Top Five Tips for Job Success

By: Randy Dotinga It's that time again, when all good journalists conserve brain power and shorten their workdays by churning out year-in-review stories. Who am I to break with such a worthwhile tradition?

Here, then, are the top five keys to finding a fantastic new job in the newspaper industry. These have all appeared in previous columns over the past year or so, but let's make that our little secret.

1. Make connections: Even when you're not job-hunting, take time to schmooze. Attend conferences and job fairs, join associations, lurk on online list-servs.

Why bother? Because recruiters, employment directors and editors are more likely to remember a name if a face goes with it. "The overriding value of job fairs is being able to establish relationships, getting to know more people in the field and being able to track people," said George Rede, director of recruiting and training at The Oregonian of Portland. "Folks you're interested in today may not be ready for you until some time down the road." And vice versa.

Don't ignore the people without fancy titles. Even the lowliest newspaper employees can help you by putting in a good word with their boss or alerting you to openings.

2. Take your time: Never rush through the application process. Errors in resumes and cover letters can be quick career killers. Check, double-check and triple-check names, titles and even genders. Referring to a female "Chris" with a greeting of "Mr." is not the best way to make friends and influence future bosses.

Bland cover letters can be almost as bad as a major spelling blunder. Show a little bit of humanity, advised Assistant Managing Editor Laurie Holloway of The Tennessean in Nashville. "I love letters that are very idea-heavy and quickly tell me what makes a good entertainment section or what makes a good feature section, why their ideas would make a difference at my newspaper."

Also, take some time before any job interview to think through your answers to the perennial questions: Where do you want to be in five years? ("In my retirement condo in Boca" is not a good answer.) Why are you in this business? (Remember that a weak answer to a similar question once helped to scuttle Edward Kennedy's presidential hopes.)

And when you get perhaps the toughest, most troublesome question of all -- What are your biggest strengths and weaknesses? -- act confident, yet modest. "The best people I know evaluate themselves the toughest," said Gregory Favre, former editor of The Sacramento (Calif.) Bee. "I want someone who wants to get better. I don't want anybody to tell me, 'I'm the best damn government reporter you ever saw.' I know that's a bunch of crap."

3. Be honest: Acknowledge your past before it torpedoes your future. Sure, there are plenty of stories about newspapers that hired reporters without fully checking their backgrounds. (Does the name Janet Cooke ring a bell?) But resume-fudging is never a good idea.

"Some people imply they have a degree when they don't. Some suggest they held leadership positions when they didn't. Some overstate the size of the role they had in the organization," said Joe Grimm, recruitment and development editor at the Detroit Free Press. "These claims fall apart when they are checked."

Not too long ago, in fact, interviewers at the Free Press discovered that an applicant hadn't disclosed that he was fired from a previous position after just 90 days on the job. "When we found out he had withheld the information -- and learned that one reason he had been fired was dishonesty -- we put him on the next plane home," Grimm said.

What to do? Fess up, carefully. "If there's a gap or other glitch in your resume, be honest about what happened," advised Lois Henry, assistant managing editor at The Bakersfield Californian. "We may be editors, but we are human. If there's a good reason for the glitch, we'll mostly likely listen."

4. Steel yourself: You will inevitably be treated poorly during the job search process if you're looking for a newsroom job. Unfortunately, many editors don't have the time and resources -- or, in some cases, the will -- to keep applicants in the loop about their status.

In my own career, I've had one editor send me a rejection letter postage-due and another take the day off when I had an interview scheduled, leaving me to cool my heels in the lobby for hours. A third newspaper brought me in for three interviews then forgot I existed, despite a blizzard of reminder e-mails and phone messages, leaving me to learn through the grapevine that somebody else got the job.

Nearly every journalist has similar horror stories. When a heartless editor makes you feel like a jilted lover, at least take comfort in all the company you have.

5. Shoot for the works: If you do manage to get a new job, feel free to make demands -- polite demands, that is -- about perks. "Everything is negotiable," confided a newsroom recruiter for a top-10 newspaper who, for obvious reasons, didn't want to be identified. If you think the newspaper really wants you, start talking about things like extra vacation days, special schedules or subsidies for your domestic partner's benefits. Just make sure you look at them in terms of the big picture.

"You need to prioritize and put some dollar value on them if you can," said Janice Roughton, vice president of human resources at the Tucson Citizen and Arizona Daily Star. "Most original offers are going to be in dollar amounts. If you're willing to trade -- for example, you'll take every other Friday off instead of $5,000 in base salary -- you need to put some dollar value to make that reasonable to the person you're negotiating with."

Whether they're in advertising or circulation or the newsroom, newspaper bosses like to think applicants are in it for more than the salary and benefits, however. Humor them. "If I'm interviewing someone, and they happen to be one of the top candidates, one of the things I hope I don't hear is, 'What's in it for me?'" said Trish McConnell, director of human resources at the Sarasota (Fla.) Herald-Tribune. "You want to make sure they've got passion" for more than money.

If you're lucky, you won't have to fake your feelings of dedication to your work.