October 3 2008 Journalism, Broadcast and New Media Conference and Career Fair
CUNY students are invited to meet dozens of recruiters in broadcast, print and the web offering information on internships, jobs and careers. The Economist, The New York Times, Adobe, Inc., are among the media companies that will be represented .
The CUNY Job fair is just around the corner and I’m still slow publishing stuff. I whine. Anyway, below are the suggestions that I provided my students.
1) You should have Career Development Services check your resumes and you should get some guidelines for cover letters, which some recruiters might say that they want them later.
 2) This is a journalism/communications job fair so most will be impressed by students with portfolios (and most students don’t have portfolios). You don’t necessarily have to show up with portfolios – that means they will have to lug them back to their offices – but your resumes or cover letters should say something about a portfolio or you should tell them you are working on one, that is, a work in progress. And you can deliver them in a timely fashion.
 3) Mid October is the start time for some of the best internships (i.e. those offering $$$) but others, like internships at the New York Times Syndicate (which is separate from the NYT newspaper).
4) Journalism type jobs are difficult to come by now , the business is changing, however, internships as well as internships for media-communications type internships, are easier to come by if you got the right stuff, right stuff being portfolio material and an understanding of new media.
5) Students who have good portfolios seem to be doing well when they apply for media-type jobs that want students/interns/employees who can demonstrate that they can write, research and report and have some understanding of new media.
6) I will be inviting alumni/alumna to class during the semester to tell you the truth.
Tags: CUNY Job Fair, journalism internships, journalism-communications job fairs