“A job after college isn’t very likely, especially in New York,” Grose says via e-mail. “You should be willing to intern for free or cheap and work a day job to support it.” In her case, interning at Spin led to a job opportunity. “The best way to prepare to be a writer of any kind is to write as much as humanly possible,” she says.
David Hirschman, 31, a 2000 Brown grad and former Phoenix intern, freelances in New York for a variety of print and online outfits, including New York magazine, Wired, AOL, the New York Times, and Mediabistro.
“I didn’t start off intending to be a freelancer,” he says. “After 9/11, I came back to New York and there were no journalism jobs available.” Hirschman worked in a medical lab for a year before transitioning back to reporting. “You can’t decide to be a freelancer when you’re 22,” he says, citing the demands of the practice, particularly for longer investiga-tive features.
What advice does he offer to beginners? “Be versatile. If you’re a good writer, you can write about anything. You don’t have to limit yourself to writing your big feature.”
Reporting at home + abroad
Does leaving the US differentiate oneself in the eyes of recruiters? The example of Rolling Stone’s Matt Taibbi (a Boston Phoenix contributor) comes to mind, since he first garnered at-tention for his editorial position at the eXile, an irreverent English-language biweekly based in Russia.
But is this appealing to employers? Maybe, maybe not.
Arizona native Alexander Provan, 25, has a freelance position at the men’s maga-zine GQ, where he is a re-searcher, fact-checker, and writer. Provan, a 2005 Brown grad and a former Phoenix intern, says he needed a job, and was hired after completing an internship at Harper’s.
He writes for a slew of other publications, including the Chicago-based music magazine Stop Smiling and the arts-oriented the Believer. Following graduation, he did some work for a non-governmental organization in Bolivia, where he did some reporting, including stringing for the Associated Press.
“One hundred dollars can last an entire month in Bolivia,” Provan says, via e-mail. “The downside, of course, is that it can be tough to convince someone in New York City that you, as a 23-year-old freelance journalist with only a modicum of experience, are the person to write that lengthy article on the Bolivian separatist movement.”
Because of the opportunities for personal enrichment, “I guess I’d always recommend leaving this country, but would warn against expecting it to be a boon to one’s career,” Provan says. “That said, if you live in a place like Bolivia long enough, you’re bound to find interesting stories, and unlike New York, there won’t be a 1000 other writers circling the scene like buzzards.”
Robin Amer, 26, graduated from Brown University in 2004. She works in public radio for Chicago-based Open Source. Previously, she worked for Vocalo.org, which she charac-terizes as “the YouTube of radio,” because of its emphasis of utilizing listener-created content.
During her junior year, Amer began creating Reconstructing Providence, a lengthy audio documentary about the demise of the fabled Fort Thunder art collective in Providence, which was razed to make way for a generic shopping development. She later freelanced for the Phoenix, reporting on such subjects as roller derby and development in Providence and Pawtucket.
When it comes to working in different media, “If you’re just getting out of college and you can demonstrate that you have the wherewithal to deal with those issues,” she says, “you are going to be in a way better position.”
Outgoing Phoenix intern A.J. Pacitti, a senior at George Washington University, hopes to crack that tough magazine market next year. She can be reached atajpacit@gmail.com.
