Do you have what it takes to become a journalist?

Before deciding on a career in journalism, you need to take a good, long critical look at yourself and ask yourself this question... 

Do I have the skills needed to be a journalist? 

You might dream of a career in journalism and get excited by the prospect of 
having your name in print on an 'exclusive' story, but if you don't have the skills required to do the job or are not prepared to learn, then maybe journalism is not the career for you.

Now that might sound harsh but in my days as a news editor I have seen umpteen newly qualified reporters come into the newsroom with big ideas on what they could bring to the newspaper, only to be squatted like a fly by an editor when they couldn't cut the mustard. 

Journalism isn't about how many A*s you have or having a first class degree (although there are certain essential journalism qualifications required which I'll discuss in another post) it's about having a nose for news and the skills required to nailing those juicy leads.

Of course, knowing what will make a newsworthy story and having the ability to make it happen, is only part of the job. There are many more skills required to becoming a journalist and I'll explore these in more depth in another post.

And don't forget, the modern day journalist not only writes for a newspaper but for its website too. This can often be in addition to the amount of stories he or she might cover in the newspaper per day or week and requires a host of new skills least of all being a quick thinker and writer, especially when tackling breaking news.

Video journalism and photo journalism are fast becoming part and parcel of the role of the traditional newspaper journalist too, as media organisations compete to be at the top of Google for news.

So to become a journalist requires a range of skills and abilities and as written in this post, I'll go into the specifics in more detail in later posts, but if you want to become a journalist then be prepared for a lot of learning, bags of hard work but plenty of job satisfaction and enjoyment too!