Job Search - The Results Are In?

A recent Business of Journalism seminar inspired me to do a bit of digging into employment prospects for journalism graduates. The results are a tad alarming to say the least.

(Okay, this isn’t a scientific study or one where the researcher (i.e. me) has spent many hours dredging every data source known to man. But I think it’s indicative of the state of the jobs market when it comes to journalism students seeking employment.)

The question I asked was “how many journalism jobs are there in various cities when compared to PR jobs?” 

(Graph of PR Jobs and Journalist Jobs on monster.co.uk 26/01/2012)

I used the monster.co.uk website and searched for “PR” and “Journalist” categories of work. This rather illuminating graph is what emerged. The Monster site showed a grand total of five “Journalist” jobs in ten of the UK’s major cities. The same cities returned a count of 777 PR related jobs. Also note the  geographic distribution. London outguns the rest of the UK on both types of work (4 Journalist jobs and 621 PR related jobs). Now Monster might not be the best place to look for journalism opportunities so I tried the Guardian. There the pickings were a little better.

Sourced from the Guardian 26/01/2012

The Guardian site showed a total of 74 journalism jobs. Hooray you might cry but that’s for the whole of the UK! I looked a little deeper into the various jobs on offer and found that less than 55% of the jobs were paid journalism roles. More than 12% were unpaid, nearly 18% were PR & Marketing related and over 10% were for the state sector in some guise (or NGO). Oh, and many of the journalism roles advertised seemed to be based out of Dubai rather than the UK.

This quick data trawl would indicate that if you’re thinking of working in journalism then you’ve got a mighty battle on your hands. For those of us who might be considering working in the PR/Marketing/Advertising fields the obvious conclusion is that London and the South East is the place to be.

Why not take a few moments out of your busy schedules and look for yourselves? It might help you map out your next move after graduation.

Whither University Education in 2012

The academic world faces a year of great change. Rises in tuition fees are going to have, I suspect, a cooling effect on the number of people wanting to study for a degree. . It’s going to be a dog eat dog world out there and only the most attractive universities are going to survive this educational bun fight.

What can be done? According to my various courses on marketing and advertising it would appear that the universities are going to have to become more customer orientated rather than product orientated. I.E. The desires of the punters (students) are about to rise to paramount importance.

So how does a university make itself more attractive to today’s modern young person? Well, based on my limited observations, I’d like to offer a few suggestions.

• Long weekends – I have noticed that many students enjoy having a good time. Partying, seeing boy/girl/goat friends. That kind of thing. Having to attend university on a Monday and/or a Friday can have a negative impact on these essential social activities. The solution?  It’s obvious, don’t timetable any academic activities on a Monday or a Friday and make sure this salient fact is prominently displayed on all marketing materials.
• Avoid mornings – I have noticed that 09:00 starts are as welcome as a dose of herpes. The punters, most of them, consider being required to rise any time before 11:00 as inhumane. I’d suggest that a forward looking, and client focused, university would do all in its power to ensure that no lecture or seminar be scheduled before the hallowed hour of 11:00. Possibly even later.
• Books – They cost money, they’re bulky, unfashionable and they need to be read. All of which makes any university willing to abandon the prehistoric book concept more attractive to the paying punters. Instead, e-Books should be used or, to be even more current and cool, single webpages with an entire semester’s worth of reading compressed into an easily understood and absorbed couple of hundred words. Let’s face it, any really complicated idea or concept can usually be condensed into a single sentence or paragraph – well, enough for the needs of the punters.
• Locations – Seminar rooms and lecture theatres can be, let’s be honest, unwelcoming and dreary places. They lack the comfort and facilities that a punter would expect. I suggest that universities remodel their rooms using bars, nightclubs and coffee shops as templates. Face it, if you have to turn up wouldn’t it be nicer to be able to enjoy the educational process while imbibing a delicious MochaFlocaBocaChino, pint of lager or cocktail? And think of the extra revenue streams for the university?
• Time – Why should a standard undergraduate degree take three years to complete? It’s utter madness in this age of instant gratification. So why not compress the entire course into a single year of academic effort? Gives the graduates a head start over those attending old fashioned universities that insist on sitting around on your arse for three years. Instead, you’d only have to sit around for one year!
• Assignments – You know what it’s like. An assignment is due, the clock is ticking and the pressure is building to underwear filling levels. Is that really how the punters want to spend their time at university? No, of course not. So how about a CRAP instead? CRAP standing for Continuous Regular Assignment Process. The punters will fill out an electronic form at the end of each week (Thursday) where they mark themselves and give a brief justification for that mark. Simple! No hassle. No endless documents to complete and no need for expensive tutors to waste their lives reading miles of drivel.
• Exams – Exams can be stressful. Trapped for hours in a drafty sports hall, forced to sit at archaic desks and scribble until fingers bleed. This kind of thing can put punters off. What to do? Instead of exams I propose the Personal Assessment Procedures (PAP) instead. The punter is encouraged to provide a written self-assessment of their abilities (it worked so well for mortgages) and a mark. We can, of course, trust the punters to be honest and accurate. Plus it will save a fortune in staff time as well.
• Promotions – You’ve seen them on TV and at the supermarket. BOGOF (Buy One Get One Free) and the like. Why not apply it to university education as well? Buy one BA and get an MA course thrown in for free? Guaranteed minimum marks (say a 2:2 even if you do no work and spend the course in bed). Perhaps a loyalty points card, for each unit completed the punter gets points towards a night out?

Speaking seriously for one moment, I think that the next year or three could see a dramatic drop in the number of universities in the UK. If demand falls then closures will follow close behind.

Sports Management? Who Needs It?

Today I had a team meeting and I asked the usual question about what courses the team members were doing. To my surprise the answers I got back were all prefixed with the word SPORT. Sport management and sports marketing being the two prevalent courses.

It struck me as odd. Why should someone work for three years on a course that is predicated on just one industry? In this case it's sport but it could have been retail, catering or even dung collection. It smacks of putting all your eggs in one basket. A very small basket at that.

Is this really an issue?

Well, to me it is. The world of work changes all the time. A degree that prepares you to work in a number of fields is going to be more valuable than a degree that prepares you just for one. Lets face it, the sports industry could go into a steep decline and leave you flat on your arse. Also, job hunting is currently a very difficult process. It's a buyer's market out there and the recruiters will be looking for any reason to reject your CV at the earliest stage. Applying for a job outside of the sports industry with a degree that puts sport at the heart of three years academic slog isn't going to be very easy. Nor, in my opinion, is it necessary.

Why should anyone want to do a degree in Sports Management? Wouldn't a management degree, perhaps with some sports modules, be far more attractive to a potential employer? It would be the equivalent of a journalism degree that prepares you only to write about David Beckham or currency trading. It's too specific and too narrow.

Those who are taking such degrees might argue that their course contents are much wider than the title of their degree implies. But that isn't going to help when it comes to selling themselves on the job market. Employers aren't going to ask themselves if Mr K, with his Sports Marketing degree, is going to be any use in a trainee position in a firm that specialises in marketing agricultural products. No, the employer will just turn to the next CV. The employer doesn't have to dig into the contents of your course nor bother themselves with how a sports orientated course could be made to adapt to a non-sport based business. I can assure you that they won't.

Perhaps the perceived glamour of sport is behind such narrow degrees? I don't know. If anyone asked for my advice I'd recommend a degree course that could be flexibly applied in many fields because there's one universal factor in the business world and it's “Change.” It happens all the time and if you don't move with it then it will run you over like a steamroller. In a world that can change almost overnight a degree that even hints at you being inflexible and rigid will be as much use as a dose of syphilis.