Q: how much experience do I have? I worked part time as a web designer for a weekly newspaper chain for a year back in 2000, worked for a year as a data entry clerk, spent 2 years going to grad school but simultaneously working at a 25,000 circulation student newspaper. From there I got a 3 month contract job as a media consultant and editor for a website, and for the past eight months I've been working for a 1M/unique-visitors-a-month website as an associate editor.
I don't consider the web designer job as "journalism experience" as I was just the shovel they used before investing in shovelware. I did however work in a newsroom, with journalists, page designers, and copy editors. Does it count?
Also, does "journalism experience" begin when I start my career or only the times I'm actually working in a newsroom? Do I have three years experience (Just the student newspaper job and my web-work,) four years experience (time in total) or six years experience?
Brian
A: There are no universally accepted rules on this, but work experience generally has to meet three requirements to "count." It should be fulltime work, it should be journalism and it should be professional, not student journalism.
