Journalism Tips: Be Prepared To Lose Your Job

Hello, everyone! Thank you for carving a little time out of your schedule to browse this site and learn about the crazy place we call the music industry. The following post is written with journalists and bloggers in mind, but it can be applied to any profession within the entertainment industry. Times are hard for everyone, but with a little preparation you can learn to maneuver the business with ease.

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I have been writing about music for the better part of seven years at this point, and while I have always had a site of my own there have been several other opportunities along the way that I either messed up or had to leave. To be clear, when I say I ‘messed up’ I am dancing around the fact some places have told me they’d rather not work with me moving forward. Sometimes this is due to disagreements over the editorial direction or the style of content being created, but other times it’s a matter of resources and the ever-shrinking amount of money allocated to paying content creators. After all, anyone can create a listicle. You don’t need four years of college or any real training in journalism to tell me ’25 Things Everyone Should Be Doing By The Time They’re 25,” or to create a gif-driven post like “35 thoughts anyone who has ever been front row at a show has had.” You just need to have experienced life, and pretty much anyone capable of stringing sentences together can say they’ve at least done that.

The point I’m trying to make is that regardless of how good you may be, or how much training you have in a particular field, there will more than likely come a day (or five) in your life when you find yourself without a job. Even if you’re not currently getting paid for that ‘job,’ which I know is the case for many bloggers reading this now, you may wake up one day to discover the site and team you’ve been working with have decided you are no longer needed. This happens to everyone in music, and given the incredibly high turnover rate at many larger labels/companies it’s not uncommon for it to happen multiple times over the course of someone’s career. This doesn’t mean you’re an awful professional, unless of course you do something to warrant being fired. More often than not this simply means the business you work with cannot support its staff, and as much as they would like to keep everyone on board that is not always possible from a financial standpoint. It may also mean the company in question is changing its direction or planning to try something different, which often requires certain funds be re-allocated to whatever new project is in development. The reasons are limitless.

I won’t lie to you: Losing a job sucks and it never gets any easier. People working in music today know their career is almost always on shaky ground, and anytime the bottom does give way it only adds volume to that voice in the back of their head that claims they are ‘not good enough’ to make this industry their home for the duration of their professional life. This is hard to believe, I know, but you are good enough. Heck, you’re probably better than some who have been working in this business for decades, but the only way you can make it in this industry is by first believing in yourself. I cannot tell you how to do that, but I can tell you what to do afterwards. 

Once you learn to believe in yourself, losing a job is more of a stumbling block than proof you’re not cut out to work in the music business. It’s a blow to your ever-fragile ego that forces you to step back and think about what exactly it is you’re doing with your career. This is a good thing to an extant, but it can also be a very frustrating time in your life. The best advice I can offer is tips on how to be prepare for the day you find yourself back on the market, and I have outlined them below:

DO GOOD WORK

Quality work is likely not enough to get you hired, as there are a plethora of talented writers currently seeking employment, but finding success on your job hunt begins with proving you’re more than capable of meeting the the the demands of the industry. Networking and digital know-how will get you far, especially if you have a proven ability to build huge social followings, but no one is going to bring you on full time unless they believe you are capable of creating quality work on a regular basis. 

DEVELOP YOUR PERSONAL BRAND

If the word ‘brand’ makes you feel like a dirty business person who is void of a soul, feel free to replace it with ‘reputation.’ The two are one in the same, and in today’s music industry your reputation means almost as much as the quality of your work. Your reputation is what sets you apart. It makes it known that you are not a generic journalism who willing to turn out whatever content needs to be created as long as their is a paycheck at the end of the day. There is certainly nothing wrong with being a content generation machine, but you have a higher likelihood of getting a callback, as well as better pay, if you can showcase specific skill sets that you possess. If you’re an interviewer, make it clear that is where you excel. The same goes for critics and those who enjoy creating longform editorials. Being able to do everything is good, but having a specialty is far more important. Generic journalists are dispensable because there are countless writers who will happily churn out whatever content is requested, but those able to do one thing incredibly well appear more valuable/rare to those in control. Be unique.

BUILD, MAINTAIN, AND NURTURE YOUR NETWORK CONNNECTIONS

Networking is yet another key to success in the music business, but many writers do not realize that in order to network well you must frequently engage in conversation with those you consider to be contacts. Simply replying to press releases and requesting content is not enough. That is what is expected of you as a writer, and it’s what every person a publicist contacts does, so in order to forge a real connection you need to go beyond the requirements of the job. You need to learn about the people who represent the artists you cover, and in turn allow them to understand the person you are outside of writing. Creating real friendships over the internet can be tricky, but it’s certainly not impossible, and when the day comes that you find yourself without a job it will be the people you’ve forged real relationships with that help you the most.

KEEP YOUR RESUME UPDATED

This is probably the most obvious item on this list, but at the same time I know a good number of current industry professionals whose online portfolios stopped being updated around the time they landed whatever job they have now. This is understandable, as the presence of new work often comes with the hope you’ve found a home for your writing career, but it’s also incredibly foolish because it will slow any job hunt that may need to embark upon in the future. In 2014 there are a number of sites and services that exist to simplify the process of maintaining your resume and digital portfolio, each with their own pros and cons. LinkedIn is probably the one site everyone uses, and I would encourage each of you reading this now to use it as well. Beyond that, however, you simply need to find a site or service that fits your needs. As a writer, you should be maintaining an archive of your best content, as well as a URL all your own. You should have your own corner of the net that people can visit regardless of where you are currently employed, and if you don’t then you should head over to hover.com and reserve your domain today. 

BUILD GOOD WILL

There was a time in journalism when the most talented writers could also have the worst personalities and there was very little anyone could say or do to deter them. They were already kings and queens of the journalism game, so any attempt to take shots at their career or ego would run the risk of being viewed as jealously, envy, or a combination of the two. Today, however, the supply of great writers vastly outweighs the demand for great writers, and when it comes down to it companies are more likely to hire the people they believe will fit in with the rest of their editorial team. They don’t have to deal with journalists who carry a chip on their shoulder because there are countless other writers who could not be more humble, and those writers tend to be the ones others will recommend. In fact, as much as your experience may determine whether or not your considered for a position, my experiences have shown that people hire people they like and who are recommended to them by people they trust. Those people are never assholes, so do yourself a favor and lose whatever sense of superiority you may possess. You might be talented, but without a likable personality you may find securing work in this business incredibly difficult.

James Shotwell is the blog editor and social media coordinator for Haulix. He’s also the founder of Under The Gun Review and the host of the Inside Music podcast. His work has appeared on numerous websites and in several major publications, including Alternative Press, AbsolutePunk, and Rolling Stone. He tweets a lot, and would love it if you followed him on Twitter.

James Shotwell