Love it or hate it, networking’s a big part of making it in this industry—the more people you know, the more word-of-mouth jobs you’ll find out about. So how do you expand your network? Gain amazing contacts and, more importantly, learn how to keep them, with these dos and don’ts:
As if you needed reminding, breaking into magazines is tough, but doing it as a minority applicant can be even tougher.
“People still believe that blacks don’t read magazines, as evidenced by who’s on magazine covers,” says Wendy Wilson, a staff writer at Essence. “Editors and hiring managers need to realize that there are more minorities who are highly educated and have the experience and the pedigree needed to get the job done.”
Do you need to get a thank-you clue or are you an etiquette expert? Take this quiz to find out if you need to brush up on your thank-you note know-how.
1. When you’re done with an interview, you:
A—Wait and see if they hire you.
B—Send the editor a box of chocolates to show how much you want the job.
C—E-mail her and tell her how nice it was to meet her, and that you’re looking forward to working on the edit test.
D—Write a nice, handwritten thank-you card and drop it in the mail that day or the next morning.
CORRECT ANSWER: C, D, or both.
What is your best piece of advice for recent graduates?
If you’re interviewing with a magazine editor, make sure you’ve read her magazine! Have some thoughts and questions about it, and be able to talk about where you think you’d best contribute and where you’d like to fit in down the road. Keep your mind open about job possibilities when you interview with people. …..
The story ideas that you pitch can make or break your test. Find out what stands out—and what gets you taken out of the running for a job.
GET TO KNOW THE MAGAZINE
Head to your library and dig through the past six issues. “That will help you conceptualize and package ideas for the sections that you’re pitching and get you on the same wavelength as the magazine’s editors,” says Wendy Naugle, Deputy Health Editor at Glamour.
“It’s a tough climate. The amount of jobs is shrinking. The best thing you can do is get your foot in the door as an intern. That’s how you meet all the possible people who can bring you back as an employee. And if you want to write, our editors are always up for suggestions, ideas, and reading your stuff. We’re always looking for talent. Take advantage of where you are [as an intern] and try to make those contacts.”
- Jann Wenner, Founder and Editor of Rolling Stone
For the subway-riding, cocktail-drinking among us, it can be tough to remember that magazine journalism exists—and thrives—outside of New York City. But it does and, as it turns out, there are lots of advantages to magazine life outside of the Big Apple. Ed’s recent survey reveals how the other half lives.
What is your best piece of advice for recent graduates?
Don’t worry about finding the perfect job. If there’s one thing you really like about a company, you’ll get something out of working there. Maybe it’s exposure to the workings of a mega-circulation national magazine—even if you do nothing but make photocopies all day. Or you could be a vital part of a small staff at a title no one’s ever heard of. Maybe you’re really into chess; take that receptionist job at Chess Weekly. Or you might know someone on staff at an obscure medical journal who will look out for and mentor you. Chances are, your first few jobs won’t be all you ever dreamed of, but you can still meet great people and learn a lot.
What advice can you give recent graduates?
Try your hardest not to get discouraged. You’ll see your [non-magazine] friends landing jobs at big companies, entering sales training programs, making pretty good salaries, etc. You are not in the same kind of business so don’t compare yourself to them. You may not get a job right out of school and you may not even have a staff position a year after you graduate. But that doesn’t mean you can’t work in the industry as soon as you want to.
Not to get all biblical on you, but whenever Ed sees someone commit one of these sins in her cover letter, that applicant will need help from a higher power before she gets called in for the job. So keep these in mind the next time you apply for a spot, and thou shalt receive an interview:
1. Thou shalt not address her cover letter to “Whom it may concern.”
Ed’s friend just put a call out for interns, and she included her name in the job post. She intended to get cover letters addressed to her, but instead, there were some who were addressed to “Internship Coordinator,” and worse, “Whom it may concern.”
Follow this advice for a resume that gets read—and gets you interviews.
1. Make it easy to read.
Most editors don’t have time to decipher an illegible, disorganized resume, so keep yours neat. Don’t use colored ink, more than two fonts (and avoid crazy ones!), or big font sizes (your name can be slightly larger, but making it HUGE looks juvenile). Italicize all publication titles and spell out the months in your dates of employment, instead of using numbers. “February 1999-present” and “Feb ’99 to present” are both fine, but be consistent throughout.
Ed’s interviewed lots of whippersnappers and has heard them utter many deal-breaking phrases. Learn from their mistakes with these awful responses to popular interview questions:
The question: “Have you read our magazine?”
Bad answer: “No” [OR] “I just looked at your Web site.”
Editors know that 22-year-old EA applicants don’t read MORE magazine every day, but no editor wants to hire someone who’s never picked up their magazine before! Do yourself a favor and read an issue or two. You should understand what the magazine covers, how they cover it (in a snarky way? matter-of-factly?)
The best career advice today isn’t coming from college advisors—it’s coming from our favorite TV shows. Tanner Stransky, editorial assistant at Entertainment Weekly and Ed on Campus director, searched for the best advice from the small screen to apply to the real world for his new book, Find Your Inner Ugly Betty: 25 Career Lessons for Young Professionals Inspired by TV Shows.
By Anonymous
If you think getting fired from magazine job will turn your world upside down, you’re right. But that devastating feeling is only temporary. Even if you can’t look back and laugh about the day Susie Smith didn’t invite you to birthday party, you will be able to laugh about this one day. But first, there will be some tears.
I had recently been promoted to assistant editor after about a year on the job. So when the editor-in-chief called me into her office less than a week later, I didn’t think she was going to tell me she was thinking of firing me. After a search of the staff’s emails (yes, they can—and do—do that), an email I sent was deemed to be inappropriate, and I had signed a contract my first day on the job promising never to use the company email system inappropriately. I had violated a company policy.
In our first-ever salary survey, Ed got the scoop on the skeletons in your paycheck…
Most of you are making $31,000-$39,000 a year—and 70% of you think you deserve more. Over 300 Edsters took the survey: the average is 23, female, working entry-level jobs in New York, and graduated in 2006 sans j-school. And until you get promoted, it doesn’t seem like there’s anything you can do about it.
An HR representative at a major publishing company (who requested anonymity) does not think entry level is in any place to negotiate. “A lot of kids are dying to get this position. Provided that the salary is in the range that they’ve heard, they should be happy about that opportunity,” she says. “Most of the time the salaries are fixed.”
Ed’s Guide to Not F***ing Up
Warning: This is for the Thick-Skinned Only
Before Ed gets to what you want to know, he has one point to make. Indulge him.
For those of you already in the biz, you know that one of the rules in magazine
service writing is to never be negative. You shouldn’t point out the bad
behaviors of your readers—like that the vast majority of them are gorging
themselves with fast food, and therefore dying of heart attacks and complications
from diabetes. As an editor, you must find a way to spin the story so your readers
aren’t inadvertently offended by the messenger (your magazine), but will still take
the steps to improve themselves. For instance, the story about obesity that
should be “Why You Need To Stop Eating Like a Pig or It’ll Kill
You” would be more likely titled, “10 Ways to Feel Better About
Your Body.”
That said, the service article Ed is about to write here would be titled “How
To Get Ahead in the Magazine Business,” but Ed feels that unlike the mass
market of consumer interest magazines, you can handle the truth. So the title
of this service piece is,
Hed: What You Are Doing Wrong
Dek: How To Know If You’re The One That’s Annoying An Editor
or Potential Employer
By Erin Quinn
After two years, one month and 12 days as an editorial assistant, I am free of that lowly title. I have finally—finally!—gotten a promotion. Pleaseallow me to introduce myself: I’m Sunny Sea Gold, assistant editor at Glamour magazine. I’d give you my card, but they haven’t come in from the printers yet. You’ll have to take a rain check.
So, how’d I make it happen? First of all, I put in the time—about twice as much as I thought I’d have to. See, my mentors—all in their late 20s and early 30s—were leaping from magazine to magazine in the bull market of the ‘90s, climbing another notch (or two) up the masthead every year. Naturally, I thought I would too. But things have changed, honey. There’s lesson number one: be patient. The economy sucks and the competition for jobs is seriously stiff, which means no one’s moving around and your employer knows you’re not in a huge hurry to quit if you don’t get a title change.
After a few months of pitching stories from home in my pajamas and slippers, a friend told me about an opening for an Associate Editor at a women's magazine. I had left an Assistant Editor job at another women's magazine to freelance-and I did enjoy the schedule-but I was ready to return to an office where I could talk to people instead of the squirrel on my window ledge. I sent in my resume and a few clips, and I had a meeting with the Managing Editor the next week.
“Instead of trying to connect with an EIC, try connecting with the senior editors—make yourself memorable to them. Can you get things done quickly and well? Do you complain?
A website offers practical tips for magazine editor wannabes and other new journalists
By: Jaclyn Greenberg
Date: Nov. 24, 2006
