Sell yourself.
Not on the street corner, but in the job market [unless that’s what you aspire to do].
You can have a Ph.D and apply for a custodial position, but if you don’t sell yourself during your interview you might not get the job.
When I applied for an internship last month, I doubt the recruiters remembered anything I said because I was nervous and lacking confidence.
When it comes down to it, I have as much time to attract employers as I do to get you guys to read my stories: one sentence.
What’s something that makes you stand out compared to the competition?
Sell your strengths.
For me, I think it’s some of the things I have reported on.
I know the heroin scene because I did a five-part series investigating it in a Cleveland suburb. I can turn a bunch of public urination citations into a story about money. I can go to a car show and give you something unexpected.
I can also make you laugh because this job gets stressful.
It can be easy to go into an interview sweating and nervous, but you have to realize this: what have you got to lose? Nothing you had previously.
So go in there with a “loose-cannon cop who has nothing to lose” attitude and show them what you’re made of.
The more confident you are, the more your personality will show, which hopefully is likeable.
Will I get this internship? Probably not.
Do I care? Kind of.
But I kicked butt on previous job interviews and have landed them. Those missed opportunities gave way to new ones that only made me a better journalist.
So what if you bombed that interview? Figure out what worked and what didn’t work and use it to your advantage in the next one.
Also realize not every job is for you.
I try not to aim too high in my search, but realistically. If you think CNN is going to pick you up right out of college, you are an idiot. If you think you are going to start off at a big paper, you are also an idiot.
Be a big fish in a small pond and own it.
Sometimes I even go into interviews just for the experience.
Make them remember you. Wow them. Light yourself on fire like in “The Hunger Games.”
Don’t do that last one, though, because self-immolation never really works out well.
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