Job-hunting workshops for J-schools
If you lead a journalism school, I’d like to offer your seniors some help with one of their most pressing concerns – finding a job in this challenging job market. I have led workshops on this topic the past few years for the University of Kentucky, Georgetown University and Northern Kentucky University. I am offering a 33 percent discount on my usual fee for journalism programs that schedule a workshop on a Saturday during this academic year. My usual fee is $1,500 per day, but for Saturday job-hunting workshops, your cost will be $1,000 plus expenses.
Here’s what I recommend for a Saturday program, running from 10 a.m. to 3:30 p.m.:
10-noon: Building a strong digital profile. This will discuss aspects of branding and digital tools to showcase a student’s work and résumé.
12-12:45 p.m.: Lunch. I recommend that you provide something like pizza or sandwiches and we’ll have an informal Q&A time over lunch.
12:45-2:15 p.m.: Pursuing and landing a journalism job.
2:15-3:30 p.m.: Students work on their résumés, digital profiles and/or cover letters, with me (and perhaps a faculty member or two) circulating among them to provide feedback.
We can adjust that schedule as you wish. We can start earlier or go later (though that’s always a risk with a Saturday program). We also could drop the work session or combine the first two sessions in order to make room for a program for underclass students on making the most of your internship or a program for professionals in your community on rejuvenating their careers.
Or if you would like to schedule one job-hunting workshop and cover some other topics the rest of the day, choose some of the other workshops I lead for professional journalists. If you are interested in more workshops or in some digital-first consulting or training for student media, I recommend that we schedule that for the Friday before or Monday after the Saturday workshop.
Personal career consulting
We are in a trying time for veteran journalists who find that employers no longer value their experience and skills and for young journalism school graduates trying to break into a crowded field. I have developed workshops on job-hunting in digital journalism as well as on updating and upgrading your skills, based on my own experiences transforming my career and hiring and seeking new jobs. I would be pleased to present a workshop for your organization.
For individual journalists seeking jobs, I offer services on a pay-it-forward basis: You pay only a nominal fee now. The bulk of your payment comes after you find a new job, paying the fee of another journalist looking for work. I provide one of two levels of consulting for job-hunters:
- Assessment of your résumé and work samples, along with a written strategy for upgrading your profile and seeking your next job. The basic service includes one consultation session, in person if we can meet in the Washington area or on my travels, or by phone, Skype or chat if we cannot meet in person.
- Continuing consultation until you find a job.
Contact me at stephenbuttry (at) gmail.com if you want to discuss fees and services. For information on my training background, consult my summary of my training career.
The Buttry Diary 
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