This week’s problem
I am a mature student studying English and considering a career in journalism. After some research I discovered that one can develop a career working on the business side. I had not previously given much thought to news outlets having chief executives and chief operating officers. But where would a graduate even start? Most training schemes appear to be for editorial jobs. Male, 20s
Jonathan’s answer
As a student studying English, it might be expected that you would consider a career using your writing skills. Over the past six years, approximately 20 per cent of Oxford students who studied English went into media, journalism and publishing: not the most popular sector, which was school education, but more than entered advertising, heritage, consumer goods, and many other sectors.
Of those who did enter media, a third became researchers or took other non-creative roles. As you have found, whether in journalism, book publishing, social media, or indeed any organisation, people with a wide array of skills are essential for the whole business. To distil it, every organisation needs people to build the product or service it, sell it, and count it. And after they get to a certain size, need people to direct how to use the money and the people to deliver the strategy.
You have identified that one way to work in news outlets is on the sell it, count it, or manage it teams. The same is true for those graduates starting out who want to work in organisations that match their ideals, maybe restoring the oceans, educating the world’s children, or providing clean water. Starting at the bottom of such organisations will be relatively unskilled work and would not necessarily make the most of your skills and education. A better option might be to develop skills and experience in functions that are important and relatively scarce for an organisation — perhaps digital marketing, accountancy, statistical data analysis — and then join the NGO, charity, or news outlet.
Research all the functions in your target industry: as well as creative/editorial roles, there will be sales, marketing, production, logistics, finance, and HR. While there might not be specific graduate programmes in these latter functions in media, they do exist in other sectors such as supermarkets, and fast-moving consumer goods. Just as students wishing to be accountants in, say, the theatre might get qualified at one of the Big Four, and then apply for their chosen industry, so you could get on a training scheme in one industry and then, perhaps, move to the media.
If the choice you want is not available directly, you can make it if you do it in two or three separate steps. Work your way up but not in a formal training programme in your chosen industry, or train elsewhere and move later.
Jonathan Black is the director of the Careers Service at the University of Oxford. Every fortnight he answers your questions on personal and career development, and working life. Do you have a question for him? Email dear.jonathan@ft.com
The FT’s advice
By Felicity Thomas, the FT’s head of talent development, and Rachel Grewal, the FT’s head of talent acquisition
First, create a list of all news outlets. There are plenty of sites that list these companies such as FeedSpot, or use career sites such as Glassdoor to find some of the best media/publishing companies to work for. Have a look at the companies’ internal job boards on their websites or LinkedIn to uncover the types of roles that are on the business side of journalism. Some of these areas include business development, customer analytics and strategy. Audience engagement is an area of newsroom journalism that requires other skills on top of journalistic skills, including data analysis and customer research.
Not all roles in these areas always start with graduate schemes. Consider searching for entry-level roles which will take you on a career path. Apprenticeships are another option. Many companies will be taking advantage of the UK government’s apprenticeship levy and have roles at an apprentice level. This means the apprentice completes 20 per cent of their time in formal education and 80 per cent of their time in role.
Some people working in the business side of journalism have had media industry experience. But your lack of experience should not hold you back. For your covering letter, demonstrating a keen interest in the future of news, ethics of journalism and the business of journalism will appeal to potential employers.
Finally, think about what parts of business you think you would enjoy; is it selling products to customers and working with clients or is it focusing on internal processes and projects? This should help guide you to an area where you can use your existing strengths.