the purpose of an informational interview

Setting up an informational interview with an editor is a great way to learn more about the magazine industry, find out what jobs you're qualified for and what further training you may need, and to make contacts. But how do you set one up, and what do you do once you're in the meeting? Here are a few resources:

• University of British Columbia Career Services
• iSeek
• U.S. Department of Labor
• Quintessential Careers

I'd also like to add a few of my own thoughts:

• Don't forget: an information meeting is not a job interview! The main purpose is for you to ask someone more experienced in the business any questions you may have about the industry and what you can do to make it as an editor.
• Be prepared with questions, as you are interviewing him/her. S/he is not interviewing you.
• Be considerate: Show up on time, don't take up too much of his/her time, and send a thank you note afterwards.
• Stay in touch. Send an update on your progress in the job hunt if you've landed a sweet gig, share an article you wrote that's been published, or just send a Christmas card. Be sure to thank him/her again for the advice.

ed2010 toronto presents Sarah Fulford

Coming up next month, Ed2010 Toronto presents the next installment in its Speaker Series, featuring Sarah Fulford. The newly minted editor of award-winning city magazine Toronto Life – who at 34 is the youngest editor to hold one of the top media jobs in the country – will share her advice on how to land your dream job. Sarah's brief talk will be followed by a Q&A period. Shy? Send Ed your questions for Sarah in advance: toronto [at]ed2010 [dot]com

Where: Deer Park Library at 40 St. Clair Ave. East (Located one block east of Yonge St. on the north side of St. Clair Ave.)
When: Wednesday November 5 from 6:15pm to 7:45pm (the event starts at 6:30pm sharp)
Admission: $5

Space is limited, admission will be granted on a first come, first serve basis.

career tool: networking binder

Building up a network of friends and acquaintances (as I recommend you do), isn't of any use if you can't remember who it is you met from such-and-such magazine at that media event, now that you want to apply for a job at said magazine.

To keep track of who you know, put together a networking binder – essentially an address book with footnotes. In addition to name, phone number, email and address, also write down where you met each person, what his or her affiliations are, plus other tidbits of info that may come in handy, like shared interests. For example, if you noted that the editor you met not only works at that magazine but that you shared a conversation about iPhone apps, start off an email to her with a recommendation for a great new iPhone game you just found, then launch into your request of what she knows about the job opening. This idea comes from stationery retailer Russell + Hazel, which recommends using a mini binder, though if you do have that iPhone, you could easily just add comments in the notes field of each contact entry (and add a photo of the person, too, if you're not so great at linking faces to names).

how old is too old to intern?

Are you beyond your 20s and trying to break into magazines? You may find yourself facing the question of whether doing an internship is a viable option at your age. Usually these spots are filled by "kids" fresh out of school, but perhaps being older with more life experience puts you at an advantage – or maybe not. An article in the Globe and Mail ponders a few of the pros and cons of interning in your 30s, and I'm curious as to what you think about it (besides the gross generalization that 30-somethings are "an indecisive generation of folks swapping careers like baseball cards"). If you are/were older than 30, would you consider doing an internship? Would you hire an intern who was older than 30?

mags on film: funny face

Now hear this. I simply cannot release this issue the way it is. In the 60 years of Quality magazine, this hits rock bottom. If I let this go through, I will have failed the American woman. The great American woman, who stands out there naked, waiting for me to tell her what to wear. It doesn't speak. And if it won't speak to me, it won't speak to anyone.

A magazine must be like a human being. If it comes into the home it must contribute. It just can't lie around. A magazine must have blood and brains and pizzazz. This is just paper. If I send paper to the American woman, I will have let her down. Yes. D for down. D for dreary. D for dull and for depressing, dismal and deadly!

– Maggie Prescott (played by Kay Thompson) in the opening sequence of 1957's Funny Face, with Audrey Hepburn and Fred Astaire

excellence & effort

Last night I attended the seminar Cracking the 49th Parallel, featuring speakers Clive Thompson, Duff McDonald and Caitlin Kelly, and presented by the American Society of Journalists and Authors. Although the event was about doing freelance writing work for US-based magazines, several comments and tips spoke to two related qualities that I feel that everyone should strive for: excellence and effort.

Be excellent. Do excellent work. This makes the people who employ you happy because it makes their jobs easier and makes them look good. I believe it was McDonald who suggested that the best way to get a story accepted is to solve an editor's problem. Editors have to fill pages with original content that's compelling, and it takes time to find that content – serve it to them on a silver platter. Likewise, if a magazine is looking to fill a position, solve the problem of finding the right candidate by explicitly showing them you're the right person and how you'll help make their publication a better magazine. Being excellent builds your reputation, and it helps you continue to get work.

To achieve excellence, you need to put in the effort. Put everything you have into getting work and doing your work. For writers, this could mean doing interviews and research for a pitch, even before getting an assignment. Thompson estimates that he spends 25% of his time researching story ideas, many of which never turn into anything. Editors will want to do research, too, when applying for a job: read at least the past year's worth of issues of the magazine to which you are applying to get a sense of the tone and an understanding of the type of topics they cover. Talk to people – find out what the work culture is like at the magazine, find out what they're looking for.

Excellence and effort will get you a long way in this industry, primarily because they're kind of rare.

find something else to do

An amusing, grim guide to journalism careers on Gawker points out that if you're getting into the field, you might as well quit now. From newspapers to trades to online ventures, the prospects are hopeless. This is what Gawker has to say about working for "good" magazines:

Oh, these are the jobs everybody wants. You want to write for the New Yorker. Or Vanity Fair, or GQ, or Vogue, or Wired, or SI, or the 50 or so other big splashy magazines that, you know, everybody wants to write for.

These jobs were always driven by connections. And guess what: they're still driven by connections, but there are even less jobs to go around now! So your chances are even worse than they would have been historically. These good jobs are never advertised, so you have to be well-connected enough to hear about them from an insider. Big magazine companies are cutting budgets and instituting hiring freezes. And every veteran magazine writer has a huge ego, so forget trying to cut in line ahead of them. Plan on getting to one of these places later in your career, as the icing on the cupcake of many years of experience, and you'll save yourself a bunch of heartache. Build up to these magazines from other, nonexistent entry-level writing jobs.

And about journalism in general:

If you're just getting into journalism, the job market is already flooded with people with far more experience than you who've been laid off, and are competing for the same jobs. If you're employed, moving up is treacherous—you never know when the new job you just took could disappear for reasons unrelated to anything you did personally.

resumé tips roundup

Resumé-writing tips elsewhere on the web:

• More.ca has some simple but good tips on emailing resumés.

• Possibilities offers advice on putting together an accomplishment-based resumé.

• Monster tells you how to be concise on your resumé.

how i got to where i am

Since I'm often asked about it, I thought I'd share some of the story of how I got to where I am, and a few of the decisions I've made along the way.

I got hooked on magazines in my second year of art school, where I was the editor of the student magazine – an arts and literary type of affair. Two months into the two-year gig, I contemplated transferring to the publishing program at Simon Fraser, but after talking to the program director there, realized how few credits I would be able to transfer and that switching would set me back by a year. With plans to instead do a master's, I finished my BFA.

Of course, by the time I was done school, I didn't really want to do a whole other degree, so I started looking into alternatives. The two main contenders were Centennial and Ryerson's continuing ed certificate, back in my hometown. I went with the latter because I was eager to get my career going and liked the idea of being able to work and do an internship during the day while attending a few classes at night.

So I did an internship (at Flare), held a few odd jobs and built up my portfolio writing for small publications and community papers.

I eventually landed at Oxygen, where I worked for a little more than two years, first as copy editor, then as copy chief. I wanted to get out of the copy department, though, and try to find work as an editor. I was having no luck, and then a contract position came up at Style at Home. The position was as copy editor to cover a seven-month leave, and although I would be moving to take the same position I was already in, it was the right move for me. This is how I looked at it: By accepting the job, I would know when I had to start looking for work again, since I would be filling was a limited-time contract. That deadline would give me the push I needed to really dedicate myself to the hunt, since it can be very difficult to look for a job while working full time.

It was the best move I made. Toward the end of my contract, but still a few months away from the final days and as I was just thinking about starting up my job search, two senior editor positions opened up within a week of each other. When there's no major upheaval at the top, this type of occurrence is unusual, and it was my chance to make the switch from copy to edit.

I didn't let the fact that the majority of my experience was in copy get in the way, nor did I take for granted that the editor and executive editor already knew me: I put together the best application package I could. Reference letters, story ideas, sample writings, clippings – I put in everything. And obviously it paid off, because I got the job.

So, I guess the lesson you can take away from my experience is that it is possible to make the switch from one type of job into another, as long as you can show that you're capable of doing the work. And also, put everything you have into applying for a job.

overheard at: ed2010 toronto happy hour

[Updated]

As I promised yesterday, here's a snapshot of what people were talking about at the Ed2010 Toronto Happy Hour event Wednesday night:

Ann Brown (Ed2010 Toronto's special events manager) was talking with the girls at Redwood about the differences between custom and trade publishing.

One member asked me (Ed2010's Canadian director), "How aggressive should you be when you're hunting for a job?" I talked with her about the delicate art of being able to read people. Be as aggressive as you can be without annoying or pissing people off, and watch for that subtle push-back when they're starting to get enough of you.

Briony Smith (Ed2010 Toronto assistant chapter host) and I talked with a group of attendees about bad interns and bad internships.

Briony also spoke with several people about keeping busy and building your portfolio while on the job hunt. Her suggestion: When starting out, the world of online is a great place to fill in those gaps on your resume or in your portfolio. There's plenty of websites that need writers and editors, and will offer you a lot of freedom to "custom-make" clips that you might need (whether it's covering fashion shows, reviewing video games, blogging about politics, or writing up health news).

And another member who's new to the workforce asked, "How do I transition from an ad sales job (my first industry gig) to an editorial position?" My advice: continue doing freelance work so you keep a hand in the editorial side, apply to every editorial job you're qualified for, and don't stick around too long in the ad sales department.

If you were there, share your stories on the Ed2010 Toronto Facebook group page. And everyone should check out the photos of the event taken by Masthead editor Marco Ursi.

ed2010 toronto happy hour mixer a success

I want to thank everyone who made it out to last night's Ed2010 Happy Hour at the Duke of York pub in Toronto. We're estimating the turnout at about 30 people, which makes it our most-attended Happy Hour yet! We had students and recent grads, interns and assistant editors, and even a good number of editor-in-chiefs. And it was the first public appearance of our newly minted volunteers, assistant Toronto chapter host Briony Smith and special events coordinator Ann Meredith Brown. (Kudos to Briony for putting together the event!) Everyone was mingling, exchanging business cards and asking lots of questions. Check back here tomorrow for what people were asking, along with some of my answers. The most common question I got asked: How did I get to where I am? I'll share that story on Monday.

Also, congratulations to our two winners last night: Trish Peters won our Editor Raffle and will be enjoying a free meal with the company of Style at Home's executive editor Laurie Grassi, and Marcia Chen won a subscription to Elle Canada. Enjoy, ladies!

If you were at the event last night, post your comments and stories (who'd you talk to, what did you talk about, did you meet anyone new?) on our Facebook group wall, or if you couldn't make it, check it out to see what you missed.

Thanks again to everyone who came, and we hope to see more of you at the next one!