How to position yourself in times of changing careers and job markets

By Jim Evans

No one needs to tell agricultural journalists how dynamic our career field is today.  Along with other professional journalists and communicators, we work in a world of new and emerging media opportunities, media consolidation, staff resizing and a growing array of media skills we use.  And, on the agriculture side, we must understand increasingly complex agricultural subject matter, policies, systems and issues in the public arena. It's a world of great change on both fronts: 

• Wherever you live and work.
• Whatever your career stage - veteran or newcomer. 
• Whatever your job setting - commercial or public. 
• Whatever your kind of work - reporting, editing, public relations, marketing communications or other. 

In all these aspects, you are wise to position yourself for professional growth and success, whatever the changes you face in career direction and job markets.

Here are some ideas you can use to plan for growth and success in your career as an agricultural journalist and communicator.  They come from a variety of sources and hopefully you’ll find them helpful.   

Also, you are invited to help identify and share other sources you are finding valuable in this dimension of your career – for useful for smart career planning, getting started in the profession, creating impressive resumes, writing stellar cover letters, reaching the right people and creating a portfolio. Please send along your tips and resource links to docctr(at)library.uiuc.edu. 

1.  Smart career planning 

"What skills does a journalist need to land a job in the field today?" In response to that question from the Society of Professional Journalists, newspaper recruiter Joe Grimm suggests ways to "be the whole package." He speaks in terms of attitude and character as well as skills. 

"Bad career habits: Why great people have not-so-great careers" On the web site of the Society of Professional Journalists, Ross Macpherson discusses how to identify five habits that tend to "get in our way." 

"QuintCareers.com" This comprehensive resource from Quintessential Careers contains more than 4,000 pages of information for career changers, job seekers and others.  It features career tools, job hunting tools, links, guidelines for writing resumes and cover letters, and other information. 

"The organised job seeker" The staff of AgCareers.com highlights the importance of an organizational system you can use to save time and stress when you are in the job search process. 

"Advice for effective job searching" Writing in Agri Marketing magazine (pages 16-17), Cynthia Hoffman offers job-search advice from university professionals and recent graduates. 

"Want to move into management or a larger news organization?"  
Responding to a question from the Society of Professional Journalists, newspaper recruiter Joe Grimm give five tips for journalists who have been in the profession for a few years and want to shift career direction. 

"How does a journalist who started in one medium…move to a different medium?" Get involved, urges Joe Grimm in this brief resource that addresses the current trend to the converging of different media. 

2.  Just getting started in the profession 

"When the real world becomes career world." University of Guelph student Christine Zettler, a budding professional in agricultural communications, offers perspectives in the ByLine newsletter of the American Agricultural Editors' Association. 

3.  Creating an impressive resume 

"The resume." This "how to" resource from Co-operative Education and Career Services, University of Guelph, Canada, includes writing and design tips, sample resumes, a template and a resume checklist. 

"Tips for an effective resume." In a Poynter Online career column, Colleen Eddy and Joe Grimm suggest ways to create the image you want "through your fonts, use of white space, and most importantly, with clear, accurate, straightforward language." 

"Bolster your resume with these tips." Poynter Online columnist Colleen Eddy offers survey-based tips about use of statements of job objective, resume structure, description of accomplishments and accuracy of content. 

"Time to spring clean your resume." This brief guide from AgCareers.com describes four ways to clean and update your resume, a useful effort even when you are continuing in the same position. 

"Effective resumes." Newspaper recruiter Joe Grimm answers questions about how to sell yourself through your resume, in terms of contact information to include, titles and descriptions of jobs held, resume design, inclusion of non-journalism jobs, handling of references and use of personal information. 

"Scannable resumes mean wider exposure."  "When you update your resume, make it scanner-friendly," says Joe Grimm in the Jobs Page of the Detroit Free Press. He offers six suggestions about how to make the resume look sharp for the digital eye, without making it look dull to the human eye. 

4.  Those ornery cover letters

"Using cover letters to gain the competitive advantage." Job candidates often spend a lot of time thinking about their resumes, explain the staff members of AgCareers.com, but overlook or downplay the cover letter.  It can provide the competitive advantage, they insist.  And they offer tips about format, content and closing copy to use in it.

"Writing resumes and cover letters." This resource from AgCareers.com highlights "empty" words and phrases to avoid or use with caution in the cover letter and resume. It also encourages attention to specific keywords to make your information more searchable, online. 

"Killer cover letters." Newspaper recruiter Joe Grimm asks why it is so difficult to write cover letters.  He offers ideas (and sample copy) to help sharpen the focus of them and bolster content in ways that engage the interest of potential employers.

5.  Reaching the right person 

"Making sure your resume gets to the right person." In this resource on Poynter Online, Colleen Eddy explains that "with so many opportunities to post your resume online, there are more ways to reach editors, but also more ways for your resume to get lost in the mix."  She presents tips for posting your resume online.

"What is proper etiquette for following up?" What if you haven't heard anything in response to your contact?  Writing on the Society of Professional Journalists web site, Joe Grimm offers a tip. 

6.  What to save and use in your portfolio 

"Winning clips win interviews." This tip sheet from Joe Grimm in the Jobs Page of the Detroit Free Press addresses questions you may have in mind about how to select materials for your portfolio, how many items to provide and how to present them. 

"Newspaper clips: How many should you include with your application?"  
This report on JournalismJobs.com offers five guidelines you can use to decide how many samples to include, what they should reflect about your work, and how to organize them for impact. 

What other resources have you found useful? Please send them to docctr(at)library.uiuc.edu for reference and sharing.

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This feature is provided through a professional development partnership between the International Federation of Agricultural Journalists (IFAJ) and the Agricultural Communications Documentation Center (ACDC), University of Illinois.

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