast. He explained that people often quickly choose a sector to focus on (particularly sports journalism), but end up becoming bored of the sector within a few years. Instead, he suggested to successfully master the basic skills and tricks of the trade, before beginning to specialise.
3. Look out for the NCTJ qualification:
Something which I was unaware of was the importance of the National Council for
the Training of Journalists (NCTJ) qualification, - the EDP won’t take anyone without this; ‘If you don’t have it, we will send you on a course to gain it before we employ you’. He advised any future journalists to aim to choose a university which offered the award, in order to get a step ahead of the rest.