The subject at a recent faculty meeting involved how to prepare students to get a job in communication and journalism. A “discussion” ensued concerning how important a job title was on a resume. One teacher in particular was worried that we were creating job titles that had “no place in the real world.”
“We are not doing the students any favors if we give them titles that aren’t used in the workplace,” he said in an e-mail.Does it really matter if a student”s resume says they were a “senior content editor,” rather than “assistant managing editor,” if they have a good portfolio?
The fact is that newspapers over the past few years have not been reluctant to come up with their own wacky job titles. Here is a partial list of jobs that did not exist at the Chicago Tribune when I left there in 1995, according to the paper's Web site:
- Editor/Digital Media (Or find him at twitter.com/bill80)
- Producer, Metromix.com
- Design Director, Features
- Imaging Manager, Photo
- Assistant Subject Editor, Presentation
- Senior Producer, chicagotribune.com
- Deputy Director, Photo
- Web Editor, Metro
- Editor, chicagotribune.com
- Web News Editor
- Subject Editor, Electronic News
- Multi-Media Picture Editor
- National Correspondent and Swamp Blogger, Washington Bureau
- Internet Critic, Live!
- Internet producer
- Associate Managing Editor, Presentation
- Computer Assisted Reporter/Writer, Metro
- Online Business Editor
- Senior Producer, Editorial Multimedia
- Poker Columnist, Sports
- Media Columnist, Financial News
- Internet producer
- Multi-Media Editor
Isn’t the work really the most important part of the job? One of student media’s most important functions is portfolio building. If an employer doesn't look at the portfolio because the job title at student media didn’t exactly match what an organization is using, then that’s a pretty shallow approach.
How can we prepare students for a new world of journalism if we’re concerned about defining their titles and duties in terms of old-world journalism, what many have turned to calling “legacy” news organizations?
I’m finding it increasingly difficult to define the jobs that will be available in the “real world” of journalism. That world isn’t the newspaper any more, and I doubt if it will be the 6 o’clock news in the future. The real disservice would be if we kept on teaching newspapering like there was a real future in it. It’s not that newspapers won’t exist; it’s that concentrating on print journalism will lead to a dead end.
Our students will have to fit into jobs that don’t exist now. I doubt that job titles we give them at student media will be the crucial ingredient.
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While in theory you are correct, the unfortunate reality is that in the world outside that of the tenured professor, titles mean something. Competition for jobs is tight and if your resume doesn't show the appropriate level of experience and expertise - as reflected by your title - you've lost your first opportunity to tell your story.
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