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Look sharp, use phone rather than email – and offer to make the tea

Paul WiltshireA journalism trainer has issued a set of tips to would-be journalists on how to handle work trials.

Paul Wiltshire, left, a journalism lecturer at the University of Gloucestershire, advises work triallists to dress smartly, use the phone rather than email, and offer to make the tea.

He also suggests tweeting a picture of a traffic jam to the newsdesk should you happen to get stuck in one on the way to the office.

The series of tips are set out in a post on Paul’s personal blog which can be read here.

His words of advice include:

* Be on time: If you’re stuck in a traffic jam, at least tweet a picture to the newsdesk.

* Bring in a story of your own, even if it’s just a decent and original FoI request idea.

* Offer to make the tea – it will show your potential new colleagues that you’re a team player.

* Use the phone: phone rather than email. And make sure you sound brilliant.

Said Paul: “Most employers looking for trainee journalists will now insist on a work trial day – and it makes sense for both sides.

Quite obviously, it gives managers a useful insight into the attitudes, character, and skills of a would-be employee. But it also allows jobhunters to work out whether an employer is all they’re cracked up to be.”

Paul moved into journalism lecturing earlier this year after two years as an editorial trainer for Local World.

Before that he was deputy editor of the Bath Chronicle for seven years.

13 comments

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  • June 15, 2016 at 7:44 am
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    Said Paul: “Most employers looking for trainee journalists will now insist on a work trial day ..”
    isnt it sad that the best advice that can be given to a future journalist is to make the tea and tweet a reason why youre late for work, especially on your “trial day” (whatever that is?)

    Having said that,given the state of the uk regional press in 2016 these are probably useful skills to have for a future employer outside of the industry

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  • June 15, 2016 at 9:22 am
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    Never failed to amaze me how lazy a lot of work exes were. Their heads are filled with tales of the New York Times and celebrity reporting, they tend to think things like the village fair are beneath them, which used to wind me up no end.

    That being said, I think the journalism training industry is responsible for diluting the quality too. When I did my NCTJ we had to pass an exam and be interviewed, there were people on my open day who never made it in – people who’d worked at places like Loaded and The Japan Times, I was pretty amazed.

    I know somebody that works for an NCTJ training centre now who says it’s pretty much just ‘bums on seats’ these days.

    Money money money, must be funny.

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  • June 15, 2016 at 9:49 am
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    How about: when a senior reporter hands you a press release and says “it’s better to do it well than quickly” don’t say you’ve done it 15 minutes later.

    Yes, of course this happened to me.

    My response: wow! you must be at the top of the class because it would take me longer to write that…. Oh dear this is very badly written… why don’t you try it again but have a proper read before handing it back?

    (Five minutes later)

    Amazing, you’ve managed to sort out all the problems in just a couple of minutes…and, oh dear, you’ve left out this? Now take your time and get everything you can out of it.

    (Five minutes later)

    Oh boy! Did you consider speaking to the person and perhaps getting a quote? Why not test out your interview skills.

    (Five minutes – one call later)

    That’s a great quote… did they say anything about… never mind, what does it mean?

    Seven times it went back and it still needed rewriting in the end.

    This was a student from a “leading” journalism studies university…. she was a second year.

    Unfortunately she was ill the next day and didn’t complete her week’s work ex.

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  • June 15, 2016 at 11:27 am
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    The reality in many newsrooms is there’s no need to impress to get a job nowadays. Such has been the exodus of senior reporters from the industry that many struggle to get applications for any vacancy so any willing individual will do, trained or not.

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  • June 15, 2016 at 1:01 pm
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    Percy, such arrogance is exactly what’s wrong with this industry. A work ex is not supposed to be someone who can come in and just start doing the job. They’ve usually never been a real workplace so it is YOUR responsibility to help and guide them through the process. I don’t care if they are a second or third-year uni student! Help them to understand what needs doing first time, rather than slaughtering them seven times, presumably in front of the whole office! No wonder she didn’t come back! I’d have told you where to shove your story too!

    I know some work exs are better than others and we’re not exactly flush with the time to help nurture such people in the office, but therein lies the problem. If you don’t have the time to do it, don’t take them on! It just wastes everyone’s time.

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  • June 15, 2016 at 1:56 pm
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    Problem is, workies are just used as unpaid labour to copy and paste a few press releases, usually in the dog days of summer when reporters are on holiday. Papers don’t have the time or inclination to give them any proper training.

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  • June 15, 2016 at 2:30 pm
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    “Offer to make the tea – it will show your potential new colleagues that you’re a team player.”

    That is exactly what I think when a colleague makes a cuppa – what a team player!

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  • June 15, 2016 at 5:20 pm
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    Percy Hoskins you must be so proud of yourself. You sound like a bitter, very bitter, boy.

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  • June 16, 2016 at 8:50 am
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    We had a couple of amazing work exes. One disappeared for five hours on a vox pop once and came back stinking of vodka, I thought she’d go far for that very reason, but she got kicked out of college – I can still smell the potatoes now.

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  • June 16, 2016 at 8:50 am
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    Perfectly understand what everyone is saying but I don’t think you understand. This was a summary of our conversation, I spent a great deal of time talking to the woman, explaining why we need to do things, what she should be getting out of the experience and the fact – first and above all – that she needed to take her time.

    She never read back her copy, hadn’t attempted to improve all the wording of the original press release – which was written by a family not a professional press officer – and had shown no interest whatsoever in learning anything from what I was saying.

    Judging by some of the local papers I read nowadays she is probably a star columnist, haven’t not improved one jot. And trust me I’m not bitter… I have more than enough trainees thanked me for my help over the years and thoroughly enjoy passing on what I can to those that are willing to learn – alas she was not and certainly no loss to the paper.

    And no I did not embarrass her in front of the whole office and was polite and professional throughout. She just didn’t think the short was worthy of her time or, apparently, her effort.

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  • June 16, 2016 at 8:53 am
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    *yes, I spotted the mistakes! I hit send by accident*

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  • June 16, 2016 at 12:00 pm
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    The problem is that we’re seeing this from the angle of local newspapers. Today, young people are writing their own blogs, using social media and videos and producing their own online niches. What’s more, they’re doing it better than most of us. The old days of gaining work experience, going through exams, making the tea and working up the ladder makes for better journalists but times are changing. We now have umpteen editors on national magazines aged under 25 and lots of websites led by people of the same age. Those coming out of university are expecting rapid progression.

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