Advice

Interviewing: It’s not fun, it’s not easy, and not many are complete superstars at it. The best way to improve any skill is to practice, practice, practice, and that’s what dress rehearsals—err, informational interviews are all about. Remember all those business cards that you collected at Ed’s last happy hour? Time to put them to use! Ed got the scoop from a handful of editors and HR representatives to give you the skinny on how to land that informational interview—the most important dress rehearsal of your career.

Scene 1: The Contact

The drill seems to be the same every year: College students and recent grads flock to New York City to find a magazine internship or on-staff job. NYC might be synonymous with big publishing names like Condé Nast and Hearst Corporation, but these stories prove that looking for a job outside the Big Apple is something to consider. Here’s the advice that these former NYC-based editors had to share:

If you don’t think the hectic NYC life is right for you, looking for an editorial job elsewhere might be the answer.

So maybe you’ve known you wanted to work in magazines ever since you picked up your first issue of CosmoGirl. And on paper, you have it all: impressive editorial internships, research skills out the wazoo, and knowledge of in-book jargon. But one skill you may be overlooking is something you do everyday: the Internet.

Ed reads a lot of magazines, and he’s sure you do too. But there’s a whole cluster of magazines that you probably aren’t reading and may not even know exist: Business-to-business magazines. B2Bs, also known as trade magazines, are publications with content targeted towards a specific industry or business instead of a consumer.

All signs of summer are long gone—flip-flops are in storage, it’s dark out by 6 p.m. and September fashion issues have gone out with the recycling. And while the warmer months are behind us, Ed staffers are geared up for autumn. Here are some of the things we love about this time of year:

“ Fall weather is perfect—not too hot, not too cold. I love to (finally!) wear coats and thin scarves after the hot summer months.” —Cheryl Brody, Vice President

What advice can you give recent graduates?
The job market is brutal. It’s so important to just get a job—even something that’s only vaguely related to the industry—because you need to be learning. You want to make it your job for the first one¬-three years of your career to learn the most you can about the media industry no matter where you work. I also came out of school during a recession. I started out at The American Lawyer magazine. It wasn’t my passion to write about law, but I learned a lot and worked incredibly hard.

The Secrets of Magazine HR Departments

Held on July 16, 2008 at 7 PM

Ed: We’ve never done this panel before and I think we’re going to have to do it again because we received a great response. This is “The Secrets of Magazine HR Departments” so they’re going to be telling us all the dirty secrets, right, about HR? I’m going to pound them with questions for forty-five minutes and get them to loosen up and then, hopefully, you’ll feel comfortable raising your hands and asking questions too.

Panelists:
Stephanie Emma Pfeffer, Senior Associate Editor for Family Circle
Michael Powe, Deputy Chief of Reporters for Entertainment Weekly
Mickey Rapkin, Senior Editor for GQ
Sarah Smith, Senior Editor for Parenting
Chandra Turner, Executive Editor for CosmoGIRL! and Ed2010 founder
Wendy Wilson, Staff Writer for Essence

Moderated by: Meredith Bodgas, Senior Editor for Babytalk and Ed Features Editor

You followed their blogs for months, and then they left us for fabulous careers.

Now find out what Ed’s former job seekers are up to today, and get their best advice for your job search…

Ed’s Girl #1: Lauren:

Digital media is easily the fastest-growing part of the industry, but how do you break in? Ed’s first ever Dot-Com Panel, which took place on March 11th, answered 40 Edsters’ biggest questions.

Panelists included Christie Griffin, Senior Web Editor for Cosmopolitan.com, Noelle Hancock, Senior Writer for PageSix.com, Susan Kaplow, Executive Web Editor for Condé Nast, Streeter Seidell, Front Page Editor for CollegeHumor.com, and Rachel Sklar, Media & Special Projects Editor for The Huffington Post.